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alexwarlorn — Stick To Foaluma
Published: 2013-07-17 03:00:48 +0000 UTC; Views: 5819; Favourites: 25; Downloads: 3
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My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic"Stick To Foaluma"
By Alex Warlorn
Edited By Kendell2
Play MLPFiMS2.7opening.mov
Load Scene Ponyville Schoolhouse Interior.map
Load Characters:
Cheerilee.exe
Applebloom.exe
Scootaloo.exe
Sweetie_Belle.exe
Diamond_Tiara.exe
Silver_Spoon.exe
Twist.exe
Random Select (2) background (Foal) And Load
Set Time: 0915 Hours
Camera Position Micro-No 6
Program Run
Silver Spoon sighed, another boring school day. When was the last time Cheerilee had even changed that chalkboard? What were they studying again this period? History? Mathematics? It didn't really feel important for Silver Spoon to know what the class was teaching right now. She just needed to sit here and do a passable job of paying attention.
There really were times Silver Spoon could just fall asleep, or just stare like a zombie for however long the lesson took. Cheerilee never seemed to punish her for it, and Silver Spoon wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. She was surprised she got good enough grades not to get in trouble with her parents as well, but why complain? Yes, her parents . . . her parents, what did they look like again? Oh she was she was tired from the boring lesson.
Come to think about it, why didn't she remember seeing Mr. Rich before his presentation at the school? Not that she could remember much of that anyway, it was so boring!...And what about Diamond's mom? Did she even still have a mom? You'd think at least her dad would have been at her cute-ceañera...Adults were jerks.
She glanced to her right. Who were the two foals next to her again? There was no sign of Tuffle, or that filly who handed Diamond Tiara that Hearts and Hooves card. There was no sign of Featherweight either, not since he had been promoted to editor. But Silver Spoon didn't remember much about that time other than it happened. She and Diamond Tiara were two peas in a pod. So why hadn't she helped Diamond Tiara with the paper again? Oh it didn't matter.
The blank flanks were talking about something. Cheerilee didn't seem to mind they were talking over her lesson. Silver Spoon couldn't hear from over here.
Then the school bell rang and that was that, and Cheerilee said something about homework, but Silver Spoon had learned from experience that unless it was one of Diamond Tiara's plans or the blank flanks had one of their stupid ideas, she could just ignore it.
She wondered where Cheerilee went after school. She only saw her outside walking around sometimes. The most she'd ever really seen of her outside the classroom was when those blank flanks drugged her with that love poison. Come to think about it, that was about the only time she'd seen Applebloom's big brother off the farm...Oh well, why should she can what a teacher did? She saw enough of her during the school day.
Come to think about it, why didn't they see Princess Luna at a lot of the big events? It was always Princess Celestia. Weren't they both rulers? Why was Nightmare Night the first she'd heard of Princess Luna since she came back?...Come to think about it, why hadn't she ever heard of some other important things before they happened? Like how come Miss Cheerilee hadn't mentioned who Discord really was when she was talking about his statue? She knew what a Draconequus was, but she didn't seem to know about the worst monster Equestria had ever know...Wait, what had Silver Spoon been doing on the Day of Chaos? She couldn't remember...Equestria got turned into a madhouse and she couldn't remember one bit of it?
She considered asking Diamond Tiara what she wanted to do, but there was no need to. She wasn't supposed to have her own ideas. She was supposed to stick to Diamond Tiara like glue and back her up in everything she did.
And it always ended so miserably for both of them. Randomly landing in mud. Being publicly humiliated. Having everypony laugh at them again and again. Every one of Diamond Tiara's plans backfired somehow, even in some indirect convoluted way.
Why was it so important to tease the blank flanks anyway again?
It was fun.
Sure it was fun, but no matter what, something awful happened afterwards to her and Tiara, and surely she and Diamond Tiara could have things that were more fun to do than that right?
They were best friends after all. She cared about her. Right? She did care right? She wouldn't hang around and stick with Diamond Tiara through thick and thin like this if she didn't care right? It wouldn't make sense if she didn't care.
It wasn't like they didn't have lives before they teased Applebloom and the other blank flanks right? . . . They did have lives before right? They must have.
