“Okay, gotta think gotta think gotta think.”
It was the evening following Twilight's discovery that HUMAN fans believed a sequel was forthcoming. She'd contacted the book’s publisher straight away and asked him why they thought so. In his response the publisher said an advertisement for one was included on the book’s last page, and that its release date was kept vague for her sake. Twilight's next response was a rage fit in which she claimed their deal never included sequels. As she found out in his next reply, however, the contract she had signed to give him publication rights included a hidden clause stating he could request two more books. Furthermore, should Twilight fail to comply she’d lose all rights to her first book, including monetary gain. If Twilight wished to receive even one bit from HUMAN's sales, she'd need to expand it into a trilogy. Therefore, in her last reply Twilight stated she'd begin working on the next two books immediately.
This is why Twilight was currently pacing back and forth across her tree house, repeatedly saying “Gotta think” out loud to herself. After having almost single-hoofedly written an entire world into existence, she could surely construct enough material from said world for two more books; all she needed to do was gather her thoughts into a single idea to use as a base before building on top of that.
“SURPRISE!!!”
Twilight jumped at the sudden exclamation from nowhere. She knew it was Pinkie Pie, and she knew why she was here. She turned around to see the party pony wearing a blue polka dotted party hat and about a dozen balloons tied around her barrel. Twilight looked behind Pinkie to see the rest of her friends along with Lyra Heartstrings.
“Come on Twilight, it’s time for your I’m-now-a-professional-writer party,” Pinkie stated. “Everypony is SO excited for you and . . .”
Pinkie stopped talking when Twilight raised a hoof, gesturing for her to be quiet.
“I appreciate the thought Pinkie, I always do,” Twilight replied, “but right now isn’t the best time. I just found out I’m contractually obliged to write two more books or else I lose all rights to my work.”
“Speaking of that,” Lyra said, sticking her head into view. “What’s the sequel gonna be like? I loved, loved, LOVED the humans you created and I CAN’T WAIT to read more about them.”
Twilight looked at the mint green unicorn in confusion. "Any particular reason you're here Lyra?"
"What?" Lyra pouted. "Can't your #1 HUMAN fan join in on the festivities?"
Twilight tilted her head. "#1 fan?"
"Yeah, I know everything about your humans by heart. Go ahead, ask me anything."
"Okay," Twilight replied as her friends watched with interest. "What does B.C. stand for?"
"'Before Christ'," Lyra answered.
"Name the three countries of North America."
"Canada, U.S.A, and Mexico."
"What name is never used for inhabitants of the Islands of Vanuatu?"
"Roy Mata, the name of the ancient Melanesian chief who, after conquering the land, wished to unite all of its tribes. He ruled much similarly to Princess Celestia and kept peace between his subjects until he was poisoned to death by his brother and buried away from his homeland because it was feared his spirit would return to seek vengeance."
Everypony's jaws dropped. Twilight, especially, was amazed that Lyra could remember such obscure mentions from her book with no trouble at all. Twilight decided to take Lyra's word for it that she knew everything about humans by heart and could answer any more questions thrown her way. She didn't know whether to be unnerved or charmed at Lyra's apparent love of knowledge, but she shook away such thoughts and returned to the matter at hoof.
"Anyway, if I don't write two more books we won't be making a single bit off this."
“So?” Rainbow Dash asked while hovering. “You’ve got plenty of time for more work. Right now let’s just sit back, relax, and PARTY!!!”
Everypony started to cheer in excited response before Twilight cast a spell which silenced everyone. Upon realizing they couldn’t talk, they returned their focus to Twilight. She cancelled the spell and spoke up.
“Spike's asleep upstairs,” she said, then sighed. “And to answer you Dash, I never intended to make HUMAN an ongoing series; it was just a one shot to me. Because of that I'm lacking ideas for any sequels, and no sequels means we won't make a bit off even the first one. Now do you understand the trouble I'm in?"
For a few seconds after she finished, Twilight observed the various reactions on each of her friends: Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity had looks of worry on their faces, Fluttershy was timidly rubbing her hooves, Pinkie Pie was humming to herself with her eyes closed and a smile on her face, and Lyra was on the verge of tears.
. . . Wait a minute.
After pondering a few more moments, a wide grin burst on Twilight’s face, much to the concern and/or confusion of her friends.
“Uh, y’alright sugarcube?” Applejack asked.
“More than alright,” Twilight answered as she levitated several nearby quills and parchment rolls over towards everypony. “I just came up with an idea for the first sequel.”
