• Member Since 11th Apr, 2012
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Bad Horse


Beneath the microscope, you contain galaxies.

E
Source

After seeing the destiny of the son he is to have with Rarity, Blueblood tries to change the future for the better.

On EQD Jan. 10, 2014.

Chapters (3)
Comments ( 70 )

An homage to Henry Kuttner's Happy Ending, but with one more twist.

Discord, you dick. You massive dick.

So why did you never publicly publish this? It's a nice, if dark, little story. Good thing you mentioned in your blog so I got to read it.

3303431 In my first version, Blueblood was a drama queen, and Cypher read it & said it didn't make people sympathize with him at all. It sat for almost a year while I waited for an idea how to rewrite it. Now it's waiting for a second EQD review.

3312126

I hope it goes well, I think people'd like this little piece, but maybe I'm just a sucker for Blueblood not being a massive ass.

So Blueblood Jr. would have found a way to stop Discord without the elements of harmony, so he had to go? (Pre-emptively)

So I have just one question left, discord was to break out in the original timeline after Rarity had had her foal correct? So was he to break out when he did (S2E1 and S2E2) or was that an affect of altering the time line? What I'm asking is did he really even change anything?

Either way he broke out, either way he loses. Tomato Tomatoe

*cough* Bullshit. *cough*

You sly dog. My vision shifted despite being clamped to its original boring obvious.

I like it.

3725080 discord was to break out in the original timeline after Rarity had had her foal correct?
Discord's breaking out in season 2 isn't affected by this. His overthrowing Celestia & Luna also isn't affected. What is affected is what Rarity & Blueblood's son does.

(I wrote the first draft of this before season 3, so I didn't consider whether Discord had reformed.)

I had to go back and reread the salient section of chapter 2 after the ending to get it straight. Tyrants on a stolen throne. The truth indeed!--from a certain point of view.

Very nice.

I'll not try to work out the temporal consequences and the shapes of timelines. That way lies madness.

ETA: Oh, I'm not sure what Frederick Discord is referencing, though. It feels like it ought to be obvious, but there's some piece of history or something I've forgotten.

So he's actually not like that? Woah! Fabulous story, bit I would enjoy to see a sequel of the alternative timeline

Man, it's been quite a while since I've seen a 'Blueblood had a good reason for the things he did at the Gala' fic. :trixieshiftright:

3725231 I'm not sure what Frederick Discord is referencing
I'd tell you, but first I want to see if Jedi Master Ed gets it...

3725328

Cheeky and very, very clever. I'm quite impressed. The word play is excellent, really skewing the 'proper' future to look as nasty as Discord lays it out.

Alas, the 'Fredrick' message is idly skidding around my brain, not letting me draw any conclusions from it, but I gotta say, I enjoyed this quite a bit. Props to you, BH.

3725328

There are a lot of Prince Fredericks. I'm not seeing a historical one that sticks out or would seem to particularly fit the story. Prince Frederick of the Netherlands, possibly. I don't know.

3725159

You sly dog.

I see what you did there... :trollestia: Thanks for the flattering blog post! I'll let you live. Maybe even as a pony.

3725392 A fictional Frederick, who was the Slave of Duty.

I've read some writing advice that amounts to "don't let your characters get bored." If the characters start complaining about how boring their lives are, odds are the audience isn't rapt with attention either.

I think that applies to the second chapter of this story. When Blueblood starts doubting whether the advice he's getting is worth anything, and the fortuneteller keeps dragging him back with vague promises and sexual innuendo, the temptation to skim becomes powerful.

3725468

Ahhh, I see. None of that in my repertoire, I'm afraid. Well... none save for that which has appeared in Star Trek and the Animaniacs.

3312126

So is anything different from when I read it, or did you just finally post it?

Now that's the Bleak Horse I know and love! :pinkiehappy:

This is now making me wonder what released him a second time. I am assuming KCaFO simply doesn't enter into this. Hm, or maybe it does. Discord would never have considered reformation as a possibility, and as a result, he wouldn't bother checking the new future for anything like that. He just assumes that by preventing the marriage, he wins.

Also, there need to be more "Discord is a vicious bastard" stories.

3726423 KCalm and FOn doesn't enter into it bcoz I wrote the first draft long before that aired.

3725862 The biggest change was that Blueblood was a drama queen in the first version, and Cypher explained why that made it hard to sympathize with him. So he's calm and competent in the second version. The third version just smoothed over some rough places. I've been waiting to hear back from EQD, but stopped waiting & posted.

3726701
Yeah, but it almost seems to fit nonetheless. It's just a happy accident, rather than deliberate.

... So... basically, crazy old mare foresees 'possible' future of Blueblood's possible son... possibly... and that's supposed to make him get together with Rarity and have a not-too-duty-focused life?

... The logic, for what it's worth in a land of multi-colored talking ponies, is lost to me. Wouldn't it just enforce the future by making him so worried about it? After all, the Silence, in effort to cease the Doctor from answering the First Question and releasing Gallifrey from the Time-Lock/Pocket Dimension, actually caused part of what they were trying to avoid. Those Time Cracks...

