Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto

Imaginations from the Other Side - Episode 8

"Applejack?" Pinkie Pie asked, stepping closer to the mare. "Are you okay?"

"No I am not okay, okay?" Applejack turned for only a moment towards Pinkie, showing the bags under her eyes, before she looked at her screen again. "It's happening again and I have no idea how to stop it and you all forgot and I'll forget too."

Pinkie lifted an eyebrow, and held the cupcake in her hoof closer to Applejack. "Do you need help with anything or...?"

"Pinkie, I'm not sure you understand." Applejack held her head in her hooves. "I went through all seventeen volumes yes there's a seventeenth one. I went through dozens of other books. I haven't slept in over twenty-four hours and I'm over fifty pages deep in online search results. And I have found nothing about what this is."

Pinkie frowned at that. "Cupcake?"

After a long sigh, Applejack left herself fall backwards into her chair and stretched out a hoof to take hold of the pastry. Then she brought it to her mouth and bit down on it. "It's delicious," she said in a hollow tone after a few seconds of chewing. "One of the best things I've ever eaten."

Pinkie was still frowning. "If there's anything you need my help with, I'm here for it."

"Thanks, Pinkie, but I'm afraid there isn't." Applejack looked off to the side. "I expect Twilight and Rarity will be here soon. Discussing the newest chapters. And Rarity will talk about everything is flowing and coming together and falling into place, and Twilight will complain that it's less flowing and more stagnating, and they'll have their back and forth and agree to disagree until the next time the wrong eye is put on us and then we'll be back to doing this from the fucking start."

Pinkie flinched.

Applejack looked at her. "Don't worry, I'm sure they've got the ratings for it."

"See? It's all getting addressed and resolved," said Rarity as she walked into the building. "And it's all orderly now too."

Following behind her, Twilight huffed and rolled her eyes. "Well yeah, but that doesn't justify the way it's crawling forward at a snail's pace. If the only way actual development happens is by skipping over it and seeing the consequences, there's a problem."

Rarity gave a very offended pout. "You can't just expect everything to get the same amount of coverage when things are happening at such a massive scale. Some things will have to be skimmed over if you want the story to be done in a reasonable amount of time."

"Well, maybe if they hadn't piled on so many external threads that have nothing to do with everything else, and they'd just focused on the consequences of the inciting incident, now they wouldn't have to be spinning so many plates together," Twilight loudly said. "And maybe, if you can't properly do something, you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."

Rarity made some very indignant noises, but produced no real words as a response.

"They're already making mistakes anyway. They made a whole deal about communication issues and suddenly it's gone," Twilight added.

"Well that's just poor faith on your part," Rarity retorted. "If it's so glaring even you could spot it, do you think they don't know? They'll surely address it."

"Retroactively fixing all your mistakes as you go is not a good way to write a story."

Applejack looked at Pinkie, and shrugged.

Comments

[Venerable Ro]

A bit of knowledge is a terrible thing.

[FanOfMostEverything]

A seventeenth volume of what, though? And yes, pity the burden of those who are aware of their place in the cosmos.

[Saix]

"They're already making mistakes anyway. They made a whole deal about communication issues and suddenly it's gone," Twilight added.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Being an Applejack is rough in this story.