Pony Fanfiction Thread

It's a bit rough, but I've got a new draft ready for feedback.

Terrible plot bunny: After losing the Alicorn Amulet, Trixie develops withdrawal symptoms—her magic stops working correctly from suddenly going cold turkey. In order to stop the effects, she borrows a different Amplifier Artifact from Twilight, so that she can taper the effects and get her magic back to normal.

Can either be a Comedy (Trixie has to use magic all over the place and it annoys the town) or a Drama (Trixie has to try and restrain herself, even though using magic feels amazing).

Maybe Trixie could become the Reginald Cousins of this setting, with a Fantastic Drug in the form of MAGIC!

It's rare that a man make Loveable Drug Addict a trope just on his own, but I think "Bubbles" pulled it off.

She proceeds to display all the stereotypical traits of the e-cigarette smoker, including a scarf and a pretentious attitude. The latter at least is very much in-character for her...

What, those already have a stereotype? That was way fast! I thought I was perpetually out-of-date regarding fandom "stereotypes" (the term is often applied to elements that were used once or twice!), but now I'm out of synch with the Real World too!

Curses! No wonder I can't find a double-breasted suit!

I will reiterate that I haven't seen The Wire, and thus have no idea what you are talking about.

The show already did that joke with Beret!Rarity

edited 12th Feb '15 3:23:43 PM by CleverPun

It's all in the Wikipedia article that I linked to.

Bubbles is a heroin addict and petty thief (the kind that steals fallen lamp-posts to sell them for their weight in aluminium) that is an extremely sympathetic Nice Guy besides. He's helpful, humble, compassionate, responsible, always willing to help a newbie, younger addict learn how to live on the streets, and an extremely competent informant/snitch for the police. He nevertheless has a tendency to be the recipient of horrible events, mostly on account of being a defenceless vagrant, and thus an easy target, but also sheer bad luck.

His struggle to survive as an addict on the street, and to clean up his act, are a constant subplot throughout the five seasons.

Through his eyes, we see the world of a drug fiend as... a pretty terrible place, really, but one with definite spots of warmth and humanity here and there.

Berets aren't pretentious unless you're wearing them to look like Kerouac, in the same way that Trillbies and trench-coats aren't unless you're trying to look like Bogart, and flannel shirts aren't unless you're trying to look like an Appalachian miner or lumberjack. All of these are perfectly legitimate pieces of clothing on their own.

edited 12th Feb '15 3:35:12 PM by TheHandle

Really, I see any instance of headgear being worn just for "style" rather than practical/occupational/religious/etc. reasons as an annoying bid for attention.

Who wants the last two chapters of Alarm Clock? They've got Princess Moonbutt, a nice job offer, and Book Ends. Bam!

Merry Muffin Monday, everypony!

DAMN it feels good to have that finished.

I never read Wikipedia articles about fictional characters; Wikipedia's dry academic style sucks all the life out of fiction. Plus their notability guidelines mean that such articles are usually stuffed with filler.

And the beret was clearly being used as cartoon shorthand for pretentiousness. That was the entire point of that episode.

I remember proofreading the first few chapters of that back when I first joined the thread. Grats on finally getting it done

edited 12th Feb '15 3:47:14 PM by CleverPun

I don't see bids for attention as inherently annoying. However, if you're trying to look special, there had better be something special about you, otherwise it's "false advertisement". Although there can be misunderstandings, of course.

But style for the sake of style isn't reprehensible unto itself, otherwise everyone would dress with English suits (they put the b in subtle, use understated colours and patterns, and emphasize perfect tailoring and high-quality fabric... the English dandy wants to blend in and be noticed only by those who deserve to and know what details to look for) rather than Italian ones (tight cuts, flashy elements, busy patterns, shorter trouser legs... the Italian dandy wants to catch the eye right away, screw subtlety, and perfect fitting is a secondary concern).

What was the point of that episode?

edited 12th Feb '15 3:50:18 PM by TheHandle

Rich elitist are brain dead morons who will blindly follow along with anypony they deem to have a higher social standing them themselves? But even among them, you can get the occasional just all around Nice Guy who thinks for himself, and can easily lead the morons around?

Also, don't fucking lie to your friends.

Finding the balance between fitting in with the crowd you want to join, and staying true to your roots.

Or that, yeah guess that one kind of counts too.

That post could stand to be phrased in a more civil manner, don't you think?

Also, notice how Fancy Pants only started paying Rarity attention after she said she was saying at the Princess's. He is self-interested, but intelligently and subtly so.

As for the rest, well, a herd mentality is hardly new among ponies.

Funambule!

edited 12th Feb '15 4:11:28 PM by TheHandle

The point of that episode was to be classist propaganda, but starring best pony. This is in distinct contrast to classist propaganda starring all the ponies, or the classist propaganda starring Applejack.

edited 12th Feb '15 4:02:21 PM by CleverPun

He was still pleasant to her, nice, and just all around not a douche at all even before that. Yeah hearing she knew the Princess peaked his interest, but given there are likely thousands of ponies in the city, he can hardly be expected to take a personal interest in every single one of them he bumps into without something to give him the initial spark of interest.

And past that, he never seemed to treat her in anyway special or suck up or anything, and willing to simply accept her for who she was. Her knowing the Princesses was just that tiny little detail that made her stand out enough for him to really notice her out of the background.

@Clever Pun: I left a big A/N on the last chapter, thanking you and everyone else who helped me with editing.

Oh my goodness oh my goodness Alarm Clock is in the featured box oh my goodness!◊

<remembers how many crappy stories have also been featured> Oh, I made myself sad.

Classist propaganda? Please elaborate!

