Like any other day, the aura around Fluttershy's cottage was one of calmness and tranquility. As was typical, her birds were chirping up a chorus, her chickens were scampering about in their pen, and Harry the bear was dozing out in the backyard. The butterscotch pegasus herself was inside the cottage at her desk, contemplating her character for Twilight's sequel to HUMAN.
Fluttershy was quite excited about getting a chance to play creator and craft a character to her liking, and she knew exactly what they'd be like. Ever since her brief stint as "New Fluttershy" after attending Iron Will's seminar, she realized the importance of maintaining assertiveness without letting it override one's patience and turn into violent aggression. To that end, she resolved to make this the central aspect of her character. Not only that, but he/she would attempt to instill this lesson in everyone they met, hopefully making humankind a much more peaceful race as a result.
With her character's actual 'character' down pat, Fluttershy focused on coming up with a name for him/her. She wanted the name of her character to have three qualities: 1. It's easy to remember. 2. It rolls off the tongue. 3. It fits with their heritage. For the part of their heritage, Fluttershy decided to make her character native to the region of India for its simple ways of life compared to western countries, and during the time of the two world wars as that's when her 'messenger of peace' would be needed the most. For the first two points, she decided to give her character a single part name for common use, with a full name being used solely for his introduction. She eventually settled on the full name of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, with the shortened name being just Gandhi. While the name itself held no meaning to her, Fluttershy didn't care. Ghandi was her "harbinger of civil disobedience", as she worded it in his character bio, and all that mattered to the butterscotch pegasus was that humankind would become a better race through his teachings.
As Fluttershy was writing up Gandhi's character bio, she felt a small tug on her mane. Looking down, she saw Angel staring up at her with an impatient look on his face.
"Hi Angel," Fluttershy said. "Is something wrong?"
The white rabbit pointed at his now open mouth. Fluttershy looked at a nearby clock to see that it was indeed lunchtime. She put the quill down and stood up.
"Alright Angel, just wait here, I'll be back with some lunch," she said and trotted into the kitchen.
Angel licked his lips in anticipation of carrot stew and sat down on the floor to wait. His patience waned quickly, however, so he decided to read Fluttershy's vignette to pass the time. Hopping up onto the desk, he began reading what his caretaker had written. What she had didn't surprise him; Angel could've guessed Fluttershy would create a character whose purpose was to preach the importance of non-violence. Not that he had any problem with that, of course, but all the same Angel wished that the butterscotch pegasus could be a bit less predictable.
"Angel! Lunch is ready!" Fluttershy called from the kitchen.
Angel hopped off the desk and made his way to the kitchen. Sitting in his chair, he looked in front of him to see a bowl of carrot stew, just as he'd guessed.
On second thought, she can be as predictable as she wants.
"PLEEEAAASE, Rarity?"
"No, Sweetie Belle."
"Why not?"
"Because this is exclusively between me and my friends. Now shoo."
Sweetie Belle hung her head and grumbled something unintelligible before trotting out of Rarity's inspiration room. Rarity herself sighed. She had come straight home after visiting Twilight at Golden Oaks and had immediately gotten to work brainstorming ideas for her character. Predictably, Sweetie Belle had wanted to help, no doubt thinking she could get her cutie mark in creative writing. Rarity could only wonder why her sister had such little faith that she'd get her cutie mark if she was just patient.
Oh well, no time to worry about her right now. I must CREATE!!!
Turning her head back to her desk and picking up the quill with her magic, Rarity began brainstorming her character. At first, she wanted her character to be a human world-renowned fashionista, but then she remembered what Twilight said regarding self-inserts. So she decided to go a different route altogether and shape the character into her vision of a real gentlecolt, or gentleman in this case. Thinking back to all of her romance novels she'd read over the years, Rarity listed all the necessary attributes for her idyllic male: 1. Likes to take charge and lead. 2. Is strong in both body and mind. 3. Is willing to stand up for those he loves. 4. Is a true hero.
While brainstorming for a possible name, Rarity thought back to the boulder Discord tricked her into fawning over by making it appear to her as a diamond; Tom. Exactly where that name came from was a bit blurry in the unicorn's mind. All Rarity remembered was that she'd made the name up on the spot when confronted by Twilight. Now that she thought about it, however, Tom seemed like a good name for her character; Rarity's only fear was what the rest of her friends would think regarding her thoughts towards Tom the boulder.
