- Member Since 21st Sep, 2013
- offline last seen 1 hour ago
DrakeyC
Writer, reviewer, creator of Filly Fantasy VI, occasional PMV maker, and uploader of mildly amusing image macros to Derpibooru. https://www.patreon.com/drakeyc
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That mare needs a PR consultant.
I honestly found myself more frustrated by this story than anything. I don't like it when the angry mob wins against the poor, misunderstood scientist trying to improve their dull, unappreciative lives.
... I may have a few issues of my own.
9891322
It's okay, once Twilight takes the throne she can push through her societal reforms on her own. What are they gonna do, protest? I hear there's plenty of room on the moon.
Twilight really needs to slow down the changes, give ponies time to adjust.
Society! Want something new and creative smothered out of existence with mediocrity and stagnation? Just use Society! In a matter of days the latest and greatest in innovation will be the unholy symbol of the devil, racism, and whatever country yours hates the most!
Just visit you local community center and look for the group screaming the most insults.
*WARNING: Society has been found to be prone to backfiring, forgetting and ignoring the existence of facts, and general being an absolute jerk about the whole thing.*
It did always bug me how we had two established forms of instant communication, yet neither of them were utilized. They easily made a new journal in Mirror Magic, and I’m pretty sure Spike messaged/received a message from someone other than Celestia in the two parter. Sunset’s probably right though, giving non-main character ponies a form of instant communication would probably end in disaster, though it’d probably be nice for the student six to be able to communicate with their families... Huh, I wonder if Changelings can do that communicatons portal thing from the season 6 finale.
9891326
Or if she learned from Celestia, she could petrify them and display their aware forms as a trophy in her garden.
Too much change is never good for anyone, and this story clearly showcases this, but on a hilarious scale. While I do feel bad that Twilight's intentions ended up failing, she tried her very best to make Equestria a better place. She gained some wisdom through this experience which she can apply for future considerations. Sunset is right though. Change is something which needs to be done on a smaller scale by introducing it bits at a time.
When was there an Eric Cartman pony? XD
Overall, this was hilarious! It's always both weird, yet fitting how the people of Ponyville so often devolve into mob-mentality, but then again; they are equines.
I also loved how you depicted a development in the relation between Twilight, Starlight and Sunburst since the one time I remember clearest over that is Starlight and Sunburst having all the fun while Starlight was just bored of of her mind (not counting the trivia episode). The three really came off as three people/ponies who know each other with a working rapport with their interactions over the journal system.
I guess Ponyville isn't willing to embrace change...
this was great
as always 99% of twilights problems could be solved if she had just talked with sunset who could have told twilight no
Ehhhhh.
Okay…
1 - Poor Twilight. This is the problem with being a great thinker and innovator.
2 - Ponies are herd animals. This makes too much sense.
3 - Sunset, do you really want the internet in Equestria? Its already pretty much ruined one world. Don't mess up another.
4 - Its okay to mope Twi. Sometimes, it's what you need.
5 - Drakey, that was perfectly demented. Thank you. I needed the laugh.
How soon before the Princesses start sitting in ink and sending pics to eachother?
i.ytimg.com/vi/cG8350EMQRc/hqdefault.jpg
https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/a-very-important-cultural-history-of-people-photocopying-their-butts
While their complaints were somewhat valid, she could have offered this public communication system to only Ponyville, as a test. Particpation optional, find a way to make them non-functional outside ponyville to prevent a unfair out-of-ponyville bussiness advantage.
The mail wouldn't be under threat if its only good for inter-communication in a town so small everyone already talks to eachother, daily, and are within a hours walk.
They'll be able to figure out advantages through discovery, and as long as you are upfront about basic utility, people will gleefully begin exploring and exploiting.
Wait for bussinesses and individuals, maybe even other goverments of other towns and cities to ask for access, and thats the que to roll it out further...
After at least a 2 year test period, maybe less.
Nice.
