[ SECRET POST #1954 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #1954 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 040 secrets from Secret Submission Post #279.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom.livejournal.com]

10. http://i.imgur.com/obG5m.jpg

[(Anonymous)]

second wedding secret that I had to skip because I still haven't seen it as;dlfha;lskj

[yunho.livejournal.com]

Okay this is a serious question, but is my little pony a legit fandom? I've been seeing secrets for it for ages, like actual, serious secrets but it seems too....juvenile. What's the typical age group of people in this fandom?

not judging anyone btw. to each their own really

[bellerose11788.livejournal.com]

Actually a whole mass of the fans of Mlp are older than the intended audience. Most of the fans i have been in contact with are between 16 and 25, with me in there at a solid 23.

[yunho.livejournal.com]

thats what i figured but for some reason im still a little surprised. must be a pretty good show i guess...but that doesn't explain the secrets ive seen discussing shipping and sex between the ponies. this is a kid's show, right....?

[bellerose11788.livejournal.com]

Yea....I would agree with you, but with fandom in general it really doesn't matter if it's a kid show or not. Shippers are gonna ship.

[drunken-clowns.livejournal.com]

Not being a defensive brony or anything, but how is shipping itself that inappropriate? Especially since the kid fandom and the adult fandom don't really cross over at all?

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, it has a fan base, and a very large and adult one at that. You're on LJ and f!s and haven't heard of "bronies", the young men who are super in MLP FIM? I'm only barely in the fandom (I watch it irregularly and only seek out fanart) partly because there are some seriously unpleasant corners of it.

[yunho.livejournal.com]

ive only vaguely noticed them tbqh. yeah ive seen the secrets but have never really read them or bothered with the comments and even tho ive heard of 'bronies' i didnt (and dont) care enough to really figure out what exactly they are. i dont even have a tv nor have i watched television from an actual tv in over a year so no, i've never watched mlp nor have i ever felt the need to do so.

unpleasant corners to the fandom? how on earth can there possibly be any wank over (what i only assume is) a kids show? shouldn't it just be for fun, or is there a lot of srsbsns in it?

[(Anonymous)]

Off the top of my head:

'Brony' is/isn't alienating to female fans!
I came out as a pony fan, that's just like coming out as gay/trans!
Yay porn/pony porn is evil!
Yay grimdark fics/grimdark is terrible!
Pony porn is/isn't 'furry'!
The toys shouldn't have brushable hair!
Hasbro should cater to us, not children!
Yay writing characters as gay/ nay writing gay/ okay only if it's lesbians!
Shipping!
Best/worst episode/pony/song/fanfic/fanart/ship!
Fan theorizing/ continuity wank!
Background character/brony mascot gets speaking lines, it is/isn't a gross stereotype of mentally disabled people!
Minor character(s) is/isn't a racist stereotype!
The people who think it was bigoted are the real bigots!
Censorship!
Old gens suck, GTFO people who have been in the fandom from the beginning!
Anti-abortion!

...Honestly, I think it'd be more accurate to talk about the pleasant corners of the fandom; the show has one of the wankiest fanbases since Harry Potter.

[velvet-mace.livejournal.com]

Not getting why you hate writing backstory to shore up your fic. Dude, creating a consistant well thought through backstory is kinda necessary to writing good epic fic.

[(Anonymous)]

(OP here)

It wasn't really that I didn't like writing the backstory itself. I actually loved that bit, and I've kept refining it so that it's workable. What I hated was that I had to do so much completely original worldbuilding in order to explain Cadance and Shining Armor's (along with some spoiler's) presences without resorting to "Hey, remember the new guy, Twilight's brother that we've never heard of despite her having lived in Ponyville for a year or two at least?" Just... I felt like I'd been let down by the show, and I kind of loved what I came up with, and I was feeling conflicted on it. Plus idk, I feel weird to be saying, "This thing really sucked and I despise it," and then turning around to say, "But look, I obsessed about it for about a thousand words or notes!"

