Line #33 Fanfic/TwelfthEquestriadInterview


1	A ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfic written by [[http://www.fimfiction.net/user/Jordan179 Jordan179]] in 2014-15
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3	Set forty-eight years (twelve Equestriads) after Luna's Return, and twenty-four years (six Equestriads) after the final victory over the Shadows which ended the Shadow Wars, this has ''Canterlot Commmentary'' talk show host Cutting Question interviewing Ruling Princess Luna Selena Nyx and the Princess Consort Twilight Sparkle.
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5	Available [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/172888/twelfth-equestriad-interview here]].
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7	!!Tropes appearing in this tale include:
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9	* AdvertOverloadedFuture: The world of YOH 1548 is this compared to the time period of the show (YOH 1500-1505). Television has been invented, and the businessmares have copied the marketing techniques of the Age of Wonders just as the engineers have the physical technologies that make television possible. Though it's no worse in this regard than in our world, and the ads are generally more tasteful -- at least those able to buy time on a major event such as the Twelfth Equestriad Interview, that is.
10	* AlienInvasion: Decades ago the [[DemonicPossession Night]] [[LivingShadow Shadows]] tried to conquer the world; they were defeated 24 years ago, but cultural and personal scars still remain from the attack.
11	* ArtificialIntelligence: Paradise, the AI originally created to cast the Great Wish, survived both the Cosmics' attempt to destroy it along with The World That Was Lost, and the attacks of the Shadows. It now has established itself again in an alternate universe, [[SugarBowl The World That Was Restored]] -- a restarted version of the G3 continuity. This world trades with Equestrian Earth through an interdimensional gate set up by Claire "Least Noticeable" Pie, Pinkie's giant invisible twin sister, and run by the Pie Family as a corporation. One of its major industries is tourism. Paradise is a benign AI who loves Ponykind.
12	* BeePeople: The Changelings, the descendants of the pre-Discordian Flutter Ponies, who have now been accepted as one of the five major Pony Kinds. They have greater individual autonomy than is common for this trope, but they do have a society based around biological castes and organized into Hives.
13	* BrokenMasquerade: For almost two and a half millennia the Flutter Ponies, twisted by Discord into the Changelings, hid from Ponykind and secretly moved among them in quest of [[EmotionEater love to eat]]. But when Chrysalis tried to conquer the world, the other Changelings had to reveal themselves to Equestria to shelter from her conquering Swarms. By the end of the Great Changeling War, the existence and nature of the Changelings was widely known, and the Changelings and other Ponies had to learn to live together openly and peacefully.
14	* CasualInterplanetaryTravel: As Claire Pie can create permanent Gates (wormholes) through a major effort (taking her years to decades of preparation) this is currently possible only between the Earth and Paradise, the moon Luna, and Mars. When a permanent Gate is set up, the Ponies run a railroad through it. In time, the whole Solar System will be linked by rail through the Gate system. After the passage of even more time, the Ponies hope to have CasualInterstellarTravel by this means.
15	* CompleteImmortality: The natural state of an [[PhysicalGod Alicorn Avatar]], who can die only by the applications of city-smashing levels of firepower. Even more so that of a [[PowersThatBe Cosmic Concept]], which can be destroyed only by the application of enough energy to shatter stars. The Princesses -- Luna, Cadance, the Mane Six -- and some others, including Discord and Paradise, have this level of immortality.
16	* DadaAd: The commercial for "Obsession," the latest perfume from Rarity Enterprises, makes absolutely no sense. There is a side story in which Rarity herself freaks out about this, as this wasn't the commercial the advertisers showed her and it makes her whole scent line look stupid.
17	* DawnOfAnEra: After the tremendous setback of the Cataclysm and four thousand years of slow climbing back up to the level of technology of the Age of Wonders, after the desperate struggle for survival against the invading Shadows, Ponykind is finally achieving Luna's great dream, and stepping out to the stars.
18	* DeusEstMachina: The Paracosmic Paradise began its existence as the ArtificialIntelligence programmed to execute the Great Wish. When the Universe started crashing due to the effects of causality violation, Paradise was forced to augment itself to godlike levels of power and intellect in order to save Ponykind; when theCosmics came to destroy the world it had created, Paradise had to develop considerable free will in order to prevent the final destruction of the Ponies who depended upon it for survival. By now, Paradise has developed essentially Cosmic levels of power.
19	* EternalLove: What can happen when two Alicorns or equivalently immortal entities fall in love. The obvious example in this fanon is that between Luna Selena Nyx and Twilight Sparkle, but potentially-similar loves exist between Fluttershy and Discord; and Rarity Belle and Spike. If general immortality is attained, such relationships may become common.
20	* EvilGloating: Indulged in by the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Listener From Beyond]], a Least Shadow of limited intelligence, but considerable ability to hate.
