Needed Disclaimer · 11:22am Dec 20th, 2012
So, a friend finally put me up to this because I have no idea when I'll ever get to finishing Deep Dark or rewriting WCHB, so here it is. This is a disclaimer I've been meaning to do since several people who read my things have asked.
What Could Have Been was thought up during Season 1, and written during the summer, months before After That Fateful Night. It earned a Star 6 on Equestria Daily along with my second story on the site, Solar Flare. During the time, however, I was suffering from writer's block, and it ended up being a short story instead of the lengthy story I wanted. So much of it was left out that I wrote down a few supplementaries to go along with it. Most people didn't get to see them. Those that did were followers of mine from one of Equestria Daily's Ponychat's channels, EquestrianStudy. They also got to hear me constantly talking about it, so it wasn't something I kept quiet about. I eventually deleted the supplementals because I didn't need them anymore. But the chat still got to hear about my stories.
Months after I wrote WCHB, I made plans to rewrite it, but I was caught up in Deep Dark at the time. So I put it off, and put it off, and put it off. But I still remembered everything it was supposed to be, as did many of my readers from the channel. My readers point out a new story to me on EqD that involved Nightmare Moon and Twilight, just like mine. So we all read it with excitement, and then call BS in the comments. It was a blatant ripoff of mine. It never updated on EqD again. Sometimes I think it may have been After That Fateful Night, because when I read it, things seemed familiar, like I had read the first couple chapters before.
Time passes, and I finally upload all three of my Haven stories to FiMFiction. They don't get much notice, but oh well, I had them on EqD, Solar Flare was a relatively well known Star 6 (Though I wish it was more well known than that.) I thought nothing of it. Eventually, I go looking for Nightmare Moon and Twilight fics, since I loved their interaction. I come upon After That Fateful Night. Oh, hey! Another one where NMM took Twilight as a pet when she won! Cool! I begin reading it and start noticing various things. How many of the things that happened early on had also happened in my fic. At first, I thought it was a simple coincidence. A couple things? Yeah, that's fine. Then it happened again, and again, and continuously. Then I knew it was outright plagiarism. Not fully enough so that it can be taken straight from my story, but changed enough to be 'original'. The horn inhibitor, the way NMM transported Twilight. The rebellion (Which in my supplemental was started by Applejack), the War (Which I never revealed who was against. I was never sure myself. I thought I would just come up with something when I got to that part). Just various things that struck me. The way Twilight eventually came to love Nightmare Moon (Not in the stupid way that AtFN did, though. That was just bad) was different, though. In mine it was supposed to be more gradual. Not a desperate "OMG I've been abandoned she's the only one that loves me" crap.
So I confronted the 'author' (I use author as a loose term. Plagiarists aren't authors) about it. Of course, they vehemently denied it, but I could tell he was lying through his teeth. He eventually blocked me. Then he and his editor both came and thumbed down WCHB.
Eventually, if I do ever get to rewriting What Could Have Been, it'll have a better title and will be the majestic lengthy story I wanted it to be. And sitting right at the top will be a massive disclaimer pointing out that AtFN was built on plagiarized elements.
Interesting. I guess it just shows that I fell off of EqD, because I never heard of it, else I would have been angry too.
At any rate, if you do ever decide to continue DD/rewrite WCHB, just know you'll always have my axe. You know how to reach me ^_^
631148
You came on as my editor partway into Deep Dark. My editors during WCHB were Sage and ZAquanimus.
631702
I know, but still. Just letting you know I'm available
or you could forget Atfn ever existed. anyway I really hope youi do lengthen that awesome piece called what could have been.
958809
I might at some point. I sort of just fell out of writing. It started becoming a job. But if I ever do make WCHB into what it gloriously should have been, you'll know. I'd release all the supplementaries I wrote for it, but I put those to private long ago.
965846 ah ok thanks atleast. I guess we'll see what you plan on doing some time later.