Stranger Than Fan Fiction

Stranger Than Fan Fiction
Season №:	6
Season episode №:	13
Overall episode №:	130
Original airdate:	July 30, 2016
Written by:	Josh Haber and Michael Vogel
Storyboard:	Karine Charlebois and Thalia Tomlinson
Featured characters:	Quibble Pants Daring Do Dr. Caballeron
See also
credits • transcript • gallery • allusions animation errors • statistics • speculation
Episode guide
Previous Spice Up Your Life	Next The Cart Before the Ponies

Stranger Than Fan Fiction is the thirteenth episode of season six of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic and the one hundred and thirtieth overall. The title is a reference to the saying "truth is stranger than fiction" and fan fiction, an in-universe example of the latter of which is Untitled Mare Do Well fanfiction.

In this episode, Rainbow Dash attends a Daring Do Convention and meets Quibble Pants, who hates Daring Do's post-book three stories as much as she loves them.

Production

In production order, this is season six episode fourteen.

This episode was initially teased by Daring Do voice actress Chiara Zanni in a direct message on Twitter in August 2015.^[1]

In early June 2016, Latin American dub director Maggie Vera tweeted, "No lo puedo creer! En un cap de MLP van a una convención!!! Y hay Ponies-fans!! Y hablan de sus cosplays jajaja esto sí que es increíble!!!",^[2] which, translated in English, indicated that there would be an episode where ponies go to a BronyCon-like convention, with Pony fans, and talking with cosplayers.

On July 13, 2016, Entertainment Weekly revealed that stand-up comedian Patton Oswalt would be providing the voice of Quibble Pants.^[3] Oswalt himself later confirmed the reveal on Twitter, adding that the episode has a Wes Anderson Easter egg.^[4]

The episode was released eight hours early on the U.S. and Canadian Netflix service.

The co-writer of the episode Michael Vogel revealed that Quibble Pants's monologue during the episode's end credits was all improvised by Oswalt.^[5] Also according to Vogel, this episode was originally envisioned as a Discord episode based on Oswalt's comedy routine "Rats".^[6]

Summary

Prologue

The episode begins with Daring Do braving an underground temple's hazards to claim a rare artifact. This is revealed to a Daring Do story being read to Rainbow Dash by Twilight Sparkle while Rainbow packs up for the Daring Do Convention in Manehattan. Twilight is upset that she is unable to attend the convention due to an upcoming friendship summit in Griffonstone, but Rainbow promises to get A.K. Yearling to sign her book for her.

Rainbow tries to downplay her excitement for the convention in front of Twilight, but she is overcome with excitement as soon as she arrives.

The Daring Do Convention

As Rainbow Dash wanders through the convention, a salespony briefly tries to sell her on the Daring Do Experience "adventu-cation", but she declines, having already done it. Afterward, she meets a pony named Quibble Pants, who shares her fanatical passion for Daring Do. The two spend some time exploring the convention together and checking out various booths and activities.

During lunch, Rainbow suggests they check out convention activities relating to the Daring Do books that were released after the initial trilogy. Quibble refuses, however, claiming that the later books in the series are "dumbed down" and unrealistic. This leads to a heated argument between Rainbow and Quibble regarding the quality and realism of A.K. Yearling's subsequent writing, and Rainbow is unable to properly defend her points without revealing that Daring Do is a real pony.

Unable to come to an agreement on the matter, the two decide that they cannot be friends and part ways.

The Amulet of Culiacan

At the hotel near the convention, Rainbow Dash searches for A.K. Yearling so she can prove to Quibble Pants that the Daring Do books are indeed realistic. When she meets with Yearling claiming to have an "emergency", Yearling pulls her into a hotel room, believing that Dr. Caballeron is somewhere at the convention. Yearling dismisses Rainbow's fan interests as she is more concerned with a key-shaped artifact she recently came into possession of and finding a lost treasure before Caballeron does.

Discarding her A.K. Yearling persona, Daring Do asks Rainbow Dash to keep a lookout for suspicious activity around the convention hall. As Rainbow returns to the convention, Dr. Caballeron lurks close by, blending in with cosplayers as he searches for Daring Do. Rainbow once again bumps into Quibble Pants, who continues to voice his distaste for the later Daring Do books.

As Rainbow follows Caballeron and Quibble Pants follows her, Caballeron's henchponies overhear them talking about Daring Do's artifact and capture them.

The Temple of Chicomoztoc

Caballeron and his henchponies drag Rainbow and Quibble out to a remote jungle, believing them to be working for Daring Do and intending to use them as bait to draw her in. However, Quibble believes the entire setup to be fake—that Rainbow Dash signed them up for a Daring Do Experience adventu-cation and that Caballeron and his henchponies are merely actors.

