My Little Pony
Pinkie Pie POV
Side Story
Prologue
(Optional-Canon)
So you really wanna know? Okay.
I didn't know why I always got all nostalgic when I used my balloons to fly, but it always felt so good. Of course the trio of flutter ponies thought it was a hassle to always have to bring me down, but it was all in good fun.
It also provided me a chance to spot any new faces in Ponyville, I did have a reputation to keep as everyone's best friend of course and that meant knowing everyone in town before I could be friends with them.
Rainbow Dash thought I could use some more glamor in my steps if I wanted to be the town's most popular pony, she said I'd be 'Simply dashing.' But fashion sense was Dashie's special talent, not mine. And I didn't want to be the most good looking, just everyone's best bud. Thankfully, while Rainbow Dash wasn't one to ever hold back her high culture opinions, she wasn't one to impose them.
StarSong's latest performance at Celebration Castle had gone well. It never ceased to amaze me how StarSong could be so in command of an audience on stage, but be so shy around ponies when offstage.
Spike, however, was in the castle wearing his reading glasses, running about reading notes and cards in his own claw writing mumbling to himself, "My word, not right, not right at all, something is definitely wrong here. I know I keep getting my stories mixed up, but these don't make any sense." But the intellectual dragon wouldn't let any pony get a word in edgewise, not even his 'Princess' Wysteria.
Of course I wanted to celebrate.
"How about a party?" I suggested at once on the way back home.
"We had one yesterday." StarSong pointed out causally.
"Yeah isn't it great?"
"How about one of Cheerilee's story-times instead? After that concert, I could use some quiet time."
I wondered. 'Which friends to invite?' At the time, I missed StarSong's implication about 'quiet time.' Didn't matter which friends I invited since they were all great. Maybe Toola-Roola, she did help StarSong with the decorations for the show after all.
"Pinkie Pie, look." The pegasus StarSong whispered shaking me, her friend, out of my planning.
I finally noticed the town around us. Things were very wrong. The world's colors looked muted, desaturated, like someone had put a thin sheet of gray over everything. The ponies themselves were either looking a bit confused about it themselves or trying to ignore it. Some galloped to Celebration Castle to see if the ponies there knew what was going on.
Then I saw Toola-Roola come running like mad towards us. She bumped past two ponies, but they looked around as if they had been shouldered by 'The Invisible Mare.'
The pony looked outright panicked. "GUYS! Can you see me?! You know it's me?!"
"Toola-Roola? Of course we can see you!" StarSong said, confusion plain in her face.
"Thank goodness! I came back from the market with new paints and my house was gone! I tried to ask everyone what happened, but it was like they couldn't hear me! Rainbow Dash bumped right into me! I said 'Sorry Rainbow Dash' and she seemed confused a second before noticing me and asking if we had ever met! And . . . look." She showed us a picture we had all taken of our core seven group of friends. Me, Dashie, Cheerilee and her sister Scooaloo, little Sweetie-Belle, StarSong, and Toola-Roola. Only Toola-Roola wasn't there anymore. "What's happening?! I'm so scared!"
We hugged our friend, not sure what else to do as she looked on the verge of tears.
"Dang! There you are! I've been looking all over for you! I don't get why I was told in particular which ones to deal with." Said a causal somewhat snarky voice hold a trace of attitude. "Ya bunch of soulless identical Mary-Sue Clones."
The three of us looked in shock at the . . . thing before us. It had the body of a furred snake, it had the tail of a rattle snake, it had the head of a horse, and the wings of a dragonfly on one side and a vulture on another, its legs were those of a dingo, fox, coyote, and raven, its eye were green in yellow. It was like a bad dream come to life.
Before any of us could speak he grabbed hold of Toola-Roola's head from behind and said like he had scored a goal at a soccer game, "Character retgon!" Toola-Roola didn't even scream, she just looked at us sadly as she vanished like a magic trick.
StarSong gasped, "What did you do to- . . . to .. . " The Pegasus singer/dancer realized with horror; she couldn't remember the name of her friend who had been standing there a moment ago. She tried to remember what she looked like but it was all coming up blank. A horrible feeling came over her. "What did you do?"
"Meh." The mix of animals shrugged, "We're just cleaning out the closet. Cutting out the dead weight. And now I've got to do more work to erase what Miss Deleted did while I was looking for her! Great, just great! And I was almost done too!"
"Friends aren't dead weight!" I shouted.
"Pst. You're all identical anyway, why so upset?"
"SHE-" StarSong said as she grappled with her memories, biting and kicking away for the precious bits still there, "SHE WAS AN ARTIST! She painted! She has a taste for design none of us have! You can't just call her nothing!"
Finding it horribly, horribly hard to focus on her friend who had been standing there a moment before, StarSong looked around, her sense of wrongness growing, like shadows were moving among them.
Ponies were arguing, okay nothing too special there (you should have seen me and Minty bash heads at the Spring Promenade), but ponies were having different ideas of how to do things and not compromising like we always do! I saw some ponies vanish and their faces and names vanishing from my memories, some were (better? worse?) changed into completely different ponies.
I saw Rainbow Dash trotting confused to the edge of town, maybe she was trying to figure out why she knew she should have known the pony she bumped into earlier? A shadow passed over her, this one, however, took shape; it was a pegasus. It moved about as if blind, moving towards the first warm body it sensed.
It became a transparent image: its mane blue and its hide pink while it's cutie mark was two blue lightning bolts. Then it seemed to overlap Rainbow Dash!
"Dash it all! What is--" Rainbow Dash gasped out in her high-culture accent, looking ill.