(Sorry it wasn't clear from the secret.)

[velvet-mace.livejournal.com]

Fixing canon is the inspiration of many a lovey epic. Good luck, OP.

[(Anonymous)]

I didn't mind "not telling about brother" because Twilight strikes me as being like some of my friends who just don't talk much about their familes. What made it strange to me was how he and Twilight were supposed to be REALLY close before she left. So... why did she have to learn about friendship then?

Sure, it can be handwaved by her deciding to prioritize studying, but it still strikes me as... not a plothole, just being off.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, I'd have bought it as a handwave if she'd said that she had a brother and, say, they interacted some but were never really close and had gotten out of touch by the time she left for Ponyville, but... "best friends"? Really? When the entire premise of the show is that she's never really had friends and therefore has to learn all this stuff explicitly? One shot even showed him seeing her off when she takes that chariot....

[castorochiaro.livejournal.com]

I'd really love to see what you come up with, based on your interpretation of the "power of love" thing. I like it!

[(Anonymous)]

Really? Okie dokie lokie.

So, the whole "feed on love" thing is a translation error. The Changeling Nation (empire? queendom?) that borders Equestria has a somewhat symbiotic (much more parasitic, but shh, don’t tell them) relationship with the ponies who live in the border towns. The changelings actually feed on blood (that's what those fangs are for), but except for Chrysalis, they lack the intelligence/vocal structure/inclination to learn/speak Equestrian, and so rely on her, through a sort of hive mind, to communicate for them (notice how her fangs are so much smaller than theirs). The translation error comes when Chrysalis heard somepony talking about "love" one day, and that the characteristics were that "you can't live without it," "it keeps you warm inside," and "it comes from the heart," which, oh, sure, she knows what that is! (Oops.)

Anyway, the Changeling (I want to call it an empire but that's not right) Commonwealth (sure) is a nation of Lotus Eaters. Or rather, they are the Lotuses themselves. They have the ability to pick a story and make others believe it, ignoring the reasons that it doesn't make sense; the hive exudes that traits as a passive thing, leaving whoever's around them open to suggestion (the more time spent, the more likely it is to work), and the queen can use it actively, changing "reality" to suit her needs. The more of a stretch it is, the more she has to work at it. The point is, it isn't hard to set up something where the townsponies in the nearby town buddy up with a changeling between two or three of them and give blood every few days (the changelings don't need much, just a mouthful or two. The happier, healthier, and more well-adjusted the pony is, the more potent its blood is, and the less the changelings need to survive). This seems to be working well, because (here's where the symbiosis comes in) when a changeling that's part of the hive (rather than the queen) feeds on a pony's blood, the pony ends up happier and more willing to be amiable and kindhearted towards other ponies (this has a lot to do with the Lotus Eater effect from before, which is also tied to the shapechanging ability, but the townsponies didn't need to know that...). If the queen does it, it's just mind control after a few repeats, plain and simple, but the hive/subjects have a much less powerful version of it that basically makes the townsponies more pleasant to be around.

So they have that going for a while, but soon the changelings get to be too many for one town to handle. They are meant to be a whole nation, after all, and their numbers are slowly and steadily going up, what with the stable food source and all. The town can't deal, so they get another town, the one next to them, in on it, and that goes on for a while. In the meantime, the queen (Chrysalis) is feeding off of secondhand blood (from some sort of non-living container), so that she doesn't contaminate the ponies whose favor they're trying to keep. She's not stupid, and if she has to do something drastic, she wants a few secret weapons.

Eventually, though, the nation gets too unwieldy for just two towns, so they send for another one. Lather, rinse, repeat.

[(Anonymous)]

Some disaster strikes. There's a plague, an earthquake, I don't care. What's important is that the changelings' primary source of food is gone, and not likely to come back, and they can't support themselves on woodland creatures anymore, probably for the same reason the ponies are gone. Chrysalis, out of options and desperate for her subjects to survive, goes to petition Celestia, taking the guise of a humble earth pony.

