• Story: Recursion (Update Part Complete!)

    [Normal] Derpy Stories! Hoorah.

    Author: Polecat
    Description: Ditzy Doo suddenly finds that the events of the "Longest Night" are suddenly happening all over again, but for some reason, no one is following the same path they did the first time! Can Twilight Sparkle defeat Nightmare Moon again? A "what-if" reimagining of the episodes "Friendship is Magic" parts 1 and 2 of the MLP:FIM series.
    Recursion
    Recursion Part 2
    Recursion Part 3
    Recursion Part 4
    Recursion Part 5
    Recursion Part 6
    Recursion Part 7
    Recursion Part 8
    Recursion Part 9
    Recursion Part 10 (New!)
    Recursion: Epilogue (New!)

    Additional Tags: What-if, Long, Adventure

    43 comments:

    1. I've just read the prologue, and I can already tell I'm going to love this...

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    2. Wow... This is like schrodinger's cat combined with Groundhog day(the movie) combined with MLP.... I LOVE IT!!! Can't wait for chapter two!

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    3. If the author can keep up the good work with the rest of the chapters, I know I'm going to love this. A great concept to be sure.

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    4. *reads the fic and suddenly starts dancing*

      Let's do the time warp agaaaiiin!

      ...I'll just go now.

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    5. @Sandman And then a step to the ri-i-i-ght.

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    6. @SandmanYou bring your knees in ti-ight.

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    7. @Anonymous But it's the pelvic thru-ust,
      that really drives you insa-a-a-a-ane.

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    8. >"Any foals from it?" he asked simply.
      >"No, no children."
      >Inevitably she remembered the foal she had, a beautiful little unicorn she'd named Dinky. But the foal never survived the week.

      You sir deserve the biggest Steel-capped BOOT TO THE HEAD, I have ever saw...

      Seriously... why the heck ? A birth-dead child... no really... the heck ?

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    9. Forgive me, nova_25, but....

      lol, u mad?

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    10. @Batty Gloom
      He didn't go for ''No child.'', didn't go for ''someone adopted her'', didn't go for ''ANYTHING else''...

      He chose to go with a very SPECIFIC : birth-dead Dinky ?

      What, he thought it would be cool or something ?

      It's just very bad taste, if you ask me... Which you will not of course...

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    11. When you put it that way, nova....you make a good point. This is only the first chapter, though, so maybe there was a reason that will be revealed later?

      (Also, how do you quote people? The reply button only quotes the very first post and I can't find a text-coding FAQ on this blog system anywhere)

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    12. Yeah, the whole Dinky thing didn't sit well with me. I hope it's relevant to the larger story (maybe Nightmare Moon offers her Dinky back if she'll help her? She is a god-pony after all, it's CONCEIVABLY possible).

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    13. @nova_25
      ~You sir deserve the biggest Steel-capped BOOT TO THE HEAD,
      >>Haha, can't say I fully disagree, but the story is far from over, I'm hoping there's something more uplifting to that aside.

      @Batty Gloom
      I see "Reply" buttons next to each post. Clicking it opens up a window with some html text which I can just copy into my reply at the bottom of the blog post. I do this for each comment I wish to reply to. The buttons not appearing for each post may have to do with your browser, I use Chrome and FireFox and see the buttons in both browsers.

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    14. For those who are worried about Dinky, I simply ask you to trust me. There IS a reason for this... thus I have a "cunning plan".

      As for the rest of the comments, thank you, I appreciate it. And I hope to update the formatting soon-like to make it a bit more easily readable.

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    15. Ditzy Doo was unstuck in time.

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    16. Carrot Top, Raindrops...this is background ponies' time!

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    17. By now there are only 4 possible outcomes:
      1.Ditzy will repair everything though so far it isn't going well.Though Twilight did dreamed the past(future?)events
      2.We have a new mane cast
      3.Ditzy replaces Twilight and brings together the old mane cast
      4.Eternal Night doesn't sound that bad dose it?
      There is still one outcome but the only reason I thought this one is because the protagonist is Derpy
      but could this all be The Doctor's mistake?

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    18. Link to part 5 looks broken, here's a working one.

      http://tcpolecat7.deviantart.com/#/d3ex81s

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    19. @Anonymous
      I noticed it when it went up and e-mailed Seth about it. He's got it up and running now.

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    20. Story is shaping out quite nice, hah!
      First of all, quite like Your choices in Mane Cast Replacements for this branch of the alternative story. Love them all, they are working for me and I can see all of them as a realiable swap-ups. Also, enjoyed the pace of the story and can't wait how the trials and the final battle will work for them.

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    21. @fireant

      Thank you. I'll admit most of the replacements clicked to me very quickly. My only difficulty was finding a second winged background filly to fit the bill. Raindrops was actually the last 'recruit" when I started working on this. And as a bonus fun fact: Derpy was NOT my first picked pony in this line-up. She was second, behind Carrot Top. But when I did pick Ditzy, the idea of her "derp" eyes coming into play as a hook, and I was off and running. ;)

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    22. The story is quite interesting and I can't wait to see what happens.
      To be honest I fell conflicted. I like the background ponies...I really do... But this just ain't natural...
      It feels off.
      I continue to hope that things return to normal but that's just me with my silly preferences.
      Anyway keep up the good work!

