Question and Answer

Duck

Duck #1 · Mar 9th, 2020 · 4 · ·

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Oh gosh so first off, that opening paragraph was good. the one with the remarkable unremarkableness.

Second,

"Was Gilda the one to do it?"
"Who?"
That resulted in a lot of flipped pages, perhaps the most so far.

HA! Ha ha hehe, hmhm. Good one. So where all of the other big-page-flippy moments, but that one really tickled me.

And while there's so many hard-to-quote-on-a-phone moments, so many of them could be summed up by saing that I love how even your narraration can sound so sassy. It's great.

I like this verry much yes.

Scampy

Scampy #2 · Mar 9th, 2020 · 8 · ·

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"Has Rainbow Dash ever set you up to be beaten by an angry mob?" the interviewer asked.
"Is that the sort of thing that Rainbow Dashes are wont to do?"
"Is that a, 'No'?"
"Yes, that is a, 'No.'"

This whole story is the most casual take-down of stupid tropes I've ever seen. This should be required reading for anyone who wants to write an Anon-a-Miss story.

Lieral

Lieral #3 · Mar 9th, 2020 · 2 · ·

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I really liked the references to the comics

Mist_Chaser

Mist_Chaser #4 · Mar 9th, 2020 · 3 · ·

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I liked it. It wouldn't work in a realistic multiverse setting because the number of universes would be infinite and no amount of questions within a single lifetime could narrow it down enough to get you home...

Mist_Chaser

Mist_Chaser #5 · Mar 9th, 2020 · 2 · ·

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10122802
Anyone who wants to write an Anon-a-miss probably shouldn't... The saturation rate is an ocean and will probably encounter overwhelming downvotes from people sick of even seeing the word in the title...

chris the cynic

chris the cynic #6 · Mar 9th, 2020 · 1 · ·

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10122893 & 10122902

I liked it.

Thanks

It wouldn't work in a realistic multiverse setting because the number of universes would be infinite and no amount of questions within a single lifetime could narrow it down enough to get you home...

Sunset Shimmer agrees with you.

Anyone who wants to write an Anon-a-miss probably shouldn't... The saturation rate is an ocean and will probably encounter overwhelming downvotes from people sick of even seeing the word in the title...

Pretty much. The general concept (and the poor execution thereof) provides incredibly fertile ground for new ideas and different directions, but the potential is almost never tapped, and I'm pretty sure just about everyone's response when seeing a new Anon-a-Miss fic is basically a long suffering, "Another one?" combined with a sense that a train wreck is taking place.

I say this as someone who has multiple Anon-a-Miss fics in progress (and has produced fragments of even more.)

Even if Fractured Friendship and Just the two of me ended up being the two best stories on the site (they won't; I'm not that good of a writer), there would still be a ton of people who would never touch them because they're Anon-a-Miss fics.

Anonomis

Anonomis #7 · Mar 9th, 2020 · 1 · ·

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great to see the comedy and smartalecness of Sunset

Csquared08

Csquared08 #8 · Mar 9th, 2020 · 5 · ·

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"Do you want to be flayed?"

A+

Babroniedad

Babroniedad #9 · Mar 10th, 2020 · 1 · ·

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Sunset Shimmer, Element of Snark. Awesome!

silvadel

silvadel #10 · Mar 10th, 2020 · 1 · 1 ·

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10122893
Actually even with an infinite number of universes it could collapse to a finite number of relevant states for a single pony.

Mist_Chaser

Mist_Chaser #11 · Mar 10th, 2020 · 1 · ·

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10123960
The thing about a multiverse theory is this: with each new moment in your life, something is happeng. From that happening, an infinite number of universes come into existance with every possible result from that event. Multiply that infinite with everything else going on and you get even more infinite possible universes. In short, the multiverse is constantly growing at an endless rate that is beyond ever overcoming.

silvadel

silvadel #12 · Mar 10th, 2020 · · 1 ·

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10123996
Yes I understand that. My comment stands though. Sometimes infinities do collapse to finite solutions.

Mist_Chaser

Mist_Chaser #13 · Mar 10th, 2020 · · ·

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10124036
The odds of that are extremely low in this case.

twience

twience #14 · Mar 13th, 2020 · 1 · ·

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Haha, this was a joy. I practically laughed at the questions and answers the whole way through. Especially at the large and small page skips. This is so perfect.

Scholarly-Cimmerian

Scholarly-Cimmerian #15 · Mar 24th, 2020 · · ·

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I had fun reading this. Especially the deadpan takedown of stupid Anon-a-Miss tropes.

