Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto

Imaginations from the Other Side - Episode 10

Applejack blinked. "Hey! You cut me off!"

"I did." Pinkie smirked. "It's the kind of trick you learn how to do when you spend enough time messing with the meta."

"Is that even the right way to say that?" Applejack shook herself. "Nevermind that. Things are even worse off now! We've even got portals!"

"Shh." Pinkie slid closer to Applejack and put a hoof on her shoulder. "Relax. Everything is going to be just fine."

Applejack yelled, "The end of the world could be coming and you ask me to be calm?" She moved to the side, shrugging Pinkie off of herself.

"Eh." Pinkie shrugged. "I don't think it's really coming. It wouldn't make too much sense."

Applejack stopped in her nervous jitter and blinked. "How does it not make sense?"

"Think about where all this stuff is coming from," Pinkie explained. "It can't actually be related. It's all just a cosmic coincidence."

Applejack took deep slow breaths and thought it over. "But how?"

Pinkie shrugged again. "I've seen weirder things happen. It's not like we're causing earthquakes. Either way, you know as well as I that this means there will be a solution."

"As if he cares about the way things go! When has that ever stopped anyone?" Applejack's tone grew louder again.

"He seems to be sticking pretty close to things for now," Pinkie said. "I would trust him there."

"Only because there's still a road to follow. Soon as that's over, we'll have no walls to stop us from falling." Applejack sat down on her favourite stool. "It's just a matter of time. Things can be refitted, it might be solved once but that wouldn't mean it will stay that way."

"Even so," said Pinkie, "it's outside of our control. We should be focusing our attention elsewhere for the time being."

Applejack sighed and looked up at her. "On the story still?" She swallowed. "I suppose you have a point."

"It's been stagnating." Pinkie took a seat in front of Applejack.

"I thought you were supposed to be the positive one."

"Maybe we're more than the matter required to fill our moulds." Pinkie moved her neck from side to side, listening to the way it popped. "Would you rather focus on things here?"

"It's been a while since we've seen Nova, hasn't it?" Applejack grabbed a cupcake from the counter and began to eat it.

"It has."

Applejack swallowed. "Do you think we've seen the end of things as far as weirdness goes, here?"

Pinkie shook her head. "I doubt it. But it's more likely that we'll just get used to it, like they did. Or maybe not like they did."

"Fair enough." Applejack took another bite out of her cupcake. Then she sighed. "Is there anything we can do? Anything at all?"

Pinkie pursed her lips, frowning deep in thought. "Maybe... Maybe there is something we could be doing, actually."

Applejack lit up. "Really?"

"Yep." Pinkie nodded. "But first, I can teach you that trick I

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Yeah, fretting about paracosmic events you can't influence does you no good. Better to focus on what you can, like visiting friends or refining your meta-awareness.

[Saix]

I actually liked Twilight and Rarity's back and forth from a writing perspective. I had this story on my read later list for months but never got around to it, despite being curious about the like/dislike ratio, tags, and vague summary, and only started reading it after I read Monument and saw that it was by the same author. If I hadn't read that beforehand I would have been a lot more dubious about whether it was going somewhere and if whatever it was going for could be pulled off before the meta Pony Life chapters appear, with the short chapters and how things jump around.

The Pony Life chapters let the audience know that yes, the author is aware of how dubious the unusual format/presentation may seem and is aware of both the audience's wariness and potential issues that can arise from a story written like this, without leaving authors notes or responding to comments to reassure people, which a) wouldn't be great for the meta side of the story and b) often just makes things worse, especially if there's a back and forth between the critic and the author.