Everypony gasped and wide smiles spread across all their faces, with Lyra’s topping them all.
Twilight continued. “After seeing everypony's various reactions to my news a moment ago, I got an idea. The first book detailed the human race as a whole, but it never really focused on individual humans and their personalities. So for the sequel, I propose we all write a vignette showcasing a human character of our own creation, describing how they're viewed among peers and what they think of them in turn. What do you guys think, are you up for it?”
At first, everypony was confused by Twilight’s idea. After some thought, however, it struck a chord with them all and wide smiles once again spread across all of their faces, with Lyra’s once again topping them all.
“OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH, that sounds like a super-duper-totally fun enough to make everypony pass out-idea Twilight. I’d LOOOVE to write about a human girl that spreads joy and smiles everywhere she goes just like me. Though I wonder, would that be too obvious of a self-insert and would everypony start thinking I’m too egotistical for my own good. Nah, nopony co-”
Pinkie Pie’s rambling was cut off by Twilight as she used her magic to silence Pinkie yet again. Once Pinkie agreed to calm down Twilight undid the spell and resumed speaking.
“Okay everypony, submit your vignettes to me by the end of the week and I’ll revise them as necessary to make them professional without changing any content. Remember to make your character unique without making them a self-insert because Pinkie Pie is right in that everypony would get the wrong impression of you. Only once we're all done with this trilogy can we all party, agreed?"
Everypony nodded and one by one they each took a quill and parchment scroll from Twilight’s collection and left for their respective homes. Lyra was about to grab a quill and parchment scroll herself when Twilight stopped her.
“Sorry Lyra, but this is between me and my friends.”
Lyra frowned. “But I want to help out too.”
“I’m sure you do,” Twilight responded. “And I’m not doubting your creative intellect here or anything, but if I let any one fan contribute to my work it'd only be a matter of time before EVERY fan is demanding the same from me. You understand, right?”
Lyra sighed and hoofed over the quill and parchment scroll. “Sure Twilight, I understand.”
Lyra dipped her head down and began trotting toward the front door, eyes threatening to unleash a steady torrent of tears. It was too much for Twilight to take, so she resolved to end the conversation on a positive note.
“Lyra?”
Lyra turned to look over her shoulder. “Yes?”
“You can still write a story and give it to me anyway. I won’t use it in the sequel, but I’d love to read some HUMAN fan fiction. I suppose I’ll only be a real professional writer when ponies are willing to ripoff my ideas,” Twilight said with a chuckle.
Lyra smiled and raised her head back up. “Thanks Twilight.”
“No problem,” the lavender unicorn said as she levitated the quill and parchment scroll back over to the mint green unicorn. With that resolved, Lyra exited the library and began trotting home.
Twilight whistled and fell to the floor in exhaustion. After all the stress she went through today, she was mentally wiped out and needed some rest to recharge her brain so she could begin writing her own vignette. With a sigh, Twilight rose to her hooves and began the short walk up the library stairs to her bed, where she fell asleep as soon as she crawled under the covers and laid her head on the pillow.
“ARRRRRRRGGGH!!!”
Rainbow Dash let out an annoyed grunt and pulled at her mane with her hooves in frustration. She had arrived home immediately following the visit to Golden Oaks and gotten to work brainstorming ideas for her vignette to Twilight’s story. Two hours had gone by, however, and the cyan pegasus had yet to put anything down on the parchment. Luna had raised the moon by this time, and Rainbow Dash was starting to worry if she was truly up to the challenge of creation. After all, how could she be when she couldn’t even come up with the most important aspect of any character.
A name.
“HORSEFEATHERS!” Rainbow screamed as she slammed both hooves onto the cloud desk in her living room, causing the ink to spill over in the process, though she took no notice of it.
The trouble for her had been in the randomness of Twilight’s human’s names. Unlike ponies’ names which were chosen based on appearance, talents, interests, etc, humans (at least from what Dash could understand) put no real thought into making sure their names truly represented who they were, opting instead to pick any name suiting their fancy regardless of its meaning (assuming it had one). Dash would never admit it, but her tendency to use her body before her brain left the latter underused, one result of which being her trouble with the current task at hoof.
Rainbow sighed and stared up at the ceiling of her cloud home. She knew what she wanted her character to be like as a person; awesome, strong, friendly, and idolized by swarms of admirers (she hoped that nopony would see her character as a self-insert if she made it male). None of it would matter, however, if she couldn't come up with a name to call him by. Eventually, Rainbow got the idea to choose a name in the most random way possible; picking letters out of a bag.
