End of Ponies - Petra Arc - Ancient Drafts (Now "Public") · 9:43am Nov 26th, 2013
Drawn by the Immortal InsomniacOvrlrd aka Spotlight
So, I uploaded a thing today.
Some of you might recognize this thing. Others might not. I don't upload this to be a rooster-tease or a creature that lives under a bridge. I upload this because it's been about fifteen fucking months and I doubt there're many marsupials left who give the derriere of a sewer rodent.
I can only say this with utmost sincerity. Nobody wants to see End of Ponies continued. They only think that they want to see End of Ponies continued. They've forgotten how Nietzsche-awfully boring it is, how dense and superfluous the modifiers are in every single mother-fornicating sentence, how the plot is so simple and clear-cut and yet it takes an eon for somepony to cross a single room.
It doesn't change the fact that I still want to finish End of Ponies someday, and I certainly have the rest of it planned out. I've had the end of... End of Ponies mapped out from day one. Two years ago, before I even sat down to get the story started, I knew exactly how I was going to end it.
The thing is, I am not a very diligent creature. If I can't keep something in my gaze on a consistent basis, I lose more than the mere sight of it. I lose all inspiration, enthusiasm, and creativity. That's why certain things have remained covered in cobwebs. The soonest I drop the matter, it takes more than resisting gravity to pick back up. It takes a solid belief in the vision, and I've been so far away from End of Ponies that--quite frankly--I am intimidated by it. The density, the pretentiousness, the length, the epic insanity of it all. Oh, and the fact that the story has the terrible habit of sucking toes isn't of much consolation either.
If I sound bitter about the whole ordeal, it's only because I am. As much as I've enjoyed the success of Background Pony and as much as I narcissistically relish occupying the #2 subscribed spot on FimFic, the last year and a half has been poisoned by this deep sensation of failure. Two years ago, I set my mind to something, and it still remains a fossil of the past.
Have I abandoned it? Nay, I'd argue in the contrary. I put a lot of time, effort, and words into extending the life of End of Ponies. I committed over 260,000 words--the length of an epic novel--into continuing the experience, only to have it crash and burn. I've returned to the graveyard twice, banging my head against the impermeable wall that the train wreck had become, and still I couldn't make flowers bloom in the wreckage. At this point, if I were to tackle the Petra arc tomorrow, it would quite literally involve a fourth rewrite. This is on top of dozens of other ideas that I'd much rather tackle in the meantime, and even those have been difficult in the orchestration.
So, where does that put me? At the beginning and ending of everything, of course. Assuming the world ends within a week's span (and it probably will this Friday), then I think the marsupial alumni deserve a memorial to the past that could have been. I've uploaded both the First Draft (a complete narrative) and the Second Draft (4 chapters, incomplete) of my most epic attempts at EoP content post-Dredgemane. Please, hear me out: these are not examples of good literature. If you go check out the holocaustal materials linked, you'll find nothing but gross butchering of established characters, superfluous flashbacks, endless fight scenes, and wacky suspension of disbelief that'll pull your entrails out through your eye sockets. It is bad. It is all very. very bad.
And yet... I do take some queer enjoyment in the material. It was something I really believed in at the time that I wrote it, for better or for worse. The original draft--a 250,000 word epic--was produced within the span of a month, and yet it's the size of an average Austraeoh novel (that usually takes 6 months to do). Though it may be utter garbage, it's almost like a bizarre tribute to the ways I used to write in the past, and it's quite possible that some of you with an unrealistic fetish for fight scenes in literary form might find some entertainment in the material. Enlightenment? Fuck, no, but I don't think my writing has "enlightened" any marsupial in a long, long time.
Also, though disjointed, the scenes in this weren't all utter rubbish, as evidenced in how I was able to salvage To the Wind from one or two flashback sequences, not to mention the dialogue and personality quotes of a certain zeppelin-piloting-space-elk. I'm speaking to you, jurors.
And for those of you worried that reading these segments may provide spoilers to the actual continuation of EoP, you may be right--but only in part. With the plans I have for the Fourth Edition, things are going to be so insanely changed that it's literally going to be a different reading experience altogether. This was always meant to be a bridge between thematic portions of the fanfic as a whole, so hopefully when the time comes the story arc will do just that. And, really, there are likely many of you who have trudged through this fecal heap already. Thanks for not sharing the stink too much.
Until the next train wreck, live long and dash apples, because they're sure as fuck not gonna dash themselves.