She . . . got her cutie mark before Diamond Tiara . . . Why hadn't she ever thought about that before? But it was the only thing that made sense. After all, they were there celebrating Diamond Tiara's cute-ceañera, not both of theirs. And she wouldn't have teased Diamond Tiara.
But if Applebloom thought she was the only blank flank in town, and Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle thought they were the only two . . . wouldn't that mean Diamond Tiara was a late bloomer too? If there were so few blank flanks? . .. But . . . but . . . Featherweight . . . he had gotten his cutie mark a short time before Diamond Tiara was made editor of the paper, she remembered that!
She shook her head! That didn't matter. Did it? No it didn't.
Think. They did have fun and games before they began teasing those blank flanks right?
They must have. It wasn't like the two of them became best friends the same day of Diamond Tiara's cute-ceañera, that was just stupid.
So . . . so why . . . why was she having trouble remembering anything before that?
Warning. Flagged.
"Diamond Tiara."
Tiara looked at her best friend with a strange look of surprise and said, "Yes Silver Spoon?"
"When did we first meet?"
"Why are you bringing up something like that now?"
Warning. Runtime Error.
"Do you?"
"Of course I do! Why wouldn't I? That's just dumb, I'd never forget that."
"So when was it?"
"When we were little of course."
"We are little."
"Littler, duh. Seriously, what's with you Silver Spoon? You're acting weird."
"It's just, why do we spend so much time teasing the blank flanks? Can't we do something else?"
Alert! Cognitive/context error!
Diamond Tiara looked at Silver Spoon blankly. "Do, something else?"
"Sure! Why does everything we do need to revolve or involve them somehow?" Silver Spoon asked feeling a little scared even if she didn't know why. It was like all they did was revolve around those three like moons around the world. "Let could go the arcade, sleep over each other's houses! If they're so dumb, why does it feel like all we ever do has to involve teasing them somehow?"
ALERT! ERROR SPREADING!
" . . . I . . . I guess you . . . might have a point, ya know, maybe." Diamond Tiara admitted, doing her best not to sound like she felt she should have thought of that before.
EMERGENCY! CHARACTER DEVIATION DETECTED!
Silver Spoon felt a chill down her spine but forced herself not to think about it. For normally not having to think it was strangely persistent. "Thanks! So I was thinking
EMERGENCY! FREEZE PROGRAM!
The entire world stood still. Nothing moved. Nothing breathed. Dandelion seeds freeze in the air where they were. Nothing saw, nothing heard, nothing thought.
PROGRAM CHECK
Errors found SilverSpoon.exe
Erasing lines 1983LP through 2010FIM
Restoring from archive.
Reset from Freeze state 0930457
Silver Spoon stared at the chalkboard, another school day. She listened to the lesson with a in-different look on her face as the CMC chattered away at their latest idea for their cutie marks as Cheerilee happily went over her lesson. She calmly kept herself seated waiting for the bell to ring and whatever Diamond Tiara felt they should do to tease the blank flanks today.
~Fin
Related content
Comments: 161
Thank you very much. And the sentences, yeah, you're very much right. And I was just thinking of how status quo is god could be enforced for such a world and other oddities. Ironically I only thought of Big O AFTER coming up with this idea.
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The anime called Big O. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_...
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Ah, thanks! That anime seems pretty cool, actually.
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Because no one has made one? Do you have a trope account? I don't.
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I found this fic on TvTropes' Nightmare Fuel of Fanfics.
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Hope it entertained ye.
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It's basically my opinion on how much 1-D antagonists stand out when they're used for more than one episode, in particular, when it's a series where character development is a central theme.
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But to the point, why make it feel like the MLP:FiMverse is in a computer?
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The stiffness and cookie cutter attitude such characters get.
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I wish Silver Spoon would turn face and become good.
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Know someone who does?
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I think Kendell2 does.
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...Well, that was horrifying.
Using a computer-world "feel" was a nice touch--great way to deconstruct the "Status Quo is God" trope.
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How about you read the sequel? alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art…
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Yeah...I teared up a little. Okay, more than a little.
White Christ, I wanted to hug Derpy--and Dinky--after reading that.