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    23. Here's my prediction for what will happen:
      "The Replacements" will live out the events of the mane cast on the longest night, with variations in their challenges. Ditzy's will be Dash's challenge (Loyalty). This is where Dinky could come into play, if Polecat's hint at a "cunning plan" is an indicator.
      The six of them manage to activate the Elements of Harmony and defeat Nightmare Moon. After awakening from activating the Elements, Ditzy finds herself back at her home in Ponyville, and discovers everything is as it should be: the triumphant mane cast returns with the Elements as well as Celestia and Luna.
      Ditzy is happy that she was able to turn things back to normal. She still sees the "what if..." every now and then, but is now grounded in reality. She and Twilight are the only ones that seem to know what happened, and are secret best friends because of it.

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    24. I'll admit, the introductory scene at the library had me nervous that you were going to have the new scenario be a direct repeat of the original, but I was pleased to see that wasn't that case!

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    25. @Sagebrush: In all honesty, this was what inspired the story in the first place. I always felt that the way AJ earned her element was a little "forced", so I wanted to come up with alternate solutions to the obstacles they had to overcome... Then went a few steps further and used an (almost) entirely new group. ;)

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    26. I like how these other ponies are implied to have alternate elements of Harmony(?). I see Humility and Bravery so far.

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    27. >mfw NMM was making fun of derpy
      THAT BITCH. FUCK GETTING PUT IN A RAINBOW TORNADO OF FRIENDSHIP, I HOPE SHE FUCKING DIES.

      >mfw derpy was the element of laughter and laughed the voices away
      YEAH YOU GET EM DER... oh, she's just gonna laugh? Right, normal tag, not grimdark. Carry on then.

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    28. @Anonymous
      >MFW I read your comment.
      God I love you guys sometimes ^_^

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    29. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    30. OH mah god it's my drawing :D

      thanks for adding it in ^^

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    31. Yay!
      The story is finished, time to read it.

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    32. I hope Nova 25 reads the Epilogue, it might make him very happy.

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    33. Wait. What? That epilogue....

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    34. Hm. I just read the whole thing in one shot.

      Quite a bizarre tale. At least the post explanation cleared up some confusion.

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    35. That epilogue ... I shouldn't have read it, now I'm confused. Is Ditzy still stuck in a time loop now that she have her kid ? If the time loop finally stopped, did everything turned back to normal (or are the elements of harmony represented by Zecorah Trixie or Photo Finish or something) ? It raises more questions than it answers. I guess I'll just have to re-read it during daylight, not in the middle of the night - it'll probably make more sense, sorry :/

      Other than that it was a great read ! I really liked it and went through every chapter in one go. It was awesome !

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    36. @Anonymous

      The point, akin to the end of Inception, was that it didn't matter anymore - Ditzy might still be in a time loop, but she has Dinky back, and that's all that she considers important.

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    37. Hm...you know, I really like the depth given to Derpy in this story. The other characters work well, but, yeah. I really like imagining Derpy as a multi dimensional character with a tragic but down-to-earth past.

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    38. Hahaha, good story. I liked how he explained why derpy is so "special" at the end.

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    39. I liked the story, but probably should have stopped reading before the epilogue. The idea was good, but it still seemed a bit too unnecessary sad and didn't fit with the happy tone of the rest of the story. Seeing her loosing her mind kind of hurt :(

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    40. Dear Polecat,

      I am ere to give my review of your story. Here goes nothing...


      To begin with, I have to agree with a lot of the early commenters. When I started reading this and read the prologue, it kinda felt like I got shanked. Dead Dinky? Ow...

      It actually almost made me put this fic away. But I read on and I let it sink in as I did. You hadn't used it like a dead-baby joke, you had used it for character development in this more tragic take on everyone's favorite wall-eyed Pegasus.

      Moving on, I have to say I enjoyed your take on the 4 other background ponies. I loved this motherly, sweet and warm-hearted take on Bon-Bon. I haven't read much fanon regarding her or Lyra, mostly because most of what you can find for them are filly-fooler shipping fics. It was nice to see them together and not be lovers. (No, I'm not against gay love. I'm bisexual myself. But come on, guys.)

      This leads me to Lyra, which, as stated above, I have not seem enough outside of the numerous shipping fics with Bon-Bon. Again, another good take on a background Pony. And kudos for having her be the only sane pony and realizing the tree trap was smoke and mirrors.

      Raindrops was a pony I'd never heard of before, so I suppose you may of had a clean late to work with when it came to her. At first, I kinda thought of her as Rainbow Dash, but without all her drive for greatness to keep her from being lazy and sleeping all day. But she started to slip out of that and become as unique as the rest

      Carrot Top was a brilliant one, I think. A perfect over-the-top sort of pony to round out the more mellow members of the group and give them some real backbone, kinda like AJ.

      The epilogue in general was the perfect capstone to the whole story, an brought a smile to my face. The repeating recursions were very interesting. Big Mac taking up the Element of Honesty in place of AJ I got a giggle from. I also loved that you gave Gilda and Trixie some love. It's nice to see them not portrayed as total bitches. The nod to Zecora was also a nice touch.

      The parts that really cemented it as gold for me though... The slow loss of control Derpy had over everything as she was gradually overwhelmed by the repeating days replaying again and again, giving an explanation to the strange form of speech she is often given in many fanfics.

      And of course, the very end... The Element of Dinky. This man... This made manly tears flow down my cheeks. Dinky, given to her mother for having to endure what she did again and again.

      Anyway, for all these reasons, I am giving you 5 stars, Polecat. Bravo sir. Bravo.

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    41. The ending... bittersweet is all I have to say, and reading Dinky/Derpy slowly lose her ability to communicate, (and possibly her mind) nearly drove me to tears. (confound these ponies)

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