After the henchponies bind Rainbow and Quibble in chains, Quibble uses his intricate Daring Do savvy to lure the henchponies away and free himself and Rainbow. However, he still refuses to acknowledge that anything happening around him is real. Rainbow guides Quibble through the treacherous jungle, and it is only after Quibble nearly falls into raging rapids that he realizes his life is in genuine danger. Unfortunately, Caballeron and his henchponies quickly catch up with them, and through their unwitting help, Caballeron discovers the lost temple he had been searching for.

Caballeron and his henchponies drag Rainbow and Quibble into the temple, and Quibble still believes everything happening around him to be a performance. As he continues to voice his cynicism, he inadvertently triggers some traps that releases a monstrous Cipactli and slowly fills the temple chamber with mud. Once he is face-to-face with the Cipactli, Quibble comes to a frightening realization:

"This is real!"

— Quibble Pants

Escaping the temple

Caballeron traps Rainbow and Quibble in the mud chamber with the Cipactli, but Daring Do swoops to their rescue. Quibble is eager to escape the temple, but Daring Do says they have to find the treasure before Caballeron first.

Rainbow, Quibble, and Daring Do find themselves in a chamber with seven doors, behind only one of which lies the treasure. With Quibble Pants' cynical help, Daring Do opens the correct door with her key-shaped artifact and claims the temple's treasure. However, as mud starts to fill the room, the temple entrance is sealed off and the Cipactli slowly closes in.

Using a vine to pull Quibble Pants along, Rainbow and Daring Do avoid the Cipactli and escape the temple through an open skylight. Once the three are outside the temple, they elude Caballeron and his henchponies by having the Cipactli chase them off.

Epilogue

Daring Do thanks both Rainbow Dash and Quibble Pants for their help and flies off to bring the temple treasure to a museum.

As Rainbow and Quibble return to civilization, Quibble admits that the later Daring Do books are more realistic than he realized, but he still does not like them. Before Rainbow can argue with him again, Quibble says he figured something out. While he prefers the intelligent and puzzle-solving Daring Do of the original trilogy and Rainbow prefers the brave and unbeatable Daring Do of the later books, it is okay for them to like the series in their own way, and neither of them are at fault for their personal preferences.

Quibble also compliments Rainbow Dash for the bravery and awesomeness she demonstrated during their adventure. Rainbow returns the sentiment, complimenting Quibble for his perception and puzzle-solving skills. As they leave the jungle as friends, Quibble goes on an extended ramble about his Daring Do fan fiction that continues over the end credits.

Quotes

For more quotes, see the episode's transcript.

Salespony: You look like a pony who'd be up for an all-inclusive one-of-a-kind adventu-cation, where you can get to live the Daring Do experience!

Rainbow Dash: No thanks. Did that already.

Rainbow Dash: Nice costume.

Quibble Pants: You, too.

Rainbow Dash: Thanks. The hard part was figuring out the right...

Rainbow Dash and Quibble Pants: ...number of arrow holes.

Quibble Pants: B-B-Because on page 84 of Sapphire Stone, i-it describes her dodging a, quote, "score of arrows shooting forth from holes in the very walls," unquote, but then on page 107, Daring Do says she, quote, "barely made it past the traps' barrage of arrows," unquote, but clearly, Daring Do is embellishing and the correct number of arrows is...

Rainbow Dash and Quibble Pants: Twenty! [chuckle]

Rainbow Dash: Caballeron!

Quibble Pants: See, now that's a great character. Solid backstory, good motivations...

Rainbow Dash: No-no-no-no! Caballeron is right there!

Quibble Pants: Of course he is. He's also over there, over there... Ooh, ooh, over there, and and over there.

Quibble Pants: Right. We're actually being held captive by Caballeron. Please! This guy's accent is all over the place! No offense.

Dr. Caballeron: I...

Quibble Pants: If this were really a real Daring Do adventure, I'm sure I'd step on the wrong plank at exactly the wrong—

[wood crunches]

Quibble Pants: Whoa!

Rainbow Dash: [straining]

Quibble Pants: [sighs] Good thing this is all just a pretend adventure. Least we know all of this struggling won't make the bridge fall apart.

[snap]

Quibble Pants: You need to get your money back.

Quibble Pants: Listen, buddy, I don't take orders from some second-rate performer who learned acting from the Supervillain School of Bad Accents! The only thing this mess is missing is some giant Ahuizotl wannabe monster, and I have a feeling that would be too much for you bargain-basement adventurers to pull off!

[mud dripping]

Quibble Pants: Huh?

Cipactli: [roars]

Quibble Pants: Um... you're real. This is real. This is real!