Not even the decadent Equestrian aristocracy are immune to the dialetic. Soon, they shall be wiped away into the ashes of history by Rarity and her superior capitalist economic system, and only then will Equestria's proletariat be able to establish a true socialist state!

I'm not sure my limited involvement warranted mention, but thanks

The show has an obvious pattern of showing wealthy ponies in a negative light, and conflating the middle class with "positive" values.

Examples include, but are not limited to; "Suited for Success", "Green Isn't Your Color", "The Best Night Ever", "Sisterhooves Social", "Sweet and Elite", "Family Appreciation Day", and "Rarity Takes Manehattan".

It's not really surprising or unexpected, though; a lot of (dare I say most) American media has an identical bias.

It's little wonder that the nobles are universally jerks in fan fiction, because that is exactly the narrative the show promotes.

@Meta: Congrats.

To be fair, there are a lot of Real Life examples of rich people being at best out of touch with the rest of humanity and at worst outright bigoted against anyone not of their "class". It's just hard to take a very rich, successful character and make them relateable to to an audience that's almost certainly comprised primarily of middle and lower class viewers. The only general exception to that are characters who do lots of menial labor anyway despite their wealth, or characters who are explicitly shown working their way up the ladder. A character who starts at the top and isn't seen actively putting effort in is very hard to write sympathetically.

edited 12th Feb '15 5:17:52 PM by JapaneseTeeth

How did most of those portray "the upper class" in a 'negative light"? Hell most of them did the oppostie, or weren't evn close to hinting at it.

The only one's that would count are Sweet and Elite, and Best Night Ever to a lesser degree.

Suited? How? Because Hoity Toity was appalled at the horrendous initial designs? And yet, was chill enough to come for a second show, and did nothing but praise Rarity's work?

Green? okay so Photo Finish is a but on the high power control freak side, but hardly a douche about it. Or even painted in a bad light for it. Soon as Fluttershy stood up and told her no, she backed off, didn't try to force her to stay, and only went as far as she did, because Fluttershy never complained about it. Plus it gave us Sapphire Shores, whose an all around awesome pony.

Siserhooves? Ummm, because the prim and proper rarity would rather not do the race? Umm, no seriously, what did any of that have to do with 'class' anything?

Family? Yeah Filthy rich is a bit of a bore, and rather stuffy, but still a pretty okay guy, if really boring.

Rarity? Again what? The only asshole there was Suri, who was in the same league as Rairty.

So yeah, what?

The only 'elite' that are shown to be useless assholes, are the unicorn elite in Canterlot itself. And that, only in two episodes. Three if you count Trenderhoof as one.

Tony Stark says hi. That was apparently one of the initial reasons Stan Lee created Iron Man, as a challenge to see if he could do just that.

edited 12th Feb '15 5:19:29 PM by Seraphem

Yes, but considering FIM was originally rated EI and was ostensibly designed to teach children lessons, seeing them fall back on such destructive stereotypes is still troubling.

As a general pattern, wealthy ponies in FIM are portrayed as either fickle, mean, or incompetent. The exceptions have very generic personalities and little characterization. The contrast between them and the other classes is problematic because it downplays the good qualities of the nobility and exaggerates the positive qualities of the other classes. It also uses the classic stereotype of conflating money with emotional distance.

That's not to say the other classes are portrayed universally positively, of course. The citizens of Ponyville have their share of xenophobia and ignorance. But they get other moments and qualities that balance it out. The upper class gets individuals that break the pattern and a majority that follow it, instead of having class-wide flaws and positives.

Part of this might be the scope of the show, but that's hardly a valid excuse considering how often the characters interact with the upper classes.

Sidebar; Tony Stark would be a good example if he was written well, as-is he's just boring or a douchebag depending on the writer

also; as per my usual rule, Seraphem, I'm not going to respond to more than one post by you, because of your tendency to stubbornly ignore counter-arguments.

As a general pattern, wealthy ponies in FIM are portrayed as either fickle, mean, or incompetent.

Such as? Outside the snobs in Sweet and Elite, and Blueblood, when was this? How is it a general pattern, when there is only one episode of a large number of them, and one individual outside of that which matches? Okay two now, Trenderhoof. But nothing was made about his 'class' or money, or anything besides him simply being a pretentious twit.

The exceptions have very generic personalities and little characterization. Such as? In comparison to other one shot character.

The contrast between them and the other classes is problematic because it downplays the good qualities of the nobility and exaggerates the positive qualities of the other classes. Examples please. Yes yes Sweet and Elite, but outside that and Blueblood? Also, as to "the 'good qualities' Ahem, Celestia and Luna.

It also uses the classic stereotype of conflating money with emotional distance. So that can't actually happen? And we see few that would really count for that either.

That's not to say the other classes are portrayed universally positively, of course. The citizens of Ponyville have their share of xenophobia and ignorance. But they get other moments and qualities that balance it out. The upper class gets individuals that break the pattern and a majority that follow it, instead of having class-wide flaws and positives.

Once again, specific examples. And keep in mind, we see the citizens of Ponyville fairly often, ponies from outside of it much more rarely, so of course there is going to be higher diversity in what see, among the group we see more of.

Sidebar; Tony Stark would be a good example if he was written well, as-is he's just boring or a douchebag depending on the writer Now, yeah. But back then, it was a pretty big deal how popular he was, despite being what he was.

also; as per my usual rule, Seraphem, I'm not going to respond to more than one post by you, because of your tendency to stubbornly ignore counter-arguments.

Maybe because said 'counter-arguemnets' are nothing but broad generalities and suppositions, with no actual facts, or examples to back them up.

Instead of trying to counter with nothing but generalities, why not reply to the actual question, and give specific examples of how those episodes in question portray this view.

edited 12th Feb '15 6:05:56 PM by Seraphem