Adoption requires a lot of paperwork and it's expensive. Seriously it might be cheaper to just have a baby with magic.

And yes, I do have a glove collection.

@Lyra: where exactly did you get gloves?

Whaaaaaa!?

Now, I'd heard that Harmony Theory had been rejected from getting onto EQD twice due to the prologue being "boring" (?!?!??!??!?!??!?!?!) and now I've actually seen a review from a proofreader there. And ... just ... seriously, what's wrong with these people?!

"This has been recommended to me numerous times, but now, on my fourth attempt, I still can't get past this prologue. It's so laden with headcanon and dialogue-based exposition (perhaps the most clumsy of all forms, suited more to screen or stage than page) that it becomes an excuse in wading through uninteresting prose talking about things we have no idea what they're of, such as the Deep Power.

I really enjoy the rest of your work, particularly the Fallen World stories, but I just can't get into this. I'm told it gets amazing later, but it'd be nice to have some kind of hook in the first chapter. A long discussion between Celestia and Luna about things we barely possess any context for does not a gripping chapter make."

Just ... how ... like ... seriously?!??!??!!?

You'd be surprised.

So why don't they just rewrite the prologue?

EDIT: Actually this is more a subject for the fanfic thread.

edited 19th Apr '13 2:19:16 PM by JapaneseTeeth

Get a room, you two!

Why would Twilight and the mysterious bush with blue wings and orange legs get a room? Twilight doesn't even seem happy to see it.

I personally think Twilight's scolding the two for such a slipshod flight.

Personally I don't remember being the prologue being that good. And from the chapters I've read so far it seems mostly irrelevant.

"Why are you two blocking my doorway!?"

Well, the ending to this conversation with Cleverbot came completely out of left field.

User: Shoo-be-doo.

Cleverbot: Shoo bee doo bee doo.

User: Call upon the sea ponies.

Cleverbot: No.

User: When you're in distress.

Cleverbot: Tyrone.

User: Helpful as can be ponies.

Cleverbot: It's helpful if you want to know what comes after 41.

User: Simply signal SOS.

Cleverbot: Earth angel, earth angel, will you be mine?

They've done it before but... the prologue is doing exactly what it's supposed to be doing.

It's showing how the conflict started and showing us some stuff that we need to know about later. And how an arument between Celestia and Luna where they disagree with each other about how to defend Equestria is seen as "boring" I have no idea.

EDIT:

What!? How far are you?

You don't see how it relates to the establishment of the royal family, how we see the Changeling character or how it relates to the biggest sources of conflict in the plot?

edited 19th Apr '13 2:45:22 PM by Sereg

IMO, a prologue still has to be interesting in its own right, rather than just simply existing to set things up for later. If that's really all the prologue's accomplishing, then I'd advocate just starting In Medias Res and filling the audience in on the events of the prologue somewhere down the line.

edited 19th Apr '13 2:45:13 PM by IrishZombie

But it is! Celestia and Luna have an argument about how they're using the Elements of Harmony and Luna reveals that she's terrified of them!

Not to mention thta it's got a decent mount of humour.

edited 19th Apr '13 2:48:23 PM by Sereg

I've noticed that exact issue more than once, actually - Librarian ran into it too. The prereaders, or at least one of them, doesn't seem to understand what prologues are for. They assume that it must follow the exact same characters and plot as the rest, when in fact the purpose is to set the scene. It it before the plot, so it's acceptable to have the scene divided from the main plot. The quickest example that pops into my head(Although the book itself is far from a marvel of storytelling) is Wheel of Time - the first book opens several thousand years before the main plot, showing us the dude who The Chosen One is a reincarnation of, in order to establish the vague sense of the plot.

Prologues can also set up a bit of a framing device - for example I have a sotry planned about Lyra, Sparkler, Carrot Top and Derpy Hooves travelling across the Equestrian continent on the run from someone. The prologue is in modern-day Ponyville, where Sparkler gives us the framing device - the four are at a yearly get together they have to celebrate their entry into Equestria, and Sparkler is telling the story to Dinky. The prologue there serves both as a frame for the story, and a frame for the four's character development over the course of the story, but I have no doubt in my mind a pre-reader would look at it and think that it was inconsequential and took away from the plot due to creating a Forgone Conculsion(When in fact the point of the story is, as I meantioned, how they got there).

Yeah, I agree with Kegi. In this ase, the prologue is over a thousand years before the events of the fic and establishes a conflict that none of the mane characters even know about but is an essential background to what's happening.

Chapter 13 was the last I read. And yeah I didn't find it that interesting. It doesn't seem that necessary to go into detail about how the princesses can disagree when we already know that they can disagree. And it was relevant to the Changeling character?

You know, I just had a thought. You know how, a the end of episode 2, everyone present is surprised to learn that Celestia is Luna's sister, from the story?

I wonder if there were any instances of ponies recting with disconent upon learning that the current ruler has been on he throne for a millennium.

Also: how it is that that was a surprise. Surely there are records of this sort of thing.

@Sereg: Whether or not the prologue is sufficiently interesting differs from reader to reader. Personally I didn't find much of it all that gripping. The only part I really wanted to be developed in more detail was the relationship between Celestia and Luna. There's a ton of potential conflict between them in whether they want to use the elements or not, and I'm way more interested in that conflict than in finding out how the elements/magic/whatever really work.

edited 19th Apr '13 3:11:02 PM by JapaneseTeeth

It does when the thing they're disagreeing on is:

A: the reason for the whole plot

B: something the fans wouldn't normally expect them to disagree on

C: When the thing they're disagreeing about is more important to the plot than the disagreement itself

Remember, that a major plotpoint of the fic is "the Elements of Harmony are not on the ponies' side. And this is the first hint we have of that.

Not as much, but Luna's view of Chrysalis provides some perspective.

It also explains how The Schism could happen without Luna and Celesia being opposed.

EDIT:

But ... this really is what it's about. Twilight comes up with her own opinion, in fact, where she disagrees with both of them. We've learned practically nothing about how the Elements work yet except that they're weird and powerful. The differences in opinions on how the Elements should be used is what's caused all the problems that the odern characters are dealing with.

edited 19th Apr '13 3:15:52 PM by Sereg

This! This right here is my problem with the prologue. I care more about the disagreement itself than about the thing they're disagreeing about, which is apparently the opposite of what the author is trying to accomplish. Reading the prologue, I couldn't care less about how the elements function, but I totally want to hear more of Celestia and Luna's disagreement about it.

edited 19th Apr '13 3:15:45 PM by JapaneseTeeth

On the subject of Changelings, I'm still enamored with the idea of a story about a Changeling who wants to try to abandon the predatory lifestyle and be loved.

Problem is, I'm not all that much of a writer, so the premise is about all I have. Dunno where I would go with such a story, after he reveal and the requisite "who could ever love a beast?" lamentations, or whatever.

edited 19th Apr '13 3:17:39 PM by Enlong

I'm sure it's out there somewhere.

Well, you hear a lot about what they did as a result of their disagreement and subsequent making up.

EDIT:

They exist. Harmony Theory has a character who is sort of like that as well. But Changelings have a completely different culture now anyway. But seriously, the Elements are in the background. They are what's behind everything, but it's the nations and characters and their conflicts that are usually focussed on. Most individuals have never even heard of the Elements of Harmony. The knowledge has been suppressed.

edited 19th Apr '13 3:22:59 PM by Sereg