Both Celestia and Luna sense that these things have a Made By Discord stamp on the bottom of their hooves, and flatly refuse to help Chrysalis, especially when they learn that what she wants is to drink their subjects' blood. Chrysalis figures this is going nowhere fast and retreats, already starting to scheme.

She and the hive need pony blood, because that's how Discord made them, and the knowledge of the hive's limitations has been passed down from Queen to Queen through the generations. She also knows that now Celestia and Luna will be on guard, and will probably put some sort of protection at least around the city, if not the country, and that even if they don't, if the changelings feed off one of the border towns without permission, (or maybe even with), they are in for a world of trouble. She finds the caves below Canterlot and holes up there to plot, notifying her hive through magic/a rudimentary telepathy.

Just before Shining Armor is selected and the shield goes up, three or four changelings fly in with supplies and stay with Chrysalis in the caves. Chrysalis is about to realize the potential of her Lotus abilities.

One of the problems with the Lotus thing is that it's really hard to maintain, especially with preposterous or long-lived illusions. What's needed, and what Chrysalis had her soldiers fly in with, is a replicating cocoon that can either hold a real pony or an artificially constructed one (that kind that Celestia was held in). If it holds a real pony, it puts them in a state of hibernation so that the Queen can shift into the captured pony's form and not worry about them showing up; if it holds and artificial pony, it provides a template of sorts. The other thing it does, though, and the thing Chrysalis wanted it for, is that if it holds an artificial pony, the pony's memories are of the reality that the Queen wants everypony else to believe in, and provides a failsafe should the Queen momentarily falter. It also reinforces that reality and pretty much amplifies and strengthens the Queen's power. While the Queen is shifted into that pony (or any other form, really, as long as it's replicated in the cocoon), all of that is in effect, and it's renewed every time the Queen (in that form) is in the presence of the people/ponies she's fooling.

[(Anonymous)]

Of course, the pony Chrysalis synthesizes is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, and there are a few reasons behind the points that every seems to hate about her. One, the name: Chrysalis doesn't know much about pony names. She figures this is close enough to pass inspection, and doesn't spend any more time thinking about it. Two, the whole "alicorn is Celestia's niece" thing: Chrysalis, for all her nonstandard character design, can use both magic and flight, by virtue of being a changeling (Discord thought it was funny). Since she's effectively going into deep cover, it makes sense that she'd want to leave both options open. Two, she realized how rare alicorns are and figured that she'd have to be fairly related to Celestia. But if she were a daughter, the Lotus effect wouldn't be strong enough to overcome at least 1000 years of not having a daughter. Therefore, a niece, since that can be handwaved a lot more easily. Three, the Power of Love: alicorns, and relatives of Celestia, seems to have theme talents going on, and while Cadence could be more powerful, the power of Love seems like a safe and out-of-the-way thing to give her, so that a) nopony will think of a dangerous line of inquiry on why, say, this supposed princess of the morning star or whatever never showed up before, and b) in case Cadence did break out, which is possible (if something dramatic enough happens, or somepony gets close enough to start second-guessing the lie they've been fed).

This is all about 2 months before the finale, when Chrysalis starts the process to synthesize and replicate basically an entire backstory and form. The shield is up, and Chrysalis can't feed off the ponies in the town unless she wants to die by Princess Attack. So she cannibalizes the changelings that brought her the supplies (they knew, and went anyway). That's why all the changlings have holes in them: they're trying to conserve body mass in the places they need it the most, so they can survive a little longer.

About a month later, the form is done, and the story Chrysalis feeds everypony is the one we get in canon. The truth is, Shining Armor is just some poor stallion. I mean, he's still Captain of the Guard, but he's not Twilight's brother. He was the one who foalsat her when she was little (which Chrysalis took and adapted when she heard about it from the one of her four trapped subjects that she sent to do research), and they've fallen out of touch. But she needed a reason to have access to him, and desperate and half-starved, frantic about what might happen to her subjects/hive, the canon story is what Chrysalis came up with.