Her customize designed scarf and hat vanished, her coloring changed. Then her cutie mark, the definition of her soul became a single cloud and the rainbow arch became a lightning bolt. Her eyes widened as I saw maturity, experience, all her high culture experience and diction drain from her as a pair of pegasus wings sprouted from her back and her entire figure changed, her lady-like voice turning to a rough-and-tumble one.
I felt like I was looking into the eyes of a stranger rather than one of my friends. The (new?) Rainbow Dash flew away in a daze, not knowing what she had been doing there.
I felt a weird form of inverse sickness, I don't know what else to call it, like I the world was changing and I wasn't a part of it anymore.
The dutiful and ever present trio of flutterponies were in a panic as they tried to figure out what was wrong with the much larger ponies.
"Flutterponies!" StarSong yelled at them.
"StarSong?! What's going on?" Zipzee asked as she fluttered her wings.
Starsong blew them a kiss, "Run, stay safe. Get back to Breezy Blossom Way and tell the others there to stay clear of Ponyville!"
"We can't just-"
"Please do it!"
The tiny fairy like ponies looked at each other, finally nodded and fled as fast as their wings could carry them.
The mix-and-matched thing asked like it discussing cake. "What makes you think there's anywhere they can run to?"
StarSong felt anger. I had never seen it before so greatly, but I recognized it all the same. It was confusing. But she held onto it. "I WON'T LET YOU HURT THEM!"
The mix of things scratched his nose, "Meh. Don't get so worked up. They're not my department. You girls sure didn't give us this much hassle when we did a semi-retool last time . . . but just goes to show; some things just can't be fixed, you just need to tear it all down and start from scratch! This entire age of Equestria must be cut out of the story books. I mean, I told those stuffed shirts that they were just making this universe worse with their 'improvements' they handed down. At least this place was interesting before they had to throw in a bunch of political correctness! You were at least a little bit CUTE before! And I thought a well-spoken scholarly Spike was a nice change of pace. Ugh! Of course, who'd listen to one of the Draconequi? Of -course- we'd want to get back to rebuilding something we just finished 'patching' with bad ideas!"
"Who ARE you?" StarSong cried out.
"I'd say that doesn't matter since you won't remember this, but I never get tired of saying it. The name's Anarchy. Got it memorized? Yeah yeah, and I'm in a pecking order by commission, so sue me.
"I'm called a Draconequus, Draconequi for plural. We're called in along with the Alicorns by those in charge to 'fix up' things if a reality has turned hopelessly static and all nearly the souls become generic. Of course my parents never do a thing all day! Ya'd think being the embodiments of primal fear and heat-death that pops-Havoc and ma-Entropy would do more than sit on their tails parroting orders all day. Oh well. Time for you to go."
"No!" StarSong shuddered.
"Oh don't worry girlie, didn't mean you. Ya see, you have a tiny bit of depth that can be explored. That makes you a bit interesting. You got something that can grow and evolve. That means you get to become a somebody, opposed to a nobody destined to fade into the heartless darkness, unversed in your own emotions. You're unique, so you get to stay," He pointed at me. It was like my heart stopped. "But nobody cares about a pony whose always happy and who makes friends with everyone fixated on parties like everyone else every day here. Talk about boring and generic! That's the kind of thing that have got to go!"
I felt a spark of something well up inside me. "We throw parties to GET TO KNOW each other! Each party is based on that pony's heart! And we don't do them every hour of every day! I just like them! We did a lot in a row because a lot of us met in a row! Of course I helped with everyone's else's party so much that I nearly ruined my own until everyone helped and-"
"-and Bye-bye."
StarSong rammed him from below the jaw, making him shut up. "Mah toaung, yoh made me bit mah toaung!" He rattled his head. "Hey you little punk! Watch it! You don't want to make me angry!"
"I won't let you touch her!" StarSong said tears in her eyes.
"What makes you think what can effect anything of what's going to happen next?" He asked almost sternly. Anarchy teleported right behind her right in my face, StarSong however proved just a little bit faster and kicked him in the back of the head making him grunt.
His rattle snake tail lashed at her but she dodged nimbly as only a dancer can.
I couldn't take this anymore! We didn't fight! We comprise. We hug and make up. This is all wrong. I just curled into a ball and whimpered wanting it to end.
"Alright, now you're just getting in my way!" Stated Anarchy angrily as he snapped his fingers and a dozen giant swords fell from the sky, StarSong was past being terrified, past being afraid, everything she knew and loved was dying around her, if she could protect one thing, then nothing else mattered. It was like I was outside my body knowing all this.
She felt one of the swords slice her leg open, it was the most horrible horrible horrible pain she had felt in her entire life, she wanted to break down and cry then, but the adrenaline running through StarSong was keeping the pegasus going.
She rammed him in the gut, knocking the wind out of him. "ENOUGH!" He snapped his fingers, she fell to the ground skinning her belly. She looked behind and saw with horror her wings were gone.
"Now time-out you! Now, back to business! One less generic cookie cutter ponies -delete-." He made a grab at me, I didn't try to run. He'd stop trying to hurt StarSong if I just disappeared.
StarSong screamed and leapt at his face, by sheer reaction he grabbed her, he realized his mistake too late. "AW DAMMIT!"
I finally looked up StarSong looked at me, she began to mouth one final song, but she vanished into nothing before the air could leave her lungs.
"Ah fudge!" Anarchy cursed.
"Bring her back! Take me and bring her back!" I cried desperate trying to hold onto the image, voice, and songs of my friend. I began hammering at his body with my fore hooves blindly.
"I can't dumb horse! She's gone! " For a brief moment, it looked like Anarchy was -scared- of me.
"Anarchy! Stop torturing them! You're here to do a TASK remember? This entire world needs to be revised before the 'improvements' from before cause it to collapse totally! And where's that donkey you call a brother Discord?" Boomed a stern but young(ish) female voice.