Bicyclette

Bicyclette #16 · Sep 2nd, 2022 · · ·

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Sunset Shimmer followed the interviewer to a room so very nondescript that it circled right back around into distinctiveness through sheer force of the effort that must have gone into making that indistinctly uninteresting.

being so unremarkable is an art; i am glad that Sunset appreciates normcore

Sunset mentally noted the dramatic opportunity lost due to the interviewer's lack of eye wear. Truly, those statements would have been perfectly augmented by an adjustment of one's glasses. Alas and alack, that was not to be

Sunset is so right, that is what you expect of these interviewer ladies with their clipboards and matter-of-factness!

After such rumination, Sunset said, "Your choice of verb tense and mood indicate that you expect me to believe it's a waste of time regardless of what you say, so why waste time on trying to convince me it's not a waste of time when you believe such attempts will fail?"
"First," the interviewer said, "I believe that such attempts will probably fail. I would not have used the word 'probably' were that not the case. Second, it's simply a matter of basic politeness."

that is true, it is only polite! especially to the reader, to orient them to the situation

"Things came to a head regarding the magic mirror I would eventually flounce through. She believed that I was ready to see it, once, but no more. No information, no resources, no second visit, no study, and certainly not any hope of an authorized second visit."

yeah showing Sunset that mirror did seem to lack a reason that would fit with any sort of deliberate goal by Celestia (unless it was to make Sunset think everything she did afterward was entirely her idea!)

"I raise my eyebrow--" Sunset started.
The interviewer interrupted with, "I can see that."
"--at your use of the term 'dickweed'," Sunset finished.
"Every word used in these questions was carefully chosen to maximize the--"
Sunset decided to cut off that little tangent before the purpose clause could finish.

bureaucratic processes needing to be strategically relatable does cause a lot of meta tangents

"When last I heard Sombra was dead, dead as a door-nail. Mind, I don’t mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined--"

oh hey i wonder about the origin of that phrase too, now!

A check mark, a flipped page, and a question, "In what manner?"
"There are two possible answers depending upon how one views matters of species identity."

this also applies to Sunset herself! i do have trouble figuring out just what species to consider her as, or what she would consider herself as.

"As I said, it's technically the Element of Harmony itself," she said. "The union of the the outer Elements as well as the interpersonal connection that those Elements in particular, and Friendship in general, entail. Friendship being synonymous with Harmony means that if Friendship is Magic then Harmony is Magic and, therefore, calling Harmony, 'Magic,' is acceptable, if roundabout."

this gives me theology vibes, i like it

"That makes no sense! The name isn't 'Mi Amore Cadanza'."
"And how do you feel about that?" the interviewer asked in the manner of a disinterested psychiatrist from a low budget sitcom.

ahaha gottem

"Now you're just mocking me."
"True."

this is getting very meta! (for my part on the debate, i know that "Cadance" is "wrong" and "only due to a toy company's desire for search engine optimization", but the wrongness does paradoxically make me like it more.)

"Have you had sex with her?"
"I . . . um . . . what‽"

ahaha yeah that is quite the blindside of a question!

"Why would you ask that‽"
"To determine which world you come from."
"If I flay you alive--"

i can imagine a version of Sunset's response being "hell yeah, i did!"

"Have you been stabbed?"
"Not in a long time."
"Was Gilda the one to do it?"
"Who?"
That resulted in a lot of flipped pages, perhaps the most so far.

this feels like a reference to another fic

"Pretty sure I'm not related to any manticores." Though, technically, the current iteration of the theory of evolution stated that all life in Equestria shared a common ancestor, which (if true) would mean that Sunset could count her Equestria's manticores as particularly distant cousins.

given just how weird biology in Equestria seems to be, i am not sure if i would believe this!

"Have you tried?"
"I've never been actively suicidal."
That caused the interviewer to skip forward almost as far as they had when Sunset didn't recognize the name 'Gilda'.

oh, i know this one! lots of suicidal Sunset fics out there, huh?

"A human named 'Wallfower Blush'. She's a good kid."
"Are you implying that you're older than Wallflower Blush?"
"Of course not. I'm just not so insecure as to deny the fact that people in my age group are kids."
Several pages skipped, at this point it was unremarkable.

so is this skipping the SunFlower fics or the pre-Forgotten Friendship fics or both?