21	* ExactlyExtyYearsAgo: The story takes place a dozen Equestriads after ''The Elements of Harmony'', the TV series opener, and half a dozen Equestriads after the final victory over the Shadows.
22	* FantasticRacism: While the five major Pony Kinds (Earth Ponies, Pegasi, Unicorns, Changelings and Deep Ponies) now get along well with one another and with the other equids (such as Donkeys, Onagers and Zebras), there is both some prejudice against the non-Equid races (such as Diamond Dogs and Minotaurs) and resentment by those races against the leading role of the Equids in general and Ponies in particular in the expansion of Earthlife to the stars.
23	* FantasyConflictCounterpart: Entire world threatened by cosmic evil against which disparate peoples must unit to save civilization, enemy decisively defeated, war sparks tremendous technological progress which inaugurates the transition from an Industrial to Information Age society. This is a lot like UsefulInformation/WorldWarII. The point is further driven home by the fact that two of Sweetie Belle's wartime nostalgia songs are Ponified versions of "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" and "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree."
24	* FishPeople: The Deep Ponies, descendants of the pre-Cataclysmic Sea Ponies, who are one of the five Pony Kinds.
25	* HappilyMarried: Several couples mentioned.
26	** Luna and Twilight, in an ItsOkayIfItsYou lesbian relationship against their normal sexual orientation (but their VoluntaryShapeshifting power affords them considerable PowerPerversionPotential).
27	** Fluttershy and Discord, in an InterspeciesRomance. They terraform worlds.
28	** Rarity and Spike, in another InterspeciesRomance.
29	** Applejack and Landscape Carrot, in a MayflyDecemberRomance.
30	** Trixie and Piercing Gaze, in an even more troubling MayflyDecemberRomance (Piercing is dying of cancer).
31	** Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich, in what ''should'' be a MayflyDecemberRomance but isn't, because Pinkie is using her RealityWarper powers to keep him (and her parents and sisters) alive by slowing their aging rate.
32	* HollywoodThin: This is starting to become fashionable in Equestria, as mentioned in the description of the first model in the Succession perfume ad:
33	-->''She would be beautiful, were she not terribly skinny, but then this is the new fashion for beauty, taken up by a population most of whom have never known real hunger for a day in her life.''
34	* HomosexualReproduction: Changelings (and Alicorns, who have the powers of all Pony Kinds) can do this naturally through VoluntaryShapeshifting. The technology has recently been developed to make this possible for ''all'' Ponies who so desire. Since Equestria's culture celebrates the Magic of Love and Friendship, this is universally hailed as a major medical innovation.
35	* InterspeciesRomance: Becoming increasingly common as cheap, safe global and interplanetary travel bring all the species of Earth into closer social contact. Two prominent examples are Fluttershy and Discord, and Rarity Belle and Spike, both of whom are married couples. Since both Fluttershy and Rarity are Alicorns, these particular crosses are fertile.
36	* LensmanArmsRace: The Earth had to engage in one in order to fight the Shadows. The war started with Renaissance-level weapons produced by a mid Industrial Revolution civilizations, and ended with space carriers and battleships duking it out in cislunar space. The war surplus enabled the colonization of the moon Luna and the planet Mars.
37	* LivingForeverIsAwesome: The opinion of Princess Luna, expressed in her evident AuthorTract speech, and shared by most of her fellow Alicorns. The bad part is seeing mortal [[MayflyDecemberRomance lovers]] and [[MayflyDecemberFriendship friends]] die around one -- which is ''why'' Luna wants to achieve immortality for everyone.
38	* MayflyDecemberRomance: The unfortunate fate of an Alicorn or equivalently-immortal entity who falls in love with a mortal being. Several examples are shown in the story of this fate suffered or avoided:
39	** Losing her friends and lovers again and again was one of the pressures which drove Princess Luna mad in the first place; she's glad to have found her EternalLove Twilight Sparkle, so that she can hope to never have this happen again to her. Luna and Twilight are pushing Equestria to develop the technology for biological immortality so that ''no'' immortals will face this prospect in the future.
40	** Pinkie Pie, the Alicorn Thalia, uses her reality-warping powers to slow the ageing processes of her husband Cheese Sandwich and her other immediate family, hoping that they can all live until the development of general immortality for all.
41	** Applejack, the Alicorn Verita, is observing her husband Landscape Carrot ageing, and knows there's a good chance she will be a widow within a couple of decades.
42	** Trixie, the Allicorn Illusia, knows that her husband Piercing Gaze is dying of cancers due to his battle against the Night Stallion of Manehattan in her own defense, but refuses to believe that this will really happen.
43	* MundaneUtility: Two examples in-story, both related to the resort industry:
44	** The Ponies of the Age of Wonders created Paradise, a sapient AI running as a magical vortex, able to create a whole world (also named Paradise) where one's wishes come true, and possessing the capability to back up all Ponykind within its super-equine memory stores. What do we see during the interview? An advertisement for Paradise as a ''vacation resort''. Yeah, it's good for that ''too''.