It was a horned pegasus/winged unicorn, she was a lot larger than any other pony I had seen. Her cutie mark was a spiral galaxy. Her horn was longer than any pony's I've seen. Her coat a mix of silver and black. Her mane sparkled white.
I didn't even try to comprehend this new being's appearance, the unifying happiness of my world gone, they had ruined it, I had nothing.
"Meh, I saw him making some blue flower or another, or turning those butterfly ponies into fast multiplying bugs, I forget which. Let him do his thing."
"'His thing' tends to cause more damage than good! And I don't remember him having orders to do anything to the Flutterponies!"
"Pst. You didn't, maybe he did. Ya can't pick your family Your Starriness or whatever yer title is. Or I'd have put myself up for adoption by now. At least it's six relatives and not an organization of nobodies."
"Did you return the ponies to the source as you were supposed to? We don't have time for your slacking with this entire world's fate at stake."
"That eager to know that a couple of the Perfect Ponies went bye-bye?"
"I am eager to have this horrid business over with!"
"Yeah, yeah I did." Anarchy lied perfectly. "And now it's getting hard to even remember their names now isn't it? Surprise?"
I asked meekly, "Whose Surprise? Wait, how'd I know you meant a pony named Surprise?"
The horned pegasus/winged unicorn one pointed at me. "What about her? Pinkie Pie? Your orders were to make them all unique individuals."
"She's the last one. That makes her unique now. I'm finished with the ponies, you can start on the setting."
I had never cried before, but now my eyes were gushing rivers. "Please! Change them back! Change them all back! PEASE! What did we ever do to you?"
The flying unicorn/horned pegasus looked me in the eyes, it was like I was looking at every star in the sky, I felt so small as she lowered her head. "I'm so sorry my little pony. You've done nothing to deserve this, but what's done can't be undone. If there was another way to stop entropy, we would have already done it. We can't simply 'undo' the misguided 'improvements', too much damage has already been done."
"Preaching to the chorus 'lady rainicorn', if there was an easier way to fix this whole mess, I'd be the first one to suggest it," grumbled Anarchy, looking rather annoyed. "A total retool is just way too much work for my tastes."
I could tell from the mean way he said it that that wasn't her real name or species.
The horned pegasus gave a look to Anarchy before returning her gaze to my eyes, a somewhat compassionate look in her eyes. "I am afraid what we're doing now is kind compared to what happens if we do nothing. There's nothing else that can be done. The only thing I can do for you is have it so that you won't remember this life."
"NO! I don't want to forget them! They're my friends!" I screamed.
The flying unicorn/horned pegasus startled in full surprise at me. She then lowered her head to look back into my eyes, a serious look on her face. "... Listen closely to what I am about to say... Your world will never be the same and some of your friends will no longer be with you, and those that do will be different than you knew them. But I promise you parts of them will live on, as they always do..."
"I... I don't understand..." I replied, confusion clear in my eyes along with the tears.
Anarchy grunted at me annoyed as I prepared to say something else and grasped my head in a dingo's paw. He lifted me off the ground. "On second thought. Maybe a depressing childhood to balance out all that cheerfulness."
I realized what that meant. "NO! Please! Leave my mother alo-" And I felt my inner self torn asunder.
I felt new memories flooding into me. A new truth. A new reality. But I remembered the old ones too. I still do. Though I don't know how much I remember is true anymore and how much is just me trying to fill in the blanks. And I held onto the image of StarSong trying to sing her last melody.
Goodbye~
Funny how that's such a hard thing to say
Now it's time to let go but
Never thought I'd feel this way
Promise not to be sad but
We both knew I'd be lyin'.
Gotta fight back the tears, cuz
Can't let you see me cryin'.
You're more than just my best friend!
What makes me misty most of all
In my final curtain call
Is knowing that I won't see you
Aga
Song Copyrighted to Nintendo.
1071076
I will bear witness to many horrible and wonderful times, places and people.
They begin and end and I remember and I forget.
Who will bear witness to nothing? Everything?
Others... and me.
Mugen Kagemaru I still have your cookie. I trying to decide on how to preserve it.
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I could eat it. But it would take less work to preserve it than trying to clone it into something edible.
... too much thought into this? Yeah. I miss the days I had more sanity in between my ears.
Aunt Galaxia I presume?
Also, I am now just a tad confused. Why are they being turned into their "present" selves, when 4th generations Equestria's history actually exists? How exactly does Discord's reign fit in? What about NIghtmare Moon?
This is starting to turn out to be my least favorite fic, if only because it makes no sense. I understand that the idea is to show what happened to the '3rd generation', but then when you combine it with what we know of the '4th generation', both canon and this series's own canon, its gets....muddled from my perspective.
Hopefully there's a better explanation further on in here, otherwise I might just end up skipping this one entirely and moving on to Season 5.
Two things:
I take it he's based on Axel?
Whoa! We've got a major Kingdom Hearts fan here!!!
A pokemon reference (the song) interesting:)
1318253 This entire series is one big clusterbuck of confusing. And I love it.
This is really the kind of story that you probably need to read twice to fully understand, and maybe take notes, because there's just so much going on.
It's also why I've started taking the advice of a friend - only reading a story once it's complete. It helps to read stories all at once, especially when you read a lot of them.
When I saw the Axel reference, I was like this.
aga? the last line should say "again" right?
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No. That was 100% intentional. Starsong's song was deleted before she finished.
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That a good or bad thing?
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Thanks.
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I hope you've been reading the latest seasons then.
Wait isn't Starsong, Celestia?
5560507 Celestia was Star Catcher.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
SPOILER ALERT!!!
SPOILER ALERT!!! (Especially so since I think I have read this material before, but I think the last chapter of the previous season was heavily edited since the last time I read and that was throwing me off when I would try to find my place after so long away).