Wasn't sure if we were talking magic emails, and then magic phones (Equestrian area codes, brilliant), and then Sunset helpfully confirmed it was all of the above.
What a charming way of showing the fear of change
As someone who worked in a third party package drop off location, screw the post office. When we had shirts ordered with the company logo on them they lost the box, and then blamed the person who shipped them for not paying extra for tracking. Also they have a stranglehold on sending anything to Guam for some reason.
Wow, this really highlights weird Equestria Girls really is. The stakes are lower in the human world by at least one order of magnitude.
Yeah. I can see where something like this made with genuinely good intentions could still not go over well at first. Still, glad to see Twi still had enough heart to try AND was using it as a learning experience. All in all, rather good job on the exchanges, characterizations, humor and general wrap-up (and at least Twi still has the copies meant for her friends, so it wasn't a TOTAL loss).
Literally idiotic reaction.
All of this problems could be answered if you give them a little thought, and to others, they just selfish idiots who should be ignored.
9892500
Alphanumeric, not numeric. So 36 options per digit (0-9, A-Z).
36^3 is 46,656.
Bad Sunset, let Twiggles make equestria BURN!!!
Poor Twilight. She tried.
I'm honestly not surprised, instant messaging has never been very successful in Equestria. Ponies are entirely too social, they need that face-to-face interaction.
I feel like I can’t read this until I watch the season finale
9892864
It's okay, I wrote it to be ambiguous about when in S9 it takes place after the premiere. If you've seen the premiere, there's no spoilers here
9892874
Gotcha. This is great cause I can’t find the finale but I don’t want to find something that spoils it all.
Poor Twilight. It's such a powerful idea with so much potential! It's a shame the townsponies don't see it that way...
9892615
Oh! I missed that part. Right you are!
Why would the postal service have to downsize? If ponies can now easily order stuff from far away for delivery, someone has to deliver them. There may be fewer letters to deliver, but other documents still need delivered, and since there’s going to be an uptick in shipping, the gap will make itself up. Once again, market economics save the day.
Tie your reins down, Captain Equestria! This is a job for Captain Capitalism!
Sunset has clearly seen this plot thread many times.
Starlight: "You know, stuff. Like, which stallion has the biggest brain. That's important to know, and so we can check in both worlds simultaneously."
Sunset Shimmer: *shivers*
As long as they don't have torches and pitchforks...
Good story!
I enjoyed reading it.
I would have liked to see it played out.
As a professional network engineer, this made my day. You did a really good job 'magifying' a POTS system.
oh twilight, one ought only to see the damage inflicted by the rail riots, the ones held over the invention of railroads, not the riot rails, the rollercoaster park in Las Pegasus, you'd know that ponies are technophobes.
9893431
Because they can't think long-term and focus too much on the downsides.
Then again, letters are likely the bread and butter of the mail system in Equestria. And there's no telling if orders and parcels will become enough of a staple.
9892934
I could PM you a link if you'd like.
This is why Equestria can't have nice things.
9891322
Part of the problem might be your inclination for SCIENCE! over science. Not that I'm saying any of your scientists would bow down to the opinion of the unwashed masses (or the washed and groomed elite for that matter), but I'm pretty sure at least a few of the scientists you've written would be offended if no angry mob showed up to their
high school science fairgreat reveal at all.It's traditional, and the whole reason they minored in Political Science in the first place.
9896773
Fair point.
"But... but I had a twelve-point counterargument prepared and everything!"
Sunset patted her on the back, not sure what else she could do. "Twilight, I don't think that would've actually helped against an angry mob."
9896835
"I also designed this strike-breaker weapon at some point that would have... dispensed streamers and cupcakes... complete with paper plates and little forks. I have got to stop taking calls from Pinkie after 2 AM."
9891322
I dont know, given my dislike of social media these days, the angry mob has a point
9896931
This idea isn't social media yet, though. This is email. Or rather, considering the best they had so far was the postal system, this is the innovative equivalent of the telephone.