No, they're not like that, she thought. I need to trust that they won't misjudge me.
With the first name taken care of, Rarity began focusing on coming up with a suitable last name for Tom the human. She quickly decided to give Tom an Irish background as (secretly) Rarity had long wondered what it'd be like to let loose for a night and drink herself into a stupor. She then decided to have Tom reside in the U.S.A. so he could have a perspective on both western continents of Europe and North America, and it was from this that Tom's last name was derived: Westman.
"Now to visualize him," Rarity said as she used her magic to levitate some drawing supplies onto the desk.
For the first time in her life, Pinkie Pie was at a loss for answers. The pink party pony was quite possibly the most knowledgeable of her friends when it came to solving problems; the most prominent example being her role in the parasprite incident. Pinkie never shared it with anypony, but the secret behind her knowledge was rooted in her insistence on befriending literally everypony she came across. The way she saw it, "The more friends one has, the more they learn in life."
Currently, however, Pinkie couldn't call upon any of her experiences to help her create an original character for Twilight's sequel to HUMAN. She DID want to have her character spread joy and happiness to everyone around them, but she heeded Twilight's warning about self-inserting into a story.
"Oops, my bad!"
Pinkie looked up from her parchment to the window. Outside, she caught a passing glimpse of a certain gray pegasus looking apologetically down towards the ground before rushing in that direction. Pinkie trotted over to the window and opened it. Looking down, she saw Ditzy "Derpy" Doo sulking in front of Sweetie Drops who appeared to have been knocked unconscious by an enormous package Ditzy was delivering.
"Hiya there Ditz!" Pinkie called to the mailmare.
Ditzy looked up at Pinkie with one eye while the other wandered aimlessly. She smiled.
"Hi Pinkie!"
"Is Sweetie Drops alright?"
Ditzy looked down at the unconscious confectioner. "I think so. I guess I should get her to the hospital before finishing my rounds."
"You do that," Pinkie said.
Ditzy scooped Sweetie and the package onto her back and, with a smile and a wave goodbye to Pinkie, began cantering towards Ponyville Hospital.
While Pinkie liked everypony she attempted to befriend, Ditzy was special to her. The gray mailmare was like Pinkie in many ways; they both had bubbly personalities, they both always looked on the bright side of life, and they were both often misunderstood, albeit for different reasons. One big difference, however, (one that pained Pinkie to admit) was that while Pinkie was self aware of the darkness alongside the light, Ditzy was . . . well, ditzy. The mailmare had a sheltered upbringing due to her parents being worried about other foals' attitudes toward her lazy eyes. As a result, Ditzy was very naive and childlike compared to most mares her age. Pinkie, however, envied her in this regard. Pinkie's upbringing had been lackluster in more ways than Ditzy's; while Ditzy had a joyous family to make up for her lack of friends, Pinkie had neither for her entire foalhood. Her family never had interest in seeing the world and all the different kinds of ponies inhabiting it, only in their legacy as rock farmers. As a result, Pinkie's foalhood had been stoic and boring; even the parties she threw for her family on a regular basis weren't enough to change things.
As Pinkie closed the window and trotted back to her desk, she had a stroke of brilliance. For her human character, she would combine the better qualities of both her and Ditzy. The end result would be someone who had Ditzy's joyous upbringing along with Pinkie's awareness and ability to easily befriend their peers. With the character nailed down, Pinkie next needed to give them a name. First, Pinkie decided to make her character a female. Next, she searched the dark recesses of her mind for a suitable name for this human female. After several agonizing minutes of running through possible names, she settled on "Sarah" for the first name and "Allen" for the last.
With that all taken care of, Pinkie trotted over to her bed and proceeded to pass out with the intention of resting her exhausted brain until she got her "Pinkie Strength" back.
"Woah nelly, this is a mite harder than ah thought it'd be."
Applejack laid on her bed with her parchment in front of her on a sheet of wood (she had no desk to use), quill in mouth, and frustration clearly apparent on her face. She had never been the creative type, evident with her previous troubles in contributing to HUMAN, and now she had to create a human character from scratch. AJ thought long and hard, but no matter what she couldn't decide on a central characteristic to base her human around. With a sigh, she trotted over to the window and opened it, believing a little fresh air might help get the gears in her brain turning.