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Generation Transitions and Origins
-Ah! HERE is where the G3 history stuff is! I guess? Also, the first two chapters seem to have been dragged out of order relative to eachother... (The handle to drag to change order is the four little dots on the left of the chapter name).... or maybe it is just Pinkie Pie inserting the prologue because she thinks it is necessary after she knows about the first chapter?
-*Looks at short description above chapter name, but below Season Title.... yeah, G3 and such incoming...*
Of course the trio of flutter ponies thought it was a hassle to always have to bring me down, but it was all in good fun.
-Current continuity, or a previous one? Since it is a repeated thing I assume it was a previous one, so I am guessing this is G3 Pinkie remembering her time as G1 Surprise (and another Pony that got melded with Surprise? I can't remember. I do think I remember that her wings were deleted, but the effect didn't have time to get the rest of her.).
Rainbow Dash thought I could use some more glamor in my steps if I wanted to be the town's most popular pony,
-G4 talking then...
she said I'd be 'Simply dashing.'
-Or G3... although this could just be G4 having a tiny flashback moment...
But fashion sense was Dashie's special talent, not mine.
-G3 it is!
Thankfully, while Rainbow Dash wasn't one to ever hold back her high culture opinions, she wasn't one to impose them.
-Even less so than Rarity?
StarSong's latest performance at Celebration Castle had gone well. It never ceased to amaze me how StarSong could be so in command of an audience on stage, but be so shy around ponies when offstage.
-Ooff... I think I remember what happens with StarSong... so brave in her own way... to give up eternity...
I know I keep getting my stories mixed up, but these don't make any sense."
-Meta-reference to how you are mixing up the generations, and having to take into account that people might get confused? And perhaps intending this as a clue for the audience who don't read the descriptions?
not even his 'Princess' Wysteria.
-He had a specific Pony he was attached to in that generation? What, did he only come packaged with her, and other Ponies had different companions or accessories?
"Yeah isn't it great?"
-Indeed... and with absolutely no reason I assume? I mean Pinkie lapshades things with names like "Gummies After-Birthday Party", but this version might not even bother with that much...
"How about one of Cheerilee's story-times instead? After that concert, I could use some quiet time."
-Will be interesting to see how far this teeny tiny smidgen of conflict goes...
'Which friends to invite?' At the time, I missed StarSong's implication about 'quiet time.'
-Oblivous as always.... wish I was slightly more familiar with G3 to know which bits you are tweaking and which you aren't...
Didn't matter which friends I invited since they were all great.
-Pinkie would just have gone with "everyone" if she had reason to wonder. Or "My very closest friends who became that due to our bond of comradery when we went against Nightmare Moon." I guess when the Ponies have only hobbies instead of specific interpersonal relationships... or did they have those even in this generation?
I finally noticed the town around us. Things were very wrong. The world's colors looked muted, desaturated, like someone had put a thin sheet of gray over everything.
-Maybe it was a different StarSong who had a child? Or maybe StarSong was the child, rather than the mother?
looking a bit confused about it themselves or trying to ignore it. Some galloped to Celebration Castle to see if the ponies there knew what was going on.
-Not very good flight or fight reactions... makes sense. Nor refined curiousity... I wonder how long it would take Twilight to start taking scientific measurements if something this truly unprecedented happening? Probably right after she sent a letter to Celestia, and Celestia replied "I don't know.* Keep everypony calm." and then she made a few speeches... I wonder if she would
-*Yes, yes, I seem to remember Celestia and Luna know about this stuff, something different, and equally outside their experience as this is outside of the G3 Ponies.
She bumped past two ponies, but they looked around as if they had been shouldered by 'The Invisible Mare.'
-Reality breaking up into groups, with limited interaction between them/are those two ponies in the process of being deleted, or is Pinkie just unusually perceptive even in this universe? Very slight chance that they are that distracted by events that by the time they look she is far enough away their confused brains can't tell it was her that bumped into them.
"Toola-Roola? Of course we can see you!" StarSong said, confusion plain in her face.
-Ah, so Toola-Roola is probably getting deleted, and Pinkie Pie is perceptive... I have a sneaking suspicion that I remember her being the one that Pinkie got merged with...
I came back from the market with new paints
-Painting isn't one of Pinkie's things, so unless it is G3.5 that only had a hobby to define each personality... either Pinkie merges with somepony else, or she manages to take on a very tiny part of Toola-Roola, that either never came up in the cartoon or you had to really look very hard for. Maybe she paints to cheer people up?
she seemed confused a second before noticing me and asking if we had ever met!
-Or maybe it is memories rather than "realness" that is the first to go? We shall see...
-Just noticed that StarSong is a pegasus... is that where G4 Pinkie gets the desire for flying... no, wait, she already had that in this continuity.
Only Toola-Roola wasn't there anymore.
-Well, that answers about who is getting deleted... makes sense that it would start small rather than almost all of them starting to "fade" at first and only a few holding on (by having slightly stronger characterization?).
((Pausing))
SPOILER ALERT!!!
SPOILER ALERT!!!
SPOILER ALERT!!! (Especially so since I think I have read this material before, but I think the last chapter of the previous season was heavily edited since the last time I read and that was throwing me off when I would try to find my place after so long away).
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I don't get why I was told in particular which ones to deal with." Said a causal somewhat snarky voice hold a trace of attitude. "Ya bunch of soulless identical Mary-Sue Clones."
-Because they have the most personality and someone wanted to give them a more personalized and gentle send-off? Nah, probably more like just using the heavier equipment on the strongest structural members when demolishing a house.
"Character retgon!"