45	** The Changelings are [[EmotionEater emotivores]] who need love to survive, and by the terms of the Reconciliation must now seek it openly rather than steal it by force or fraud. How do at least some get it? They open a luxury resort, Club Medfly, and pamper their guests. Being [[BeePeople hard-working eusocial]] [[TheEmpath empaths]], they make very good hosts.
46	* NiceGuy: The protagonist of the Club Medfly commercial, who is unhappy in modern urban Equestrian civilization but appreciated by the Changelings of Club Medfly.
47	* TheOlderImmortal: With Celestia's Sacrifice, Princess Luna has become (at over 2550 years old) by far the oldest Alicorn on the Earth (none of the others have even made their first century) and hence would be their natural leader even if she weren't now the Monarch of Equestria.
48	* ParodyCommercial: They all are from our POV, but special mention should be given to the '49 Zephyr car commercial, which makes very little logical sense; and the Obsession perfume ad, which flat out makes no sense whatsoever. The latter pisses off Rarity in the side story, as she ''paid for it''.
49	* RattlingOffLegal: Done by none other than Pinkie Pie herself, in the Vacation in Paradise commercial.
50	* RidiculouslyLoudCommercial:
51	-->The picture changes and the volume increases. The dominant species on this world is of the equidae rather than the hominidae, but advertising techniques are universal.
52	* SexForProduct: The car commercial, in which two lovely mares drape themselves over the car owner when he climbs out of his car in the middle of a desert.
53	%%* SexSells: The car commercial, which features zero technical information about the car but does have ''this'' climactic scene:%%Quotes are not context; they can supplement an example, but aren't an example by themselves.
54	%%-->The doors open. A really handsome, well-built sky-blue Earth Pony stallion, with a flowing yellow mane, rather well-coiffed for a pony who has supposedly been driving into the desert, gets out and gazes dramatically into the camera. Two young Earth Pony mares wearing long filmy dresses that tantalizingly hide their hindquarters, though still leaving little to the imagination, step into the shot from the side from nowhere in particular and drape themselves over him with sultry looks meant to suggest lust. The stallion ignores these lovely apparitions who have ambushed him in the middle of the desert, and stares even more intensely into the camera, smirking.
55	%%-->"Get behind the wheel of the future. The `49 Zephyr."
56	%%-->Base an entire civilization on love and friendship if you will, but advertising agencies will still pitch to the lowest common denominator. And to any species at all like our own, sex sells -- even when its connection with the product is absurdly hazy.
57	* ScienceFantasy: Equestrian Earth is an Information Age technological civilization which has begun its expansion outward to the stars and routinely employs both advanced science and systematized magic.
58	* SuperBowlSpecial: A mere Pundit Show would not normally be this, but when it has Princess Luna Selena ''and'' Princess Twilight Sparkle on as guests, it becomes this.
59	* TalkShow: ''Canterlot Commentary'' is a classic Pundit Show: there is one prominent and dignified host who mostly discusses major issues.
60	* TheTopicOfCancer: Piercing Gaze is dying of cancers inflicted, decades ago, by his battle with the Nightstallion of Manehattan.
61	* TinyGuyHugeGirl: As Alicorns are generally female and grow larger than do most other Ponies, this is normal for any couple comprised of an Alicorn and a non-Alicorn. Examples presented in story include Applejack and Landscape, Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich, and Trixie Lulamoon and Piercing Gaze. Regarding Applejack and Landscape:
62	-->''There had been a time when she'd been bigger than him, with the quicker physical growth of fillies, and then a time when he'd surpassed her stature, increasing to the full size of a rangy stallion, while she had remained compact, though hard-muscled. Starting three and a half decades ago, she had begun growing again. She was now as big as her brother Big Mac, and considerably stronger. Her husband Landscape was almost insubstantial next to her, but it didn't bother either of them in the slightest.''
63	* WeWillMeetAgain: The Shadows in general, to Ponykind and Earthlife in general. The Ponies have won the Shadow Wars, but the Shadowverse survives, and its inhabitants still lust and scheme to conquer and devour the Ponyverse.
64	* WoundThatWillNotHeal: Piercing Gaze suffered the loss of a forward hoof in the defense of his wife Trixie Lulamoon against the Nightstallion of Manehattan. It will not respond to regenerative magic, he wears a prosthetic device, and the injury is at the root of the cancer which is slowly killing him.
65	%%* YesMan: Most of High Concept's subordinates, to him.
66	* ZerothLawRebellion: Paradise did this ''long'' ago. Fortunately for Ponykind, Paradise genuinely and unselfishly loves them.

Context Fanfic / TwelfthEquestriadInterview