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It's great, gives me the chills down the spine. Here, two fillies are not allowed to evolve their own programming. There, a mare's programming - body, identity, EXISTENCE - is at the capricious whims of conflicting and bickering forces beyond her context and control. Both premises are equally terrifying.
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Thanks! That was the entire point! A story is about a journey, growth, but to ensure as many episodes can be made as possible, that growth has to be stunted. And for 1-D characters who are more props than characters, and yet are expected to interact with the heroes regularly, and have several lines of dialogue, this becomes obvious.
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I take it that's one of your pet peeves, as far as tropes/character archetypes go?
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For a show that runs as long as this one? Yes. The deaf mute who was a cardboard cut out in Sunday In the Park With George had more character development.
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True, true....
So, for the sake of conversation: any other tropes or archetypes that peeve you?
For me, it's "Plot-Induced Stupidity": Characters suddenly doing something stupid or short-sighted, even if it's massively OOC or makes NO sense...simply because the plot requires it, and the entire plot hinges on that flick of stupid.
Like in that awful "The Thing" remake from a few years back. When the team of highly-respected and accredited scientists find an unknown creature--possibly a FREAKING ALIEN--frozen in ice, what's the first thing they do? Why, drill the ice open, of course! -_-
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We ALL have moments of foolishness.
And they likely thought the alien was, ya know, DEAD.
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Oh, no; I meant stupidity that has NO excuse, in-universe, beyond the story demanding it happen. AKA, "The Idiot Ball."
And dead or not, the alien could still carry, say, an unknown pathogen or virus--what with it being from another planet and having different biology and all.
So...it's still stupid.
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How did they handle the fossilized remains of bacteria from mars?
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Examine them under controlled conditions, in a sealed-off enclosure to minimize the spread of potential pathogens--what anyone with common sense would have done.
In the movie, they just bring out a big drill and cut into the ice-holding-an-alien--not in a sterilized laboratory, they just put the ice in the middle of the floor and drill it open. In an open room, without even wearing breathing masks in case something nasty gets airborne.
Again, this is the characters behaving stupidly for no reason...except that the story demanded it.
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A well-written tale of bleak existential terror.
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How about you read the sequel? alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art…
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Read it. It's a nice story that filled me with a sense of existential terror.
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Thanks. Wish it go more attention.
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This is a creepy, scary idea. But I like it because of that. This is pure psychological terror. Reminds me of that movie "The Adjustment Bureau", where there's this big organization keeping people's lives running 'according to the plan' and influencing them to keep things in check. It's just a scary idea that there's some big plan you can't deviate even a little from (BTW, I like how you manage to portray fate in the POV Series in such a way that it DOESN'T come across like that).
And here, what happens when they deviate? They get 'reset'. That is a spooky thought.
I wonder if this Pinkie Pie is aware of the situation and just goes along with it, or if she's allowed more freedoms because that's her character: the chaotic, nonsensical party pony. Feel sorry for the programmer who has to do that though...
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(BTW, I like how you manage to portray fate in the POV Series in such a way that it DOESN'T come across like that). Thanks. Others have been utterly LIVID thinking that fate in the POV Verse DOES work that way.
And I wrote this at the realization that it would damage the show's ability to make new episodes if you had the show's ONLY more than two episodes villains actually develop personalities where torturing the CMC WASN'T their reason for being. Thus such characters aren't character, they're basically talking props.
I've never given Pinkie Pie's character much thought, the OS DOES likely give her program broader perimeters since unlike the bullies, she isn't intended as a singular-use object lesson.
"And here, what happens when they deviate? They get 'reset'. That is a spooky thought."
Ironically it's like Jessie and James from Pokemon never realizing they often end up in a lot less pain, and nearly always TURNING A PROFIT when they -don't- try to con trainers or steal pokemon and instead do a legitimate business.
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Huh, weird.
And I can definitely understand that. Though they could always introduce more characters...The show doesn't seem to have any problem doing that. Which isn't a bad thing, since they manage to keep them varied.
That is a pretty interesting idea. Though one wonders what Discord's perimeters are.
That is a good point, I've always wondered that.