"Equestria is fucked up."
"That doesn't answer--"
"When I flounced at nine years old, I was already getting higher education, even though I was at most four years ahead of average students my age."
"While you have not answered my question--"
"You can infer."

oh yeah, the headcanon that the reason the Mane 6 counterparts are in high school is because like many pre-modern societies, Equestrian society considers adulthood to begin earlier than we would in our era. interesting to see Sunset so thoroughly adopt our modern perspective on this (though in the world of Equestria Girls it's normal for high schooler Sunset to live on their own, so who knows?)

"Whether the Crystal Empire is part of Equestria or not depends largely on what's politically convenient at the time. Also how much root beer is available."
"Root beer?"
"Cadence will embargo the fuck out of anyone who gets between her and her root beer. If she has to secede from Equestria to do it, so be it."

that is... an interesting version of Cad[a|e]nce! honestly, it makes me like her more

"Who is Cozy Glow?"
"A human kid who got it into her head that if she funneled the magic from Equestria into the Human realm she'd become some kind of God."
Given that Cozy Glow spoke of ponies as a group she lacked membership in and explicitly stated that she was sending Equestria's magic to another realm, the time it took before anyone figured that out was disturbingly long.

this is a fun theory! and yes those details are good evidence of it

"Has she ever been turned into stone as a punishment?"
"What kind of monster would petrify a child?" Sunset asked in shock.

yes that's right!

"What was Clover's gender?"
"Female, but when she wrote about her trials she had forgotten that." Selective memory erasure was a terrifyingly powerful tool.

ooh i like this one! that would be a fascinating story to write! i had never considered this way of resolving that discrepancy before and it is great

"Is Starswirl the Bearded famous?"
"That depends on whether or not Twilight Sparkle is in the room."

nice, and also canon

"Have you met Daring Do?"
"I've never been inside a work of fiction."

i mean this answer would also make sense in-universe in a universe where A.K. Yearling is secretly Daring Do

"Are you now, or have you ever been, in the process of being courted by Princess Luna?"
"She's like 65 times my age."

princess x mortal shippers seething

"Claim has been made that it was sprung from a Seed of Hope planted by six ponies who were abandoning Equestria, without telling anyone where they were going, as part of a ritual intended to effectively (but not actually) kill one of their friends. That doesn't sound very harmonious to me and, if true, would completely bork our understanding of the order of events at that period in the history of Equestria."

so true (but hey far from the first time a country's origins contradicts its presently stated ideals!)

"A pony with impressive biblomagical talents called Shadow Lock. He's the one you need to talk to if you want to meet Daring Do."

gottem

"Why did you construct this guitar?"
"So I could learn to use my fingers properly."

ooh i love this as the origin of Sunset's guitar thing

"How many of those are transgender?"
"None of your damned business."

hell yeah

Sunset said, "Yay," with a flatness that would make Maud Pie proud. Or it might not. (It could be difficult to tell with Maud.)

that is so true, love Maud

"Which side of Rainbow Dash's head has green hair?"
"Both."

you don't ask a mare about this kind of thing!

"I have serious doubts as to the veracity of that statement." The multiverse was vast, Sunset hadn't actually been asked that many questions. The idea that this process could determine the one correct timeline out of the excessively infinite possibilities was, honestly, quite laughable.

idk about this, there have been a lot of bits of entropy so far!

While by no means infinite, the things she could have said to Twilight upon their first meeting ranged from nothing at all to an eight hour soliloquy about the importance of soybeans to the Equestrian economy and beyond.

what i wouldn't give to see what happened in the last timeline there

What she'd actually said was, "'Sorry it had to be this way . . . princess'," which she now told the interviewer.

love that line, classic

Sunset said, "'You must be new here; I can speak to anyone any way I want,'" and almost sighed in relief because, finally, this would be over.

i guess "What did you say?" doesn't count?

Unless the two Mage Meadowbrooks were born at the exact same time, one must be older than the other.

oh you are totally right about that! okay i am adopting this interpretation wholesale

I originally intended to have a question about what type of pony Raven was, I never ended up working it in.

would have been fascinated by the solution

The book in the first episode has a green Element of Harmony in Generosity's place. On a meta level the original plan didn't have Generosity as an Element of Harmony, instead Inspiration filled that slot. Put those two things together (even though they were never intended to go together) and you get Inspiration as the lost Element of Harmony, which happens to be green.

ah dang this makes a lot of sense! and as generous Rarity is, i would say Inspiration definitely fits her more

lots of great commentary on fanfic tropes and resolving the inconsistencies of canon! and the ban on "script stories" seems pretty silly at this point, but i am glad i got to see this. thank you for writing it!

chris the cynic

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