Applejack stared out at the vast fields of Sweet Apple Acres in admiration. Granny Smith always used to say that the farm started out ridiculously small back when she was AJ's age; only about a dozen or so apple trees, not counting the Zap Apple's. What began as a small bundle of trees, however, had grown into a full blown orchard in less than a hundred years with the average apple count reaching about fifty-three thousand, five hundred and ninety-four every year. Sweet Apple Acres was, however, a commodity. All the rest of AJ's relatives didn't possess orchards anywhere near as large as her family's, and much of Equestria remained lacking apple trees altogether. With that thought, AJ began fantasizing herself traveling the country, planting apple trees everywhere she went, only to come back after a year to find them fully grown and sporting dozens of juicy, bright red apples, ready to be made into sweet apple cider.
Of course, I don't have time for that.
With a sigh, AJ closed the window and returned to her bed. Suddenly, an idea struck.
But a certain anonymous human just might, she thought with a smile.
Grabbing the quill in her mouth, AJ wrote out her character's bio.
Meet Johnny "Appleseed" Chapman of Massachusetts, a kind pioneer on a mission: spread the love and growth of apple orchards everywhere he goes. Mr. Chapman strives to get the best out of what his wandering simple life can give him, and seeks to instill his love of apples, animals, and companionship into everyone he befriends. While he is a most kindred spirit, Johnny Appleseed is a bit eccentric: instead of wearing a hat like other folk, he dons a cooking pot atop his mane. The reason for this is known only to him, and he intends on keeping it a secret all throughout his life. Even so, by the time he's reached his end, he'll have planted more than 100,000 apple trees across 5 states and befriended hundreds upon hundreds of fellow humans.
Upon finishing she looked over her hoofwork in admiration, proud to finally be done with what she deemed 'the hard part'. Sighing in contentment, Applejack put down the quill and laid back on her pillow for some rest. She still had a ways to go before her vignette was complete, but now she was confident she could get it done by the end of the week.
2284697
yes that is what I think too, especially because Buddhism is a big part of many eastern nations history and culture.
HAW
AH WON!
yeah no I'm not like that. Good to see my suggestion was used! Or someone else's who made the same one! Or something! I don't know! Why am I yelling!
Though I do still wonder about Ghandi... He's kind of a major figure, he feels like someone Twilight should have mentioned during the rest of her work. Johny Appleseed, Tom-whatshisface, Sarah Allan... None of them are as important to the world in general as Ghandi is(yes yes, the number of appletrees and prevalence of apples in our diet is likely largely due to ol' Johny, but all he did was plant a bunch of apple trees, and there's still debate on his realness factor.)
Jeeze. How long has it been since I watched the Johnny Appleseed cartoon short?
Has to have been years!
BOOM then a human from the year 2557 shows up because one of his battle ships was shot down...and well. Yeah. You know the rest from there.
IDK I would be entertained in reading Twi's reaction to humans existing.
And then you going all meta and saying MLP was made by Lauren Faust. Mind explosion.
Funny thing about your friends name. It is the same as an actress. Look
johnny appleseed......
I KNEW IT!!!!
just a Q, are the mane 6 going to write about the books that we wrote (what their like {gore, funny, romantic, action}) or other things that we have (video games, movies, economy drops, crazy talk{alien invaders})
also UPDATE HELL YA
Was expecting fluttershy's to be mother Theresa, but Gandhi works just as well
Princess 'Trollestia' should create Gave Newell
2285188 By all means, write that fanfic. I'd love to read it.
2285242 I believe it; it's a common full name.
2285499 No, but there's nothing stopping you and anyone else reading this story from doing so.
Why am I somehow expecting Twilight's "character" to be either Socrates, Stephen Hawking, or even a living Nicholas Flamel. Not Albert Einstein because it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest to have her having mentioned him during the WWII arc of the book. I honestly expecting Fluttershy's to either be Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr. Not surprised for AJ's or RD's. Never seen enough Survivor to remember the host's name. And Sarah Allen is also a Canadian actress.