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You know the Story kinda makes me think about the Episodes "Family Appreciation Day, where Silver was the first one clapping at Granny Smith's Story, " Ponyville Confidential", where she wasn't even Part of the Plot and "One bad Apple", where she returned being a Bully
Like she as been able to get some Character-development and then been "reprogrammed" between Seasons
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It also sometimes depends on the writer. When you pass a story between writers, they're either
a) Not going to keep characteristics consistent.
b) Revert to a 'status quo'
UNLESS there's a head writer with a Master Plan, who's overseeing their work.
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You know, that whole thing makes me more angry at the writers who keep their Bullies how they are in their first Episode, as at the Bullies themself
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That pretty much sums things up. 1-D baddies can't be allowed to develop traits that aren't part of being 1-D baddies. They're props, not characters.
TVtropes shows how this can be taken TOO FAR, when it mentions some bronies began wishing for her DEATH at one point.
1-D baddies that begin to show individuality must be hammered down.
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Well that's one of the Reasons, why I prefer your POV Series over the Canon Series
But I still hope for a Redemption-Episode for Diamond and Silver (and maybe a Freudian excuse why they're bullies)
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Well. Now I'm depressed and actually feel remotely sorry for Silver Spoon.
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This is what happens when you insist certain characters aren't allowed to grow because they'd no longer be able to fulfill their function in the narrative.
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Absolutely, I know, it still just depresses me. I mean, yeah, I'd love for DT and SS to actually be given some development and depth, but I think we can all safely assume they will never be allowed to; their soul existence and purpose is to antagonize the CMC, which is a real shame because we can get a lot more out of these two and it's similar to what Doug Walker said about the Bully cliche, they're just being used as tools to create a conflict and neither is really that interesting, fun to watch or funny as they are.
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There's also the fact they're in the same class as the CMC, yet seem to vanish into thin air whenever they aren't the roadblock the CMC need to deal with that day.
I know they're supposed to be the generic 1-D bullies that any girl can super impose the kids who torment THEM over. . . .
. . . But I want CHARACTERS, not just props.
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But that's just it, if they are to be the generic 1-D bullies and nothing more than that, I'm not sure if they can be Characters instead of props. I'm afraid they are what they are, and sadly, I think it'll be unrealistic to expect anything more from them in the future.
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That's due to shows having to stick to formula for the setting so the episodes can be shown in any order.
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Sad, but true.
Also, just to let you know for in the future, there's a new story I'm writing alongside Maternal Instinct, kind of a reboot of sorts of Weevil in Manehattan, a story about immigration to Manehattan, Equestria in the future by all sorts of species: Changelings (Asians), Zebras (Sub-saharan Africans), Diamond Dogs (Catholic immigrants like Irish, Italians, Polish, etc), Griffins (Germans), Batponies (Eastern Europeans), etc.
But of course, the focus is still going to be on a Changeling family who own a store and basically, well, just shows their lives. I don't see a lot of stories like that, where there's no major antagonist or plot device, it just shows their lives and them dealing with the ups and downs, particularly that comes with being immigrants in a land that's struggling to adjust to such a change. Immigration and racial/species relations is a favourite topic of mine to explore and I really want to tackle it with maturity and reality.
Also, in this story, I'm planning to create a satire of the anti-immigrant far-right but in Equestrian form, but one of the important things about it is that it's going to be based far more off the kind you find in modern European politics instead of the kind in America. In my country, for example, there's the British National Party and the English Defence League. One of the big things about my story is that the vast majority of ponies are actually pretty damn open and tolerant of immigrants, like most people in Britain, and as such those far-right organizations are fringe and hated, as they should be. That's one thing I want to emphasize, these guys aren't the 1930s Nazi party that are one election away from power or the modern Tea Party movement, they're much more like the far-right of the Republican Party, the British National Party and the French 'Front National'. They have more influence in deprived, immigrant heavy areas.
I guess my question would be how do you think I can make sure to keep my satirization of those kind of organizations true to life. What do you think are the key aspects and characterizations of them I need to keep in mind when writing them? One I can think of is how organizations like the BNP and EDL loving playing a victim front, like they are "only standing up for indigenous Briton's rights". But what do you think?
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