The Writing On The Wall

May 6, 2018 7:30 AM

"Daring Do can't believe her luck when she is asked to help explore the most ancient tomb known to ponykind." But she's never seen anything like this.
An MLP:FIM fanfiction one shot

"What?" said Rainbow, wings flared, "I can write my own Daring Do stories?"

"Sure. And if you join the fan club, you can get them published in our mailing.

posted by the man of twists and turns (11 comments total)

Clydesdale Pie and the Doom That Came to Ponyville

West of Ponyville, the hills rise wild. It was in these shadowed backroads that Clyde encountered the stranger, warming itself before a small fire.

The stranger was malformed; it hunched forward across the narrow trail, eagerly displaying its wares.

"Here in," declared the stranger, lovingly stroking the black-bound book that it offered to Clyde, "are the secrets of the ancients. The explanation of Time. The pointlessness of Hope. The end of Love. Is this wisdom not worth a few coppers, master?"

Clydesdale Pie gave the wretched creature a few bits. He collected the black book. He considered it. Then tossed the book onto the creature's fire.

"What have you done?!" cried the stranger.

"I have saved your soul and my own," said Clyde, as he continued towards his home.

And the stranger, left in darkness, looked after him. And, in time, it followed.
posted by SPrintF at 9:19 AM on May 6, 2018 [5 favorites]

Were it not that finals were in a fortnight, I'd take some time to adopt HPL's stories as pony stories. I was expecting this to be 'The Nameless City' right up to the twist.
posted by LeRoienJaune at 10:39 AM on May 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

It's weird that between this and Friendship is Optimal I've now read more pony fanfiction then seen episodes of the show. I guess even for an outsider, it's an interesting setting to try to fit a story into.
posted by axlan at 10:53 AM on May 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

A hedge of metal spikes surrounded the whole site in a perfect circle. Its points not only stuck outward at all angles, but also inward, and Daring saw no pattern to their arrangement.

/breaks into sweat.

THIS IS NOT A PLACE OF HONOUR!
posted by Artw at 11:06 AM on May 6, 2018 [13 favorites]

If you need a visual of the field of thorns.

(I'm not familiar with the show--does it take place in a post-human future?)
posted by lovecrafty at 2:43 PM on May 6, 2018

It does now.
posted by Horkus at 2:46 PM on May 6, 2018

Per the official sources MLP:FIM does not take place in a post-human future.

But several fans have imagined it does. There's a whole, huge, sort of collective fanfiction universe called Fallout Equestria where MLP is set in the Fallout universe and the ponies are the result of the FEV.
posted by sotonohito at 3:31 PM on May 6, 2018

Cars 1000% is the far future sequel to WALL-E though. That’s canon.
posted by Artw at 3:34 PM on May 6, 2018

There are various things that are pretty clearly only in the show because it is written by humans, such as teacups whose handles are completely useless to ponies, or saddles. Some people try to give such things in-universe explanations. (And I think in some episode there's what appears to be a car tire buried underground?)
posted by one for the books at 7:18 PM on May 6, 2018

Over ten years previously, in one of the first really interesting FPPs that I read on this site. See also Mefite brecc's haunting 2016 game inspired by the same documents.

(Also, I know it comes from the source material, but do they really have to use "somepony" and "anypony" every other paragraph? It's distractingly silly. Ponies have bodies, don't they?)
posted by Rhaomi at 7:23 PM on May 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

There's a whole, huge, sort of collective fanfiction universe called Fallout Equestria where MLP is set in the Fallout universe and the ponies are the result of the FEV.

"Huge". That's a hell of an understatement. The original story clocks in at 620,295 words. For comparison, War and Peace is 587,287 words.

Then there's Fallout Equestria: Project Horizon, which topped out at 1,740,452 words, longer than the seven Harry Potter Books plus Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy which all together come in somewhere around 1.66 million words.

And those are just the two most well known stores set in that particular fanfic setting. there are dozens more, each pushing wordcounts in the tens of thousands if not more. The sheer scope of it just boggles me.
posted by radwolf76 at 7:35 PM on May 6, 2018 [2 favorites]