A small of me wanted RD's to be:
f0.bcbits.com/z/17/90/1790745421-1.jpg
d24w6bsrhbeh9d.cloudfront.net/photo/2749008_700b.jpg
static.fjcdn.com/large/pictures/fd/8a/fd8ac1_962897.jpg
2285790 oh....ah who cares just give us more chapters and we will be pleased
Sarah Allen...I think I know that name from somewhere....A strange thing, considering it can sometimes take me MONTHS to memorize someone's name!
2285188 2285764
Holy crap that would be awesome.
Someone write that, hell i would even help.
2285880 Tom Westman was the winner of Survivor's tenth season.
2287342 Go ahead.
2287362
Too busy to take the front seat on this thing.
I would love to but i just can't.
knew it would be Gandhi...
My brain hurts from this fic, I love it, but it just hurts my head!!!
2287462 Not that Fluttershy's predictability is a bad thing. *non-existent happy Angel Bunny emoticon*
2287526 Me: "SUCCESS!!!
I had a feeling that Johnny Appleseed was going to be Applejack's character. It fits with her.
Not to mention that one of Pinkie Pie's clones called her "AppleJohn."
Using Johnny Chapman for AJ's character was a stroke of simple brilliance. Yeah, much better than Mr. Lincoln.
Only thing is, there is no fcking way you can leave Spike out of the picture now. If the rest of the ponies are creating characters, he deserves one as well. He needs to contribute, damn it!
I'm thinking his mind would be morbid enough to produce Jack the Ripper or Richard Nixon. Perhaps wild enough to conjure up the idea of Penn and Teller or the idea of Star Wars. And it's possible he has some issues about being the only dragon among ponies and comes up with Martin Luther King, Jr.
Wait, wait ... Bruce Lee! Spike contributes an amazing man and film star who revolutionized martial arts.
Not that I expect you to care very much, but if he misses out on inserting something into HUMAN now that it's reached this point, my enjoyment is gonna go downhill pretty fast.
2290691 I'll consider it.
2291226 Please do. I think Rainbow Dash and Spike would love coming up with the idea that their two legendary characters had a once-in-a-lifetime fight.
There's something I forgot to mention last chapter: when you typed,
my first thought was that the sentence would end,
So, Rainbow Dash has the best OC because it's Chuck Norris, and Fluttershy has second best OC. But everypony else? I have no idea who those people are, or I didn't until I looked 'em up and looked at author's notes.
Umm... can you have one of the last of these characters that the mane six are making a bad guy. You know, to help add in some diversity.
2294430 No bad guys are coming, but I chose a variety of people from different aspects of life when selecting their characters, so diversity shouldn't be an issue.
2294708 Okay then how about someone with a bit more of a tragic, or hard lifestyle. Like Anne Frank, or Vincent Van Gogh.
Nice use of the Human Myth and Legends.
I'm interested to see RD's OC... Should be fun!!
Really? A Dead Rising reference? I didn't expect that from this story.
Also, there is an actress named Sarah Allen, though that's probably just a coincidence.
I was sort of expecting Pinkie's to be Patch Adams for a moment there. Interesting story so far, great concept.
Dude, you need to write Lyra's fan fic. I... This inception must happen. Turn fimfiction into a 4th wall gate. Muahahaha... I mean uhh... stuff.
Johnny Appleseed?
A frikkin red and black striped alicorn would call that a cliche.
Well, whatever works...
Sarah Pallen?
I LOVE THIS! You deserve 10 mustaches!
2324198 Don't know why I didn't reply to this all those months ago. Her OC was Chuck Norris.
So they're not creating our world, just one nearly identical. JA beat crap out of people a lot. He was also a bit dishonest, tricking others into serving his ends. And from the way AJ treats her trees, you'd think she could talk to them. JA killed as many trees as he planted. Or at least nearly as many. WW 1 was Central Powers vs Allied Powers not Central Powers vs Entente(I think that's what she said) Powers, and the US stayed out of it. And there's the "Clap your hands if you believe" which can only be described as magic. So there are at least four differences.
I like the premise, very meta.
Dissapointed that Applejack's character isn't Norman Borlaug.
Pinkie's character should have been Nicolas Cage.
I know that Cheese Sandwich was introduced after this fic was written, but it'll be the grandest of all grand metas if Pinkie's character is Weird Al Yankovic.