-Did that happen to that character in the course of the show, or is this because that character didn't appear in 3.5 or 4, or is it that he is applying a "one by one" type tool even though the overall operation is more large-scale then that? He did say he was told to take especial care with... except he didn't say that, he just said that he had been assigned specific ponies to remove. Perhaps this isn't the death of 3.0, but only when some of the characters dropped out (leaving the Core 8 or Core 6 or something? My Pony Lore is 4 and 1 in that order, with only a smattering of 3.X).
rattle snake, it had the head of a horse, and the wings of a dragonfly on one side and a vulture on another, its legs were those of a dingo, fox, coyote, and raven, its eye were green in yellow.
-My eye glance back a little and notices (where I had skimmed before, because I've read at least a version of this chapter before) that a lot of parts seem to be from scavengers, and only one from a herbivore. Not sure about dingos and coyotes. Would fit for a world-ender.
StarSong gasped, "What did you do to- . . . to .. . "
-Yeah... ouch... might be seen as necessary if this is mid-series. Still, ouch...
And now I've got to do more work to erase what Miss Deleted did while I was looking for her!
-Well, if he doesn't try to erase them next, and maybe even if he does, then my "mid-series fix-up" idea may apply, although if they were trying to revamp IRL and then the show got cancelled on them, then this could turn into Pinkie and StarSong annoying him enough that he goes after the whole place.
And I was almost done too!"
-More arguments that this was originally supposed to be more surgical...
"Friends aren't dead weight!" I shouted.
-And that was how she earned her reincarnation? Or maybe even inspired the themes the in-multiverse builders of G4?
her sense of wrongness growing, like shadows were moving among them.
-Different from the shadows that Nightmare Whisper had contained I assume?
but ponies were having different ideas of how to do things and not compromising like we always do
-Character growth due to the bonds of reality breaking down? Or maybe those really are THOSE shadows...
I saw some ponies vanish and their faces and names vanishing from my memories, some were (better? worse?) changed into completely different ponies.
-Or this could be the transition to 3.5, which will be even worse, including for characterization, right?
I saw Rainbow Dash trotting confused to the edge of town, maybe she was trying to figure out why she knew she should have known the pony she bumped into earlier? A shadow passed over her, this one, however, took shape; it was a pegasus. It moved about as if blind, moving towards the first warm body it sensed.
-Huh... I seem to remember thinking that 3.5 didn't have any pegasi. I could easily be wrong, or that could be the ghost of Firefly, or just the raw energies of transformation.
its mane blue and its hide pink while it's cutie mark was two blue lightning bolts.
-Ghost of Firefly (don't think I scrolled too much and subconsciously read this before my previous comment, but I can never be sure...) anyway, it may be even less than the Ghost of Firefly, but it is at least the... idea of her, if something separate from her eternal soul (I suspect you give them that? Or never considered it?), and her memories and the nuances of her personality.
Then her cutie mark, the definition of her soul became a single cloud and the rainbow arch became a lightning bolt. Her eyes widened as I saw maturity, experience, all her high culture experience and diction drain from her as a pair of pegasus wings sprouted from her back and her entire figure changed, her lady-like voice turning to a rough-and-tumble one.
-Yeah, you have seriously rewritten this concept since the last time I read it... and I think it may have come earlier in the story back then too, but I could be wrong. you mention "experience" and "high culture experience" separately. Also, I would say that G4 Rainbow Dash probably started with more under her belt at the start of the series than 3.0 Dash, but I don't know my 3.0 and the amount of her that was DEFINED on the screen in the first two episodes of G4 would almost certainly be less, which does imply going backwards here. Also, I will note that even G4S1E1-2 probably showed a more functional adult than her G3.0 counterpart... she has a job, long-term aspirations for her craft, and the bravery to charge an Alicorn... okay, YMMV on if that last part makes her more or less mature.
I felt a weird form of inverse sickness, I don't know what else to call it, like I the world was changing and I wasn't a part of it anymore.
-"inverse sickness"... very interesting turn of phrase. It conjures ideas I get the basics of, but still feel like there is something I'm missing at the conscious level... it is like being the only healthy thing, while your surroundings are going wrong, like a body wracked with fever... maybe?
The dutiful and ever present trio of flutterponies were in a panic as they tried to figure out what was wrong with the much larger ponies.
-Should "ever present" be hyphenated? Eh, probably just me... also, I find it interesting that they could catch her if they were that much smaller... I guess that it might not have even been explained and was just a shrug by the staff when they found a desire to have ponies get caught AFTER they had already done some animation of the Flutterponies (and perhaps even aired it?). I wonder if we will see them turn into Breezies, despite those being two different things as I recall... they sound like they could be close to the size of G4 Breezies though... or at least closer to that than to Pony size.
Starsong blew them a kiss, "Run, stay safe. Get back to Breezy Blossom Way and tell the others there to stay clear of Ponyville!"
-Did blowing them a kiss have some special meaning for them (like giving them power or something?)? Or was it one of Starsong's quirks? Just her way of saying a final goodbye without slowing down their escape?
"We can't just-"
-Blown kiss probably not something mystically/especially culturally significant to Breezies then... or maybe this is them breaking from that, just as others seem to be gaining character at The End, under the mental stimulation of the apocalypse...
((Pausing))
SPOILER ALERT!!!
SPOILER ALERT!!!
SPOILER ALERT!!! (Especially so since I think I have read this material before, but I think the last chapter of the previous season was heavily edited since the last time I read and that was throwing me off when I would try to find my place after so long away).
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The mix-and-matched thing asked like it discussing cake. "What makes you think there's anywhere they can run to?"
-So, I get the impression he REALLY WAS just standing around while they talked ("playing with his food"), rather than this being "Talking is a free action."
I had never seen it before so greatly, but I recognized it all the same.
-More 11th hour character development.
but just goes to show; some things just can't be fixed, you just need to tear it all down and start from scratch!
