Pony Fanfiction Thread

...and a bow tie.

May as well go all the way, right?

I'm having difficulties coming up with a Conversion Bureau/40k crossover. The basic premise is that we have an Armoury World (it basically stores weapons and equipment for the Imperial Guard), that thanks to a clerical error is forgotten for several decades^note If you think that this is unrealistic, I'd like to point out that things like this happen all the time in 40k. As the world falls into anarchy, cultists of Xenolestia and the CB Ponies start to appear, which cumulates in the Barrier(?) appearing, Conversion Bureaus popping up, etc. Of course, by this time, the Imperium just discovered that the planet failed to send in its tithes and to send weapons to the Imperial Guard regiments across the sector, and they send in the troops to "pacify" the "rebellion", and that's basically where things really begin to degenerate. Now the only problem is that "Armoury world rebels, Guard gets sent in" is the basic plot for a canon conflict, the Siege of Vraks. Any ideas on how to change it? I honestly can't think of many situations where any other planet type would do.

edited 22nd Nov '15 11:00:12 PM by SantosLHalper

...Not really. Of course, I'm not as into 40K as some, and you'd probably take the story in a different direction. At the very least, Xenolestia and her ilk are surely the opposite of Chaos....

Anyway, what a weekend. Finally gotten back to This Platinum Crown and Harmony Theory (blog). Though not before stumbling across H'ven Sent and finally starting Triptych, which oddly seem to have different ways of expressing the same strengths and weaknesses. The world of H'ven is an intriguing one, and it's got a plucky protagonist I should be able to sympathize with, but there's just something off-putting about the disinterested, not quite snarky way she describes things at length- much like Under the Northern Lights, the dialogue never quite feels real. Triptych, meanwhile, is as intriguing as ever and fleshes out the ponies we know (and a few we don't yet) well- perhaps too well, with walls of text and extended asides that take a great deal of effort to parse (and I usually don't mind that sort of thing- I guess it's a matter of degree). Yes- Clever was right about something.

For good measure, I also read the first couple chapters of Trinity, the first published and first chronological installment in The Shadow Wars. Also interesting, but like with A Debt to the Stars, it mostly made me want to go back and read its inspiration in the Pony POV Series (in both cases, despite my confidence that the author has set up a viable universe on its own).

And then there's more Oroboro, and more Abyssal Empress, and updates of The Great Alicorn Hunt suddenly coming out the wazoo....

Ooh, and this has a page now.

edited 23rd Nov '15 9:11:59 PM by YamiVizziniX

Xenolestia's a Warp Deity, which would technically make her a Chaos Goddess, but in practice she's the complete opposite. She's the goddess of order, à la the Star Father or the Gods of Law (and Alluminas in particular) from Warhammer Fantasy. She's a parody of what the Imperium has become: a dogmatic, totalitarian autocrat who seeks to either convert those deemed "pure" enough and completely erase their minds of anything other than devotion to her or to destroy everything that fails to meet her standards or refuses having their brains wiped.

edited 23rd Nov '15 9:59:40 PM by SantosLHalper

Yay!

Yeah I get that. Triptych is fascinating, but it does have its flaws.

Oh! I hadn't realised that you'd started A Debt to the Stars yet. Also, interesting, maybe I should try that fic to. (Also, I should say that the main way I'm inspired by POV is fromusing expies of its alicorns in the backstory)

And then there's more Oroboro, and more Abyssal Empress, and updates of The Great Alicorn Hunt suddenly coming out the wazoo.... Ooh, and this has a page now.grin

Triptych's Applejack made me bloody uncomfortable.

Yeah, that largely spoiler-tagged entry under her bio said she was controversial, and from what it shows and its alphabetical placement in the list I think I get the gist of the deal. As I've noted before, a lot of fics try to get mileage out of making her an intolerant bitch. Then again, I'm still thinking of reading Savage Skies someday despite that, since there's so much going on in that. Worst comes to worst, if Triptych ends up bugging me I'll put it off to read alongside that.

Yeah. One of the flaws of Tryptich (and that entire setting) is making the setting darker and with that, making certain characters, including AJ, less ... how do I put it? ... "bright, happy, friend", but for all of A Js issues there, I found her still surprisingly sympathetic.

Meanwhile, the other sequel to Dangerous Business is now on Fimfic.

Hey, what would it be like if the Mane Six fought Him from The Powerpuff Girls?

And for that matter, what would Him and Discord think of each other?

Someone did a dramatic reading of one of my stories.

Sorry, did I say one of my stories? I meant a random feghoot from one of my blog posts.

Lately, I've been trying to come up with plausible short forms of the Mane Six's names that can be used as nicknames for them by human friends, because let's be honest, calling Fluttershy or Applejack by their full names all the time would be rather weird for English-speaking humans. At least they can call Twilight Sparkle "Twi" and Rainbow Dash "Dash(ie)", like a few of the good-quality MLP-FIM fanfics I've read do, even though the former doesn't exactly sit right with me.

