or: Local Pony Ruins Everything

Like the last blog, you should actually read the story before reading this. Get to it.

Are you familiar with franchises where a movie or book comes out, it does really well, then they make a sequel that's nothing but a transparent cash/attention grab riding on the success of the first installment, with no regard for quality?

Yeah me neither.

Anyways. Shortly after finishing Stormy Nights, I started wondering about how all that crap she went through as a child would affect her as an adult. One idea led to another, and I ended up writing a story I never intended to.

It took several months (Stormy 1 was written last July, remember) to get an opening sequence to 2 I was satisfied with. I knew from the beginning that Strawberry had to be taken out of the picture; she is way too much of a good influence. So moving towns was an obvious choice.

Early versions had Stormy as a college graduate. She initially wanted to hide her lightning so not to scare the others. Later revisions had Wobbler telling her to hide it. It would come out when Stormy would, say, light a campfire in the wilderness for a sick pony. But it didn't make sense that Stormy would willingly hide the one thing that she (in her mind) was good at. As well as having to introduce Sick Pony near the end of the story. Then possibly defending the town from some external threat, but that came across as repeating Boast Busters.

The college/nopony knows about it thing was solved easily enough by having Stormy just not going. And I finally started to get the ideas that would become the final product.

I played with the idea of a literary montage filling the gap between Stormy 1 and 2, but it just didn't work out. So Stormy's reaction to finding out she was an accident is left as an exercise for the reader.

Wobbler is an interesting character, I think. I like her as a sort of reflection of Stormy, or Stormy as she could have been. Like Stormy, Wobbler is a half-and-half, but with a pegasus mother and an Earth father. Unlike Stormy, Wobbler was a wanted birth. Stormy broke her left wing, Wobbler broke her right. Stormy recovered, Wobbler didn't. I also didn't want the level of friendship that Stormy and Strawberry had. Wobbler gets along with Stormy, but they don't quite mesh.

Wobbler is very driven. She thinks highly of herself and she wants to succeed, shooting for the top. But she knows that if ponies know of her disability, they would say "ooh you poor thing" and give her some pity position. There is no path to advancement there, and Wobbler does not want your pity. So she hides it, making people think it's just part of her eccentricity, even choosing to call herself 'Wobbler', a nickname she likely earned in flight school. (Also I am proud of coming up with Silver Lining. That fits her so well.) To be fair, her eccentricity is genuine. She really is like that.

I planned on Stormy asking whether Wobbler hit her head too, which she denies, but it didn't fit the scene. I think it's funnier if she didn't. I did want to experiment in making the reader feel like a giant jerk by making you laugh at a handicapped girl. Here's hoping I succeeded.

Wobbler's flying clearly puts her at a disadvantage. In order to stay competitive, she has to work extra hard and be outstanding in everything she does. One messup, one major mistake, and her career is over. Way to go, Stormy.

Speaking of, one thing I wanted to get across in Stormy 1, but couldn't quite pull off, was how she flew. Stormy Nights is not a weak flyer. She is in fact a very strong one. But strength does not mean speed. I like to think of Stormy like a cargo plane. Built big (for a pegasus), can carry large loads. She can fly long distances under load without tiring, and she can fly through the worst that nature has to offer by simply forcing her way through. But she flies like a brick. Not nearly as fast, and not nearly as maneuverable as her kin.

What else? Oh yes, the mayor. One complaint I got in Stormy 1 was how Sterling was under-characterized, sort of cartoon evil. So I made sure to show Stormy 2's "antagonist" as a rounded person. She is from a major city and is used to formality (like being the only person to call Silver Lining by her real name). No wonder Wobbler drives her up the wall.

I wanted to make sure, in the storm aftermath, that both Wobbler and the mayor were to blame. Either could have listened more to the other. But it ties into the theme I had going of the separation between the ground and the sky. (Stormy doesn't even touch the ground until chapter 3.) But Wobbler has her 'my sky my rules' attitude, and the mayor's dislike for Wobbler preventing her from asking what the heck all that ultra-precise weather terminology (as part of Wobbler's drive to succeed) actually means.

And guess who blames herself for the whole thing? Yeah.

Sweet merciful Celestia I've been rambling. This thing is as long as Chapter 4 was? Did I get everything? Maybe I'll edit in more later.

Oh yeah, Announcement.

Stormy Nights 3: Darkened Skies. Coming Sometime.