-Okay, so is this the assigned project, or just his personal opinion? Now thinking it is the assigned project.
I told those stuffed shirts that they were just making this universe worse with their 'improvements' they handed down.
-Plausible deniability between "executives" and "his bosses"... which are really the same thing in the end I think/realize, because of the way I think this universe works.
At least this place was interesting before they had to throw in a bunch of political correctness!
-This tips it towards the "executives" side of the dichotomy.
And I thought a well-spoken scholarly Spike was a nice change of pace.
-Well, I think they ended up with the best of both worlds... so is this 3.5 then and the "improvements" were the transition from 3.0 to 3.5? Almost certainly, but I don't want to give your other readers the wrong impression, since, as I said, I don't really know much about that era. The only era I know LESS about is 2, because that didn't have a cartoon for people to compare as directly.
Of -course- we'd want to get back to rebuilding something we just finished 'patching' with bad ideas!"
-How much of this is guys cruelty is inherent sadism, and how much of it is him passing along his frustrations? Also, he seems to be happy with nothing to do... then again, he can still watch things, or MAYBE go off to some other world and do what Discord was doing with comparatively miniscule changes. Then again, he may be more "destruction" than "change"... although why would he complain about the work-load then? Out of empathy for his co-workers? He can probably do both, or at least for "retcons" and "put on a bus" and such, rather than the more... in-universe antics of "Tyrant Discord".
-Sidenote: I wonder if we will ever see a peek into the canon reality after they split off? Seeing the characters thoughts on Twilicorn and Discord's reformation might be interesting.
The name's Anarchy.
-Well, that certainly sounds like he can do "alter" as easily as "destroy".
Got it memorized? Yeah yeah, and I'm in a pecking order by commission, so sue me.
-Nice lampshading... or demonstrating that names don't have to define a character even for Pony related things.
and all nearly the souls become generic.
-Slightly garbled I think. I suggest "and nearly all the souls"
Ya'd think being the embodiments of primal fear and heat-death that pops-Havoc and ma-Entropy would do more than sit on their tails parroting orders all day.
-So are they the top of the peeking order, or the ones deciding the changes? Probably "just" the heads of the Dracoequus half of the crews ("parroting" would indicate that)... although they might be stronger than their nominal bosses, just too lazy to want to want authority.
Ya see, you have a tiny bit of depth that can be explored.
-Ah, I see... was her death by child-birth in the next generation? Probably. Which would make this 3.0 rather than 3.5? I dunno where the divisions are, but this doesn't seem like the last stop before G4.
That means you get to become a somebody, opposed to a nobody destined to fade into the heartless darkness,
-Except she isn't going to make it IIRC. Maybe the one who died that other way is a different Pony.
"But nobody cares about a pony whose always happy and who makes friends with everyone fixated on parties like everyone else every day here.
-And yet Pinkie Pie... no, actually she DOESN'T fit as of at least "Party of One" and perhaps earlier. Even before that she had the bakery job I think? It makes me think that altering the characters isn't really necessary in all cases. Simply changing the stimuli in the environment should be enough... but maybe not on a short enough time-scale? And you either have to be cool with having those who can't adapt starve to death, or standing around to erase them ("Put them on a bus") before that can happen. I wonder where the dividing line is between "put on a bus" and "erased from existence" anyway? Was pre-"Luna Eclipsed" Luna in danger of vanishing from existence due to being "too scary and hard to understand"? That might be a bad example since that would technically be murdering a co-worker I think? Which might not be as big a deal for a Draconequus/in that business than one might initially think, but still...
That's the kind of thing that have got to go!"
-Consider "has to go!" OR "things".
I felt a spark of something well up inside me. "We throw parties to GET TO KNOW each other! Each party is based on that pony's heart! And we don't do them every hour of every day! I just like them! We did a lot in a row because a lot of us met in a row!
-Closer to Pinkie Pie in her motivations and depth than the viewer would initially assume? Of course, she has never seen great despair or great sadness or great anger before, so she doesn't have that "I will cheer you up" angle that really defines The Element of Laughter. As someone's long-standing sig on another forum has it:
She is Pinkie Pie. She took a good long look into the Abyss, smiled, and said "Come and have a go if you think you are hard enough." -Orthodox_Gozerite
-Oh, and then their is the fact that they critically examine the problems being Genki can create for others in episodes such as "A Friend Indeed" and "Too Many Pinkie Pies".
StarSong rammed him from below the jaw, making him shut up.
-Not precisely diving in front of the bullet, but then again his effects tend to be not so line of effect so that may not work... although he did have to come and find them, so physical proximity and/or line-of-sight probably help him at least some.
"Mah toaung, yoh made me bit mah toaung!" He rattled his head. "Hey you little punk! Watch it! You don't want to make me angry!"
-Healed himself with the head-shake, or just she can't hit him that hard? Or course, the Doylist answer is that you don't want to make him too non-threatening to the reader.
"I won't let you touch her!" StarSong said tears in her eyes.
-Consider a comma after "said". Also, I would these be the first tears shed in that universe? Or at least the first tears from anything other than joy?
StarSong however proved just a little bit faster and kicked him in the back of the head making him grunt.
-I wonder if he will just kill her first, but that will buy time for the Alicorn to show up and save our viewpoint character (is she called "Pinkie Pie" at this time?).
I couldn't take this anymore! We didn't fight! We comprise. We hug and make up. This is all wrong.
-Going to attempt diplomacy (again?)?
I just curled into a ball and whimpered wanting it to end.
-Or, ya'know, be a less interesting, but ironically perhaps MORE emotionally rich character by breaking down. I say "perhaps" because it would depend on how moving/poetic her diplomacy was.
