Quiververse Bonus Reel - Anniversary Short

The soundstage stood empty and eerily quiet, its lone occupant obvious due to its vast emptiness. Quiver Quill wasn’t sure how to feel about that silence, but it at least allowed him to collect his thoughts.

Soft footfalls and hoof-falls sounded and approached, and a familiar voice asked, “Quivs? You alright?”

“Yeah, just…reflecting.” Quiver turned to Sunrunner and explained, “You know this is an anniversary year?” At his marefriend’s quizzical tilt, he continued, “The Quiververse. It’s celebrating a ten-year anniversary.”

“Ten years?” Sunset Shimmer crossed her arms. “I thought it had been longer than that.”

Quiver shrugged. “Ten years since the stories started getting posted on FimFiction, anyway. November 2014. DeviantArt started getting them in June of 2013, and Archive of our Own in February of 2016.”

“Well regardless, that’s still a pretty good run.” The lone pegasus among them grinned. “Twenty-one stories? Nineteen vignettes? Four Q&A segments and a blooper reel? That’s a lot of stuff out in that time.”

“Yeah, but…”  Quiver sighed. “Maybe this is just the author speaking through me, but I feel like there’s still so much yet to do. So much more that could’ve been done in that time.”

“So much that was done in that time.” Sunset raised a hand and ticked off points with her fingers. “My status quo was established, and a lot was set up for stories to come. I’m on pretty good footing, even compared to canon. Some would argue that I’m doing better than canon, in fact.”

“And that’s ignoring the stuff we’ve gotten up to.” Sunrunner grinned as she picked up where her cousin left off. “You’ve had your fair share of adventures, shaped lives for the better, saved lives, exposed a conspiracy, and become a voice of reason to a princess. And that’s ignoring those two crossover stories we’ve had.”

“Yeah, but it feels like more could have been done.” Quiver sighed as he explained, “Life got in the way, and I wish that it hadn’t.”

“Whoa there, little horse!” Three heads turned in unison as a tall man in a red and black suit that covered the whole of his body appeared. “Let’s take a step back here, huh?”

The trio looked upon the newcomer in shock. “Deadpool?!” As the Merc with the Mouth bowed with a flourish, Sunset exclaimed, “What are you doing here?!”

“I dunno! Maybe I’m here to engage in shameless plugging!” Deadpool turned to one side and stage-whispered, “Deadpool and Wolverine, out now on DVD and Blu-Ray! Highest-grossing R-rated film in history!” He then turned back to the trio and continued, “Maybe I’m here to finally show you guys how to break the fourth wall properly! But mostly, I think I’m here to point something out to you.” The Merc locked eyes on the lone stallion, poked him in the nose with an extended forefinger, and emphasized each syllable with a further poke as he declared, “Shit happens.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “That’s some awful tame swearing coming from you.”

“Yes, it is. Disney couldn’t hold me back, but apparently, fanfics can.” He got down on one knee and continued, “Anyway though, super serious mode? Shit happens. Stuff goes wrong. Things don’t go according to plan, and we all know it. In-story, I sure as rut never…” He paused. “Sure as rut? Shit, that sounds stupid. I’m lucky I can do that in this context, but still, we all know what we’re really saying here.” He then got back on topic, “Anyway, in-story, I didn’t plan on getting cancer. Or, y’know, ending up all scrotum-faced.”

Sunrunner tilted her head. “You don’t look that bad under the mask.”

“Thank you, but I’m pushing boundaries. Anyway, out of story, there was a lot of stuff that we didn’t expect to deal with on the long road to getting the new movie made. The Fox-Disney merger. COVID-19. The WGA strike. The SAG strike. All of that slowed progress down whether we wanted it to or not. But, we got there in the end, and like I said just a few paragraphs ago, highest-grossing R-rated film in history.” He gently laid a hand on Quiver’s shoulder and explained, “Might take you a while to get where you want to go, but you’ll get there. And when you do, you’ll have folks lining up to read whatever comes next. Seriously, look at the stats on your stories sometime. I get the feeling that the only reason some people have down-voted your stories is just simple spite.”

“Well, they aren’t perfect…”

“Up-pup-pup!” Deadpool put two fingers to Quiver’s mouth to silence him. “You still get a lot more up-votes than down-votes. Take the victory and run with it, little brown horse.” He then got back to his feet and declared, “Speaking of running, I need to chase down Pinkie Pie. That little pink horse and I have some chimicherrychangas with our names on them!”

And with that, the Merc with the Mouth was gone. Sunset shook her head. “And here I thought that Pinkie had the market cornered on randomness.”

“Must come with being a fourth-wall observer.” Sunrunner then turned to Quiver. “Anyway, he’s right. So we’ve had delays of our own. But we’re getting past those bits of crazy, and we’re on our way back at last.” She waved a hoof. “Case in point, this little thing.”

Quiver nodded. “True. Still, it would be nice to get back at this more quickly.”

His marefriend gently nuzzled him. “Slow and steady wins the race, Quiver. We’ve got plenty yet to give the audience, after all. Five regular stories, two more vignettes, two more blooper reels…”

“At least one more Q&A segment,” Sunset chipped in.

“And that’s before we get to Season Two. It’s gonna be a fun ride, and we’ll be on it together.”

The stallion smiled. “Yeah, we will.” He then looked up and declared, “Happy Anniversary. See you all next time.”