Using an old burlap sack she had stashed away and some letter blocks from when she was a little foal (which were intended to be hoof-me-downs for her own foals when she found her special somepony), she ended up choosing the following letters: two C’s, two R’s, one H, one U, one S, one K, one I, one O, and one N. Now all that was left was to rearrange them into two name parts.
Dash spent another ten minutes rearranging the letters before a readable name sat on the desk in front of her: C-H-U-C-K for the first part and N-O-R-R-I-S for the second part.
“Awesome,” Dash said to herself. “Now to write up his chara-.”
Dash’s sentence was cut short when the cyan pegasus instantly fell asleep from mental exhaustion. The howling wind outside and her snores inside were the only sounds that could be heard around Rainbow Dash’s floating cloud home for the rest of the night.
of course hmm i wonder what pinkies will maybe layra strong? jk jk jk
This is what you get for not reading the fine print Twilight.
Liam Neeson, the only person who can rival chuck norris, shall be AJ's
avatarcreationAbraham Lincoln for Applejack.
Applejacks's could be John Wayne
make the Expendables 1 & 2
in all seriusness this was very funny
I want to see what AJ and the others come up with ... Pinkie Pie writes Sarah Pailin... on second thought can she just not exist?
2236623 Pinkie's will be one of those personal acquaintances I mentioned in the A/N.
cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/30124263.jpg
AJ makes John Chapman (AKA, Johnny Appleseed). nuff said
I propose that Applejack's character be either Daniel Massey (my preference) or John Deere (If you can't find enough info on Massey).
I wonder if Twilight could write about someone famous for unfairly binding contracts?
2236668 Was he a real person?
I also vote Abraham Lincoln for Applejack
For Applejack, it MUST be either Lincoln, or George Washington. :D
2236691 Yes he was. Thats why I put his real name in the comment. Here's a link to his wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Appleseed
Plus I like the fact that his unofficial initials are just a swap of AJs
Since Applejack is the bearer of Honesty, her character should be Honest Abe
The name of chuck norris made her go to sleep
I honestly think, (heh, honesty) that Applejack's character should be Abraham Lincoln. I just like the idea of Applejack writing about a man who put so much into his country, freeing an entire race of people. It just seems like the kind of person AJ would write about.
OMG
Rainbow Dash made the name of the who would be able to get to Equestria.
fucking Chuck Norris haha very well done indeed
Applejack should make Clint Eastwood
BUCK YES CHUCK NORRIS i say pinkie can make batman, deadpool, spiderman, and some other super heros for her part
but twilight will not like the idea
good point cupa there for rainbow gets the idea that they are comic or action books for humans to read and injoy
i dont know why i bet suzy that your ideas are not going to work*cupa hands suzy a bag of something*
MOUR GUMMY BEARS
um
AJ? I'd say John Henry, Joe Hill, or Johnny Appleseed. Probably the latter.
SPOILER ALERT
Rainbow Dash makes Chuck Norris?! You weren't lying when you said that Rainbow Dash would have a good part in this! This is so AWESOME!
Chuck. Norris.
AHHAHAHAHAHA
What about MacGhyver?
The Germans love that guy. Speaking of whom.
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/389320
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/312927
Oh, and here is a taste of glorious battle comrade.
for applejack i can think of two
the first for ovious reasons is the folk hero johnny appleseed. the guy who went around planting apple trees?
the otehr would be wyatt erp (spelling is likely wronge) the wild west lawman who is a legend that brought many many outlaws to justice.
also only twilight would let an illegal contract like that go without calling in a solid from her best friends the supremem legal power in the country
I can be stereotypical and suggest Johnny Appleseed for Applejack, but I'm more creative then that
Hmm...I got nothing; the only thing popping into my head is Walt Disney as a extremely less hyper Pinkie Pie
But honestly I think that's a silly, it only slightly sense-making, idea
2236841 Actually, his original intention when he took office was to stop new slaves from coming in. The blacks who were still slaves at that time would still be slaves, but with no new slaves coming in, the market would dry up within a couple generations, giving everyone the benefit of time to get used to the ending of slavery.
He was a good man, no doubt, but he knew people couldn't accept such a major change at the drop of a hat without major problems, like what we saw with segregation for the hundred years after the Civil War.
Chuck Norris is Rainbow Dash's self-insert character. It all makes sense now.