So... What do you guys suggest?

I often call Fluttershy "Flutters" and I've heard "Shy". AJ is canon. I've heard "Rares" and I think I've heard "Pinks".

Oh yeah, "Pinkie" already serves a short-form nickname for her full-form given name of "Pinkamena", doesn't it?

What about "Lulu" as an Affectionate Nickname for Fluttershy?

edited 27th Nov '15 7:01:49 AM by MarqFJA

I've seen "Lulu" for Luna.

... Yeah, it fits her better. "Flutters" it is. What about Twilight? Is "Twi" the only short-form nickname in use?

Shining uses 'Twilie'.

But only Shining.

Isn't that similar to how it's pretty much just Pinkie using "Dashie", though? And people have no issues throwing that around on the Internet. I guess it might depend on the circumstances of these particular humans in this particular fic, but I don't really see a problem.

I found a rather harsh condemnation of the whole "Humanity Fuck Yeah" subgenre of anti-Conversion Bureau fics on Sufficient Velocity. This is basically what my thoughts on it are.

The entire genre that spawned out of TCB is a bit of an odd one to me. It's sort of a twisted look at the show in general, not that I have any room to talk about turning things dark for the game of it(Last night I wrote a scene in which Rarity passively but deliberately terrifies a twelve-year-old girl. Admittedly a twelve-year-old girl who broke Sweetie Belle's heart, but still), but the way that it does it is not only a corruption of everything seen in the show, but an aggressively cynical view of things in general, when it isn't outright fucked up.

Like, there's a word for what the ponies are doing, and it's genocide. Even if the 'humans' live, the ponies are deliberately and systematically attempting to wipe out their culture and society. As good as we are in some ways, Canada tried to do that once, and nobody had any illusions about what the intention was, even if they never said it out loud. And, in retrospect, we do admit it. To see one of the darkest parts of my country's history presented as somehow a good thing is frankly disgusting.

It's a concept that invites bile and vitriol on both sides, I think, because it comes down to challenging our sense of self and identity as humans. It's like a war or an invasion story between countries. The straight tellings are a Cultural Cringe sort of thing - oh, of course X culture would beat us into the ground, they're so advanced and strong and we're so shit - and the opposites are therefore nationalistic in response - no, our country is great and strong and pure of values, and we would win the day!

It's all a bit banal and transparent, frankly.

I don't read those sort of fics, so I can't really speak from experience. However, it's true that part of what makes TCB bad is having ponies do things that are out of character and evil and presenting them as good, so having humans do the same would be bad in the same way (possibly less out-of-character due to the prevalence of racism in reality, but still). As far as the wanking is concerned, it's true that most of the public underestimates what real-world weaponry is capable of, but having it conquer Equestria ignores the kind of power that the alicorns display. We can't even blow up planets. That isn't the kind of power that is going to properly threaten Celestia or Luna. Admittedly, TCB writers fall into the same trap of underestimating the kind of power that would be required it do what they do, because otherwise all the humans would already be dead. And I have similar views to Harmony Theory on the power of standard ponies too (which includes a scene with a bullet failing to penetrate a pony's skull. Admittedly, it admits that it could have gone either way and the pony in question was lucky that it wasn't a better hit.)

Which is why when someone asked me about how my version of Celestia would react to encountering Xenolestia, I basically said that she'd rescue the humans and completly stomp Xenolestia and all her allies by herself.

Speaking of the "Humanity, Fuck Yeah!" subgenre, there is a slightly related/similar but otherwise vastly different subgenre where both Equestrians and humanity are depicted as generally good (well, not dominated by Knight Templar types or unabashedly evil villains, for the the humans), but it's the Equestrians that get saved/protected by humanity from a threat that they're hard pressed if not utterly helpless to fight against for some reason or the other. Apparently some stories involve WH40K's Imperium of Man doing the protecting and thus acting with actual moral decency towards what absolutely would be considered as a sapient alien population by their standards for once (that is, considering their usual first resort when confronting such populations).

Anyone know of good fics that fall into this category?

edited 27th Nov '15 3:04:48 PM by MarqFJA

But still, using a affectionate nickname only used by her brother is a lot different then using one that's simply something another friend uses because.. well.. she's Pinkie and likely thinks "Dashie" is simply a more fun name to say. "Twily" simply has a much more intimate connotation to it.

As to TCB yeah that whole thing can go screw itself. Best straight TCB story I read was a one chapter gag bit from The Dresden Fillies where Xenolestia tries to do the whole TCB thing on Harry's Earth... it does not end well for her.

Also Project Sunflower, which is basically taking a lot of cues from TCB, but using them to make a story that WORKS! And is just.. so.. so damn amazing and beautiful.