Comment posted by Snow123 deleted Jan 3rd, 2014

WHOA. DAMN.

Took a bit of a reread, but DAMN. WHOA. That twisted logic.

... Holy shit.

:pinkiegasp::pinkiegasp::pinkiegasp: .....WAIT!!!! ........why r the chapters in reverse order?

that. was. beautiful. :fluttercry::fluttercry::raritystarry::raritystarry::raritystarry::pinkiesmile::pinkiesmile:

I admit, when I saw that it was going to be a "reason for why Blueblood was such a tool" story, I groaned... I believe every one of those that I've read have come across as massively sexist (as it was always either for Rarity's own good or to teach her a lesson). But then this swerved, and the reason itself had nothing to do with Rarity herself but with the future. I didn't piece it all together on the first pass through, but the perspective of who is telling of this future and so who would be the ones on the stolen throne is a very clever twist.

If I had a complaint, I would say that I too got a bit frustrated with the fortune teller in the middle part, wishing her to just get on with it and stop with the interruptions for sly asides. It fits a bit better when one knows who is actually talking though.

Good stuff... thanks for posting it!

Well now. That was certainly a way to twist a thing...

I'm impressed, again. And I have a guess about Frederick, but I'm not sure.

Mostly interesting, but I have to say that the second chapter really drags on with the banter. I suppose in hindsight it's supposed to be a hint that she's actually Discord, but on the first read, I think I skimmed over about one-third of the chapter, annoyed and wanting things to get on with it already than feeling any sense of foreboding I think you were trying to go for.

I'm amused as so many people are criticizing the second chapter for the fortune teller being so oblique and confusing but I really liked it. It really hammered home to me how powerful she really was and how helpless Blueblood was. I loved the idea that he's so used to being powerful and strong and to be completely at the mercy of this weird old mare. I know it's a common trope especially for BB but I really liked how you did it. I won't deny after I finished it I found myself thinking over her behaviour and grinning.

This is a delight. Feels very much like a prologue rather than a story in itself, but love where it seems to be pointing.

I didn't catch on until a few paragraphs before the end, but once I did, I had to shout, "Genius!" I usually prefer hearts or Fluttershy, but I think a mustache is in order for this story: :moustache:

3725231
It took this comment for everything to click. But dang. Cleverly done, BH.

3726701

Well it's good that you finally did post it. I'll probably reread just in case, but it sounds like nothing changed.

Mr. Horse, you are a sly and cheeky monster

... I don't think that came out right.

:P

3725328

I'm not sure what Frederick Discord is referencing

I'd tell you, but first I want to see if Jedi Master Ed gets it...

3725174

(I wrote the first draft of this before season 3, so I didn't consider whether Discord had reformed.)

When the canon starts to roar
Retcon-ta-ra! Retcon-ta-ra!
Then our Muse is rather sore
Retcon-ta-ra!
And we find the wisest thing
Retcon-ta-ra! Retcon-ta-ra!
Is to hit "upload" and sing:
Retcon-ta-ra!!
For when threatened with "thumbs down"
Retcon-ta-ra! Retcon-ta-ra!
And you're feeling like a clown
Retcon-ta-raaaaaaa!
There is nothing brings you round
Like the fanboy's fav'rite sound,
Like the fan-boy's fav'-rite soooooooound!
Retcon-ta-ra! Retcon-ta-ra!
Retcon-ta-ra! Retcon-ta-ra!
Retcon-ta-ra! Retcon-ta-raaaaaaaaaaaa!

I'm glad that this story has finally revealed itself! And doubly glad that people are enjoying it :pinkiehappy:

3725231 3725349 3728165 I feel a little silly about the whole "Frederick" business (in the first draft, it was a quote from a Rolling Stones song), but of course TheJediMasterEd got it immediately. The only purpose was to have Farsight refer to something from our world in a frivelous way.

Frederic is the main character in The Pirates of Penzance, or, The Slave of Duty, a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. When he was young, his father told his nurse to indenture him to a pilot. Having misheard him, she indentured him to a pirate, until his 21st birthday. On turning 21, he informs the pirate band that, although he loved them as brothers, it was now his duty as a citizen to see to their extermination. He arranges to lead the local constabulary to the pirates to capture them, but before he does, the pirate king informs him that, as he was born on February 29th, he has a birthday only once every four years, and will still be indentured until he turns 84, and it is therefore his duty to rejoin the pirates. Chaos ensues, followed by marriages.

3755346 Wow I was ten kinds of wrong...

3755346

Hah, alright. Like I said, no Gilbert and Sullivan in my repertoire expect 'A British Tar', 'Modern Major General', and the occasional call and response of "What, never?" "No Never!" "What, never?" "Well, hardly ever!"

3755346
*facepalm* And that's what I get for never watching The Pirates of Penance minus 'A Modern Major General'....

So, saw the ending coming at the "har-mony" line. I thought you said you would write a story with an actually happy ending for once?

And yet ol' Disco still managed to lose. Silly draconequus.

Fascinating story, both in content and structure. Thank you for it. :twilightsmile:

3761218 It had a happy ending! Just not a happy beginning. Or a happy epilogue.

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