Stated Anarchy
-stated
StarSong was past being terrified, past being afraid, everything she knew and loved was dying around her, if she could protect one thing, then nothing else mattered.
-Once again showing why she wasn't slated for destruction, merely transformation.
It was like I was outside my body knowing all this.
-First instance of Pinkie Pie's reality-warping nature brought on by stress and/or the laws of reality breaking down as the universe is deconstructed?
She looked behind and saw with horror her wings were gone.
-Scarier than when Discord did it, even if he actually had to be provoked and did four Ponies at once. Difference between fear and threat... of course, this guy is more of a threat in total, because Discord doesn't seem to like killing his toys... at least not in the modern era those poor poor Seaponies...
One less generic cookie cutter ponies -delete-.
-The grammar here is bad. Is that intentional?
He'd stop trying to hurt StarSong if I just disappeared.
-Noble, but tinged with cowardice... better than a lot of people would do if, say, someone burst into the room they were in and started shooting people...
StarSong screamed and leapt at his face, by sheer reaction he grabbed her, he realized his mistake too late. "AW DAMMIT!"
-Okay, so she DID catch it, it was just a melee attack, and she caused him to mis-target, rather than blocking his shot.
she began to mouth one final song,
-Defiance, or showing that even the more well rounded characters of that generation were still somewhat flat? Personally I will go with "Defiance"/"Essence of who I am"... like..."What would you do if you only had a month to live?" but compressed down to a single moment. Also puts me in mind of a similar moment (slightly longer than this, but whatever) at the end of The Last Party.
(Pause)
SPOILER ALERT!!!
SPOILER ALERT!!!
SPOILER ALERT!!! (Especially so since I think I have read this material before, but I think the last chapter of the previous season was heavily edited since the last time I read and that was throwing me off when I would try to find my place after so long away).
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"Bring her back! Take me and bring her back!" I cried desperate trying to hold onto the image, voice, and songs of my friend.
-He probably would if he could (thus demonstrating the limits of his powers, although it may be a matter of that being a greater-than-the-Diarchs Alicorn thing to to rather than something a Draconequus thing... or maybe even they can't control the afterlives enough to draw a soul back from them? Or maybe he is just lazy/uncaring and only the one who did something can undo it?
"I can't dumb horse! She's gone! "
-Whelp that answers part of that...
For a brief moment, it looked like Anarchy was -scared- of me.
-She managing to channel the right emotions to grant herself the right metaphysical qualities to actually hurt him? Or is this like in Harry Potter and it is because StarSong sacrificed her life for her?
This entire world needs to be revised before the 'improvements' from before cause it to collapse totally!
-3.5 was even worse of course, right?
And where's that donkey you call a brother Discord?" Boomed a stern but young(ish) female voice.
-Right, knew there would be an Alicorn along as some point... I guess he is going to delete her, despite her having earned non-deletion? And that is when the merger happens? Just enough left of her songs to put that part into our view-point character? I think he will start deleting her because that is how she loses her wings, right?
"Meh, I saw him making some blue flower or another, or turning those butterfly ponies into fast multiplying bugs, I forget which. Let him do his thing."
-Both... although that might mean we are already in G3.5... or maybe this is G3, and you are just saying that 3.5 was a completely separate world because the characters in it behaved so much like humans?
"'His thing' tends to cause more damage than good! And I don't remember him having orders to do anything to the Flutterponies!"
-Yeeeeah, not the best work-ethic on that guy... although that really goes for all the Draconequii.
Ya can't pick your family Your Starriness or whatever yer title is.
-So the alicorns and draconequii are related? Interesting... I sorta have them that same way in my own fanon... which I shall now explain based on the fact that it might allow you to better understand where I am coming from.
[Draco Dei's Fanon]
The whole "siblings" thing is a bit different a bit different since they are (arch-)angels who God granted the privilege of incarnation. As such they haven't anything to do with eachother genetically, but they all sorta come from the same place, and Celestia and Luna* have a rule that they can't marry** eachother, for approximately the same reason why it is a bit silly to go to foreign land and then eat only at McDonald's while you are there. They came to the mortal realm to better understand mortals, so...
*and Abyss (Lord of the Seaponies), Obsidian (Head of the races that look after geology down below where the Diamond Dogs can survive), and Death.
**They have come around to the idea of artificial insemination though. Well, except for maybe Luna (still catching up after 1,000 years), and Obsidean (If intelligence is a computer program than he is just as smart as any of the others... it is just he is running it on a much slower CPU since the fastest thing he is built to handle is a volcanic eruption, rather than lightning).
[/Draco Dei's Fanon]
Or I'd have put myself up for adoption by now.
-Ah, so maybe the two "species" aren't related. The stuff about who the oldest/most powerful Draconequii are would tend to support that since neither of them sounds like they could be an alicorn instead. I suppose that if one goes with the "primal chaos ends up randomly having some order in it" thing they could have given rise to the alicorns, but I've never really been a fan of that trope as the origins for Order in a world. Perhaps it is related to the fact that I am a Creationist?
At least it's six relatives and not an organization of nobodies."
-So... there are only six Draconequii, atnd the Alicorns are actually not related at this point? Or is he saying it the other way around?
Did you return the ponies to the source as you were supposed to?
-Heaven? Sounds like a "become one with the force" afterlife instead of one in which you retain your individuality. Probably has reincarnation... or maybe you are trying to keep it ambiguous?
(Pausing and posting so you will know I haven't COMPLETELY flaked out on you again...)
SPOILER ALERT!!!
SPOILER ALERT!!!
SPOILER ALERT!!! (Especially so since I think I have read this material before, but I think the last chapter of the previous season was heavily edited since the last time I read and that was throwing me off when I would try to find my place after so long away).