Quibble Pants: Uh, do you think A. K. Yearling would consider letting me write the next book? I... I think I can make things way clearer. I mean, for instance, in the second adventure...

[Quibble continues talking over credits]

Quibble Pants: ...there's a side character. I don't want to kind of name it right now, because it's sort of this thing that I've already written a lot of fan fiction on. I don't want you to... Not that I'm saying that you would steal it! But I am saying this would totally go along my whole thing about puzzle-solving, except what if each puzzle that was solved unlocked a new karate move? Think of it that way, right? And I mean I'm kind of a "Yearlite" myself, so I'm sure she'd be open to—

Rainbow Dash: Uh... Quibble?

Quibble Pants: Sorry!

Gallery

Stranger Than Fan Fiction image gallery

References

1. ↑ (Rumor) More Daring Do Possibly on the Way?. Equestria Daily. Blogger (2015-08-29). Retrieved on 2016 July 1.
2. ↑ Maggie Vera (2016-06-08). Maggie Vera on Twitter: "No lo puedo creer! En un cap de MLP van a una convención!!! Y hay Ponies-fans!! Y hablan de sus cosplays jajaja esto sí que es increíble!!!" (Spanish). Twitter. Retrieved on 2016 June 9.
3. ↑ Dylan Kickham (2016-07-13). My Little Pony: Patton Oswalt will voice a new pony in Comic-Con themed episode. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved on 2016 July 13.
4. ↑ Patton Oswalt (2016-07-13). It is happening. IT IS HAPPENING. Also, Wes Anderson fans have a nice little Easter egg in this episode.. Twitter. Retrieved on 2016 July 13.
5. ↑ Michael Vogel (2016-07-30). This credit monologue is ALLLLLL @pattonoswalt .... classic improv magic #MLPSeason6. Twitter. Retrieved on 2016 July 30.
6. ↑ Michael Vogel (2019-10-12). Fun fact: the ORIGINAL ideas for the @pattonoswalt MLP episode was a Discord episode based on his stand up act “Rats”. But @joshhaber and I couldn’t make it work so we came up with Quibble Pants based on his stand up about hating the Star Wars prequels! #MLPSeriesfinale. Twitter. Retrieved on 2016 October 12.

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Season one
Episode 1 Friendship is Magic, part 1	Episode 2 Friendship is Magic, part 2	Episode 3 The Ticket Master	Episode 4 Applebuck Season
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Episode 1 The Return of Harmony Part 1	Episode 2 The Return of Harmony Part 2	Episode 3 Lesson Zero	Episode 4 Luna Eclipsed
Episode 5 Sisterhooves Social	Episode 6 The Cutie Pox	Episode 7 May the Best Pet Win!	Episode 8 The Mysterious Mare Do Well
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	Episode 25 A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1	Episode 26 A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2

Season three
Episode 1 The Crystal Empire - Part 1	Episode 2 The Crystal Empire - Part 2	Episode 3 Too Many Pinkie Pies	Episode 4 One Bad Apple
Episode 5 Magic Duel	Episode 6 Sleepless in Ponyville	Episode 7 Wonderbolts Academy	Episode 8 Apple Family Reunion
Episode 9 Spike at Your Service	Episode 10 Keep Calm and Flutter On	Episode 11 Just for Sidekicks	Episode 12 Games Ponies Play
Episode 13 Magical Mystery Cure

Season four
Episode 1 Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 1	Episode 2 Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 2	Episode 3 Castle Mane-ia	Episode 4 Daring Don't
Episode 5 Flight to the Finish	Episode 6 Power Ponies	Episode 7 Bats!	Episode 8 Rarity Takes Manehattan
Episode 9 Pinkie Apple Pie	Episode 10 Rainbow Falls	Episode 11 Three's A Crowd	Episode 12 Pinkie Pride
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Episode 21 Testing Testing 1, 2, 3	Episode 22 Trade Ya!	Episode 23 Inspiration Manifestation	Episode 24 Equestria Games
	Episode 25 Twilight's Kingdom - Part 1	Episode 26 Twilight's Kingdom - Part 2

Season five
Episode 1 The Cutie Map - Part 1	Episode 2 The Cutie Map - Part 2	Episode 3 Castle Sweet Castle	Episode 4 Bloom & Gloom
Episode 5 Tanks for the Memories	Episode 6 Appleoosa's Most Wanted	Episode 7 Make New Friends but Keep Discord	Episode 8 The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone
Episode 9 Slice of Life	Episode 10 Princess Spike	Episode 11 Party Pooped	Episode 12 Amending Fences
Episode 13 Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?	Episode 14 Canterlot Boutique	Episode 15 Rarity Investigates!	Episode 16 Made in Manehattan
Episode 17 Brotherhooves Social	Episode 18 Crusaders of the Lost Mark	Episode 19 The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows	Episode 20 Hearthbreakers
Episode 21 Scare Master	Episode 22 What About Discord?	Episode 23 The Hooffields and McColts	Episode 24 The Mane Attraction
	Episode 25 The Cutie Re-Mark - Part 1	Episode 26 The Cutie Re-Mark - Part 2