Might have been better off to start with the military, then with military suppliers, then between suppliers/industries, etc. Let businessponies who want to communicate with other businessponies fund it and bear the brunt of the mob's dissatisfaction.
Alternatively, make it part of the post office. Have fixed-in-place journals in each post office which can communicate to each other. Have them operated by the post office as a magical telegraph system. More jobs needed at each end as short-range telegram delivery ponies become in demand. Eventually, expand the system to include major national institutions - national banks, universities, emergency services, government departments. Eventually 'give in to demand' and allow media outlets to have their own in-house journals to get the latest scoops and other news information as fast as possible. Then start allowing major private-sector businesses and industries to exploit a carefully-planned and expensive loophole that effectively gives them access to their own journals as a prestige thing - the point being to make it seem like the Crown isn't pushing the new system on the populace; the populace (or at least the economy) is demanding access to it and is determined to get their hooves on it by hook or crook. Start rolling them out to schools (just the one per school).
Eventually, "capitulate" and relax the restrictions enough that mid-level businesses and extremely self-important (and rich) individual ponies can finagle one, even if they have to politic and fight for it. You know ponies similar to original-recipe Diamond Tiara would absolutely have to have one to show that they can.
And of course, the more connections there are, the more valuable the network becomes. The Post Office is now the Post Office and Telecommunications Authority. More and more fixed endpoints are added each day. Even some of the smaller villages have a community journal point. Most city and town businesses do. The upper middle class has them installed at home. Equestria bypasses the need for switchboard operators and proceeds directly to government and large business call centers. "Phone books" are distributed and everypony knows what they are and how to use them.
Next stage: every government, commercial, and residential business has them. The magical equivalent of PABX systems start to appear in organizations, so ponies can contact a single name and have their call directed. Somepony comes up with IVR-equivalents - write to a business address and you get a neat menu of options as a response. The network is upgraded to allow images - now you can contact a restaurant and get both the option to communicate directly with a pony and the restaurant's menu in front of you. Someone invents phone spam and telemarketing. Answering machines are kind of built-in to the journals, making subscriber services popular.
Eventually it's "just normal" - everypony knows how to use the journal systems and does it daily for all kinds of things.
Only now do you introduce mobile journals - and possibly have the Telecommunications Authority look into upgrading the system to handle real-time data, like voice...
While a boon for technological advancement, the ability to instantly communicate with anyone through text regardless of distance or timezone actually caused widespread depression in our world. Face-to-face communication is extremely important. A friendship is very difficult to sustain on faceless, voiceless text messages alone.
I was thinking of leveraging the technology they already had to develop a system of interconnected teleportation apparatuses to allow ponies to visit each other at any time without the commitment of a long commute, but that itself might atrophy the meaning of such visits precisely due to the lack of a commute. Or maybe it wouldn't, because you're still committing time to your friend.
Food for thought.
When the wisdom of the innocent is mistaken as foolishness.
9896947
Every flood begins with a drop of water
Considering the internet started out as a military project...
Alicorn Research Projects Agency Network. ARPANet. History always repeats...
Hmm... one thing that could maybe have used a mention is that Equestria very probably has telegraphs. (Not that the writers remember mostly, but then the situations it would come up in are limited.) So instant long-distance communication would be less of a shock than the shift in pricing model.
9896608
Sure man. Thanks.
Cap. (Group / Organization)
____________
This was an adorable story
.
While it is never specifically addressed, Equestria does have a surprising degree of technology. Including but not limited to radios, earphones, electric lightning, metal ferry ships, roller coasters, whatever the technology is for the cloudsdale cloud factory and more.
Also all the issues raised in this fic are issues that our world is having to deal with in one way or another.
I think Twilight gave up too easily and did not properly allow the system to grow. There is always reticence to new ideas and concepts, but these get ironed out as familiarity sets in, and Ponies do take on new technologies.
This could be revisited in the future if only Twilight could work on creating a magical computer analog, instead of a limited paper one.
Great idea Twilight, terrible PR management.
9899330
There's NON electric lightning?