Ya know, given that Applejack is a country girl and her accent has a somewhat southern twang, I believe that the best choices for her should be related to the civil war. More accurately, I believe her "character" should be General Robert E. Lee of the CSA. Mainly due to his personally honest reason he fought for Confederate side: Virgina. If VA didn't join them, he would been the commanding officer of the US army. He just couldn't bring himself to raise his sword or gun against his home.
Two reason for this suggestion.
1. Somepony has to right the bad guys' point of view at some point, so why not one of the books 'creators'.
2. It would give a black and grey morality to the world Twilight has built up with her friends. Therefore, it fits in with the theme that the world is more chaotic and would be much less forgiving to those who want to do the right thing but can't really do the right thing (sort of a perversion of the elements of harmony) because of honor, loyalty, and family (in Lee's case his family is his state and his family by blood who live there).
Now this Story can nothing less as AWESOME! And why?
C-H-U-C-K N-O-R-R-I-S
Chuck Norris don't need the Elements. The Elements needing Chuck Norris^^
How about, instead of Johnny Appleseed, you use whoever invented Hard Cider- that is, Applejack. I couldn't find a name for it, but I found a general time period and place: Here
I couldn't seem to find a name anywhere using Google. But the 'person' credited with inventing beer (in a song) was actually just a rhyme for 'Barley' and 'Hops', so why not do something similar there? Heck, for all I know (or history seems to know, for that matter) you could prolly credit Johnny with that and no one would know the difference and probably agree with you unless they were a historian.
2236941 Deadpool
arch.413chan.net/deadpool_thinks_pinkie_pie_is_random-(n1297043624263).jpg
i what one of the ponies to make the author of my little dashy
wouldn't it be awesome if Lyra wrote a fanfic about bronies
2237882 yes deadpool shall be in here i also got a way for it to happen (very shorted up verson)
twi: pinkie there cant be super heros in this book remember there is no powers or magic for them to use
pinkie: but
rainbow: i got a idea how bout their in books like daring doo for them to read with bad guys and other super heros
twi: that might work i will test this and maby make it a part of the story
*Reads chapter title*
*Reads chapter*
I have not idea why, but I cracked up at "C-H-U-C-K N-O-R-R-I-S". As for Applejack's character, I say Clint Eastwood. Because... I don't know, he's the best I can think of.
2237546 YES!!! Another history buff!
You will notice that I never said he went into office with that intention, but those were the long term effects of what he did while in office.
Perhaps I should of clarified, and I apologize for any misinterpretation from anyone else!
I like the concept and I'm impressed with what you've put together - especially watching the way the world changes from iteration to iteration. (Going from the misanthropic horrific world description in the first chapter to the idea that there was actually 'innocence' to lose in the fourth being a key example there, if it was intentional) As a long-time world builder I've had that happen plenty of times, and it's always fun. :)
Honestly, my largest concern with it is Twilight's attitude towards it at the start. I can see her being utterly fascinated with the idea of a world without magic, and given her universe's spin on magic and friendship how that would lead her to build a world so devoid of hope and happiness as described. Being Twilight, this then leading her on to obsessing over exactly how this world would function and frantically building it further is not a huge leap of logic. But the idea that she would describe this horrible world of pain and misery that goes completely counter to every value the ponies hold dear, and by the sound of things do so with an excited smile on her face as if chatting about how awesome the latest Daring Do novel was... if I were her friends listening to that, I would probably be quite concerned for her emotional well-being. (Although admittedly, Spike and Rainbow would be the two most likely to go 'cooool~' rather than recoil.)
I could more see her somewhat terrified and guilty of the world she'd created, but at the same time morbidly fascinated, unable to stop delving deeper until she'd justified everything even as each new conclusion she came to was more horrific than the last - and then having her friends come in and help flesh out the world with their different viewpoints, showing that friendship is possible without magic and pulling both the tale and the author out of the darkness.
Of course, I tend to do horrible things to my characters, so my opinion is biased.
The later chapters are much improved on that matter, and I'm certainly going to be watching to see where you go with it.
2237945 Pinkie 'creates' Stan Lee
heh....heheh....heheheheh...*snicker*
BWAHAHAHAH!!!!
oh rainbow dash...u so crazy
2236762
Oh thats really funny, Please do it again. *Loads shotgun*
Damn I really thought maybe Dash would do Indiana Jones. But for Aj I say use Abraham Lincoln Vampire slayer or General Lee, maybe even John Wayne. Those are my three suggestions.
Applejack is John Chapman or "Jonny Appleseed" the man who planted apples trough out north america
2238088 oh YEAH that's GENIUS