Season six
Episode 1 The Crystalling - Part 1	Episode 2 The Crystalling - Part 2	Episode 3 The Gift of the Maud Pie	Episode 4 On Your Marks
Episode 5 Gauntlet of Fire	Episode 6 No Second Prances	Episode 7 Newbie Dash	Episode 8 A Hearth's Warming Tail
Episode 9 The Saddle Row Review	Episode 10 Applejack's "Day" Off	Episode 11 Flutter Brutter	Episode 12 Spice Up Your Life
Episode 13 Stranger Than Fan Fiction	Episode 14 The Cart Before the Ponies	Episode 15 28 Pranks Later	Episode 16 The Times They Are A Changeling
Episode 17 Dungeons & Discords	Episode 18 Buckball Season	Episode 19 The Fault in Our Cutie Marks	Episode 20 Viva Las Pegasus
Episode 21 Every Little Thing She Does	Episode 22 P.P.O.V. (Pony Point of View)	Episode 23 Where the Apple Lies	Episode 24 Top Bolt
	Episode 25 To Where and Back Again - Part 1	Episode 26 To Where and Back Again - Part 2

Season seven
Episode 1 Celestial Advice	Episode 2 All Bottled Up	Episode 3 A Flurry of Emotions	Episode 4 Rock Solid Friendship
Episode 5 Fluttershy Leans In	Episode 6 Forever Filly	Episode 7 Parental Glideance	Episode 8 Hard to Say Anything
Episode 9 Honest Apple	Episode 10 A Royal Problem	Episode 11 Not Asking for Trouble	Episode 12 Discordant Harmony
Episode 13 The Perfect Pear	Episode 14 Fame and Misfortune	Episode 15 Triple Threat	Episode 16 Campfire Tales
Episode 17 To Change a Changeling	Episode 18 Daring Done?	Episode 19 It Isn't the Mane Thing About You	Episode 20 A Health of Information
Episode 21 Marks and Recreation	Episode 22 Once Upon a Zeppelin	Episode 23 Secrets and Pies	Episode 24 Uncommon Bond
	Episode 25 Shadow Play - Part 1	Episode 26 Shadow Play - Part 2

Season eight
Episode 1 School Daze - Part 1	Episode 2 School Daze - Part 2	Episode 3 The Maud Couple	Episode 4 Fake It 'Til You Make It
Episode 5 Grannies Gone Wild	Episode 6 Surf and/or Turf	Episode 7 Horse Play	Episode 8 The Parent Map
Episode 9 Non-Compete Clause	Episode 10 The Break Up Break Down	Episode 11 Molt Down	Episode 12 Marks for Effort
Episode 13 The Mean 6	Episode 14 A Matter of Principals	Episode 15 The Hearth's Warming Club	Episode 16 Friendship University
Episode 17 The End in Friend	Episode 18 Yakity-Sax	Episode 19 Road to Friendship	Episode 20 The Washouts
Episode 21 A Rockhoof and a Hard Place	Episode 22 What Lies Beneath	Episode 23 Sounds of Silence	Episode 24 Father Knows Beast
	Episode 25 School Raze - Part 1	Episode 26 School Raze - Part 2

Season nine
Episode 1 The Beginning of the End - Part 1	Episode 2 The Beginning of the End - Part 2	Episode 3 Uprooted	Episode 4 Sparkle's Seven
Episode 5 The Point of No Return	Episode 6 Common Ground	Episode 7 She's All Yak	Episode 8 Frenemies
Episode 9 Sweet and Smoky	Episode 10 Going to Seed	Episode 11 Student Counsel	Episode 12 The Last Crusade
Episode 13 Between Dark and Dawn	Episode 14 The Last Laugh	Episode 15 2, 4, 6, Greaaat	Episode 16 A Trivial Pursuit
Episode 17 The Summer Sun Setback	Episode 18 She Talks to Angel	Episode 19 Dragon Dropped	Episode 20 A Horse Shoe-In
Episode 21 Daring Doubt	Episode 22 Growing Up is Hard to Do	Episode 23 The Big Mac Question	Episode 24 The Ending of the End - Part 1
	Episode 25 The Ending of the End - Part 2	Episode 26 The Last Problem

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My Little Pony The Movie

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Rollercoaster of Friendship	Best Gift Ever	Spring Breakdown	Rainbow Roadtrip
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