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I asked meekly, "Whose Surprise? Wait, how'd I know you meant a pony named Surprise?"
-More remembering things she shouldn't? Or is she supposed to? Was Surprise even in her generation, or is she seeing beyond the borders of reality, at least to the "construction materials" the alicorns have "piled up right outside the property being renovated"? I don't think the merging has started yet, but that would be one of the Ponies she will end up getting merged with... except she isn't supposed to even exist, so that revision to the planning wouldn't have happened yet.
"She's the last one. That makes her unique now. I'm finished with the ponies, you can start on the setting."
-So StarSong was supposed to be the only one to survive or was he being even more indiscriminate? I'd go back and re-read, but I already read this years ago. While it may have been revised since then, I still think that the risk of stalling out doesn't justify it.
"Preaching to the chorus 'lady rainicorn',
-Was this added since the last time I read this chapter, or was it just that I didn't know about "Adventure Time" then? And is it really Raincorn, or is that just Anarchy using a mildly derogatory term or a nickname?
I could tell from the mean way he said it that that wasn't her real name or species.
-Well, that answers that...
The horned pegasus
-Nice way of saving space now that you have used the / several times. Which, now that I actually NOTICE the /-ed stuff, is a good way of emphasizing how alien the alicorn is to Pinkie Pie.
The only thing I can do for you is have it so that you won't remember this life."
-Which she refuses... I seem to remember Anarchy doing something more active before this sequence is all over and we get back to "the present". Like actually fighting the alicorn.
"On second thought. Maybe a depressing childhood to balance out all that cheerfulness."
-And thus the rock -farm...
I realized what that meant. "NO! Please! Leave my mother alo-" And I felt my inner self torn asunder.
-Ouch... another hit to the feels...
But I remembered the old ones too. I still do.
-Ah... that is actually... not TOO bad. I mean compared to forgetting her previous parents. Still a depressing childhood. I wonder how much she remembered as a foal? Did she think they were just dreams? Could she remember being older, or only as old as she was at the time? One gets the idea that she is emotionally much older in G4, and certainly FEELS like she has a lot more implied backstory since becoming an adult than this one, even at the start of the show (but as implied by LATER episodes)... although, that could be TOTALLY prejudiced and mistaken of me since I'm not familiar with 3.X.
Though I don't know how much I remember is true anymore and how much is just me trying to fill in the blanks.
-Were you trying to give yourself some wiggle room, or just emphasizing how little survived and by how narrow a margin?
And I held onto the image of StarSong trying to sing her last melody.
-...Indeed.
Goodbye~
Funny how that's such a hard thing to say
Now it's time to let go but
Never thought I'd feel this way
Promise not to be sad but
We both knew I'd be lyin'.
-Is this going to transition into one of the earlier ending songs? Or was that just what Celestia sang toward the end of the Nightmare Whisper arc? Sidenote, before I forget: I want to use one of the images of her as part of a collage for a Dungeons and Dragons class themed around "sacrifice". I assume that would be Okay if I credit both you and the drawing artist, and get the drawing artist? Other characters in the collage include Aslan, Jesus (a bit redundant I know!), The Flash, and some butterfly character from a Mario game who died to save the universe. The flaw with all of these is that they DIED (granted, some temporarily), which while a schtick of this class (they have... less of a penalty for dying than other classes), isn't really their main thing. Nightmare Whisper OTOH? Usually wasn't dead. Here is a link to what I have so far, although it is going to go up on a completely different website when/if i ever get it in a fit state to publish.
((Pause))
SPOILER ALERT!!!
SPOILER ALERT!!!
SPOILER ALERT!!! (Especially so since I think I have read this material before, but I think the last chapter of the previous season was heavily edited since the last time I read and that was throwing me off when I would try to find my place after so long away).
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Gotta fight back the tears, cuz
Can't let you see me cryin'.
You're more than just my best friend!
What makes me misty most of all
In my final curtain call
Is knowing that I won't see you
Aga
-I presume that despite the second line in the part I quoted being... a bit... ironic to actually SAY to someone (well, I guess she WAS pressed for time, plus the logic of songs in MLP anyway), this is your original work? In either case it is good, and cutting it off mid-word was brilliant.
This is pretty heartrending.
Poor Pinkie.
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I never realized how much when I first wrote it.
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Does seem rather unfair doesn't it?
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Well, since when is life ever fair?
Who gets to decide who's dead weight?! I DEMAND TO SPEAK TO YOUR MANAGER!
Also she made it into the heart verse soooooooo SUCK IT DRACONEDIP!
Yeah, Axel, I'll be sure to remember you. Want something to memorize? It's a fun little word in the dictionary called deicide. look it up.
Wait...where's your alicorn?
I get that you guys have a job to do...but I hate you....I hate you....hatehatehatehatehatehateHAAATE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!
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Back when I intended this to be a single season or so, (this was meant to be in the princess Gaia arc)... this was intended purely as a 'take that' to those who treat G3 'One of the worst cartoons ever made' as if that's sacred text.
However, since then, it's taken on depth, height, length, mass, etc, and actually become a plot point. And the REAL REASON for all of this becomes clear.
Also, Pinkie Pie only ended up in the heart world because Starsong gave Pinkie Pie her ticket by getting Anarchy to accidentally erase Starsong instead.
You won't find out the bigger truth about Starsong far faaaaar into the future of the series in one of the Origin stories, but it's an interesting twist.
Trust me... they know it already... and it isn't pretty, not even in the slightest. I'd say more, but spoilers.
Those who evolved and developed character and thus had a strong enough sense of self to exist in normal reality.
The truth is far more painful...
Damnit Anarchy, I’m supposed to like you! You represent my ideology yet you choose to be a massive dick! Smh
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What they're doing right now is a necessary evil.