She spends a month having a "whirlwind romance" with Shining Armor, feeding on him occasionally to sustain herself and gain control of the protective spell. When the invitations are sent out, the reason Twilight accepts the story Chrysalis has spun is because of the magnifying/amplifying power of the cocoon, which, with the link provided by the invitation, extended to Ponyville. All that was needed was a nudge from Twilight in song form to get the rest of them believing it too.

[insanenoodlyguy.livejournal.com]

Not really sure where OP is coming from here.

I mean, the plot wasn't the most original, but Op makes it sound like something horrible. So either op is very sensitive or Im missing something.

[(Anonymous)]

(OP here)

You're sort of right - I do have a pet peeve about, well, bad writing in general, and plot holes/OOCness especially. It wasn't the originality of the plot that bugged me so much as how... bad-fanfic-y it was. "Twilight has a brother we've never heard of, who is marrying an alicorn who's shown up out of thin air, with a ridiculously long name that doesn't really match the naming scheme of the rest of the alicorns/cast, and a power that doesn't match the rest of the alicorns, who so far have basically been goddess that controlled the celestial bodies, instead of something that sounds like the Love Poison from Hearts and Hooves Day." The changelings were pretty cool, as was the villain song - but even that had holes in it (no pun intended). If the changelings feed off love, why is Chrysalis such a bitch? Why show her confusion at Twilight, when Shining Armor wasn't looking at her (Twilight) like she was crazy? Why, again, if the changelings feed off love, do they terrorize the population? Why does she explain her evil scheme to Twilight instead of just leaving her down there in the caves before the wedding (if she had, Twilight would have never found Cadance, they both (or at least Cadance) would likely have starved to death/died of thirst)? Beyond holding the Villain Ball, there's not much reason for why Chyrsalis does what she does, and beyond "Remember the New Guy?" there's not much reason for Twilight and her friends to even be in Canterlot.. And yeah, it is a kid's show about pink sparkly ponies and the five-year-old in me likes them because they are pink and sparkly, but they'd set a higher standard for themselves with things like Discord and Luna/Nightmare Moon (and before you say that Discord didn't have much of a reason to do all those thing either, he's the spirit of Disharmony and Chaos. It's in his nature. And he actually won... his main flaw was arrogance, not stupidity).

[insanenoodlyguy.livejournal.com]

Well, to me, it seemed Chrysalis was more the succubis/parasite kind of feeder. using enchantment and her natural abilities to trick love out of a pony rather then actually cultivate it. I imagine her plan would have involved the other changelings also sapping ponys once they got them all rounded up. A "back to normal" where the ponies only had vague ideas something was off, but perpetually were kept in line until drained.

Though you are right about the villian ball otherwise. I just don't think I could get as worked up about it?

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, the "worked up about it" is what's making you look at me funny, I think.... :) Don't mind me, I'm weird like that. (Then again... that was sort of why it was a secret....)

And yeah, I could see the whole succubus angle, and I feel a little thick-skulled for not realizing that they were basically G-rated succubi before like a week ago. And... yes, I suppose, but...isn't the whole idea about love that it's a renewable resource? But that does raise the question of why the changelings don't simply stay home and devolve into a pile of fluffy adorableness. So... maybe the whole idea - how they take it in as food - is that they drain it and don't give any love back. Again, it would be a psychological thing somewhere in there, to keep the pony from bolting. "Cadance" was pretty sickeningly sweet to Shining, when she wasn't busy acting like an abusive girlfriend.

....Oh. I think I just answered my own question. That's... horrible.

And this is so not helping me study for the APUSH test....

[(Anonymous)]

I sorta agree - Shining Armor's sudden appearance had actually made lot more sense to me if Twilight and he had had an estranged and problematic sibling relationship, for instance. Still, I kinda like where they went with part 2, lots of action.

[(Anonymous)]

This! I could get never mentioning him if that was the case, but "BBBFFS"? Really?

Not to mention it kinda undercuts season 1's "Twilight must learn about friendship" thing.