F'naaaa
-SS&E
When you consider the "beginning" Background Pony or the first chapters of EOP and "now" being your neighborhood-marsupial-spider-princess or whatever you call the author of Austraeoh nowadays, things look a lot better than you make them out to be. As much of a challenge the plot will be, rest assured it's pretty self-evident you've become a ton better at pacing adventure fics of
mentor, so how hard could 
be?
All those past-tense verbs are giving me the heebie jeebies, especially since you've kept linking that teen titan walking corpse.
as someone who re-reads EoP every 4-6 months I'm still wanting more... Still waiting Skirts... still waiting
Well, I only read End of Ponies earlier this year. Meaning, not that long ago. I'm pretty sure I'm not looking at it through the rosy-tinted goggles of nostalgia or some-shit. And I can say, with utmost sincerity, that I do, in fact, now and for the foreseeable future, want to see End of Ponies continue. It didn't bore me. Density is not a bad thing. And modifiers are a part of any well-balanced literary diet, thank you very much. I think you put it very well, when you said you're intimidated by it. I honestly think it's all in your head. Obviously, you should write it at your own pace, and all that (as was discussed in that other blog post). But maybe the first step to getting the spring back in your step is getting past the notion that writing it has to be like giving a cat a bath.
All that having been said, I'm glad you added Kaizo Petra. Good or not, I've heard a lot about it, and I'll definitely have to give it a whirl.
I may not be a fan of EoP, but I fully sympathize with the concept of not being able to put into coherent words what is in my head. Something similar, but oh dear god in heaven on a much smaller scale, with Luminous Sky. I had a chapter with Shining Armor in Canterlot dealing with the history of Bentgrass, and it was done, polished, shiny, ready to print... then my editor told me it was crap and distracted from the main narrative.
So, 6K gone.
You're a braver man than I, Grorious Reader, for publishing something that you deem a failure. Here's hoping that you find your muse and nail her feet to the floor with a pneumatic nail gun and force her eyes open a la Clockwork Orange and get this beast back on track.
What? Oh, I don't care, but a lot of people I care for care, so... yeah, yay Pterodactyl Arc, or whatever...
You shut your stupid fucking face! I dunno what the shitty, toxic standard you're holding yourself to is, but I hold End of Ponies near and dear to my heart. Not many fics made me have feelings quite like it has. It has caused me lots of happiness and sorrow and I fucking love it for it. I remember reading it before it got on fimfiction, and I remember re-reading it just because you made some small-ass changes later that I mistakenly thought was a 're-write'. So I'm gonna sit here, and I'm gonna wait for that fic to update nice and proper like; I am at least one tiny, measly-ass statistic that are you wrong.
Skirts, I have read End of Ponies (what has been written to date) three times. The first two times were before the current version, and then I read the rewrite you did.
I feel it's fair to say that I've also read all of the Wheel of Time no less than a half-dozen times, as well.
Compared to the amazingly plodding epic that is Wheel of Time, End of Ponies moves quite quickly. And believe me, if you can stay above WoT-levels of writing, then you're still doing amazingly well.
I look forward to the continuations.
TL;DR. Just shut up and finish the thing, Short. So many people have been waiting patiently (others not so patiently) for updates after you backburnered the thing for eighteen months. The most we ever got was some re-written and re-organized chapters . Sorry,but while having it them brought up to speed is nice, most of us wanted some actual progression! You know, to have the plot line actually moved along. If that had merely been the prelude to more content that'd have been fine, but then you promptly dropped out of sight again. I'd much rather see the thing finished before it's given another freaking re-write!
Long story short, stop beating yourself up over stupidly high expectations that only serve to slow you down. High expectations are good, but when they are so high as to completely stall whatever it is you've been trying to accomplish for as long as it has, then it starts detracting more than it helps. Entire story arcs by less talented writers have come and gone in the time you've spent wallowing in self doubt. If their stories can still entertain, I'm sure whatever you have will be fine. Just freaking post it, ya mook.
Maybe some day I will read End of Ponies, but glancing through the chapter names kind of scares me off. Too much Pinkie, and Pinkie is my least favorite of the mane 6 to be stuck with in a wasteland for half a million words. Maybe someone can Assuage my thoughts?
(No offense Pinkie fans)
This doesn't change anything. Still waiting.
I for one can't wait to dive into the Petra arc. I've heard so much about it and had no idea how everyone already seemed to know about it, so I assure you, this is not garbage to me!
Usually I wait until stories are finished to reread them, but I suppose I'll make an exception.
Skirts, back when you first wrote EoP, you were writing the equivalent of a novel pretty much every month, with no drop in quality. It was pretty much the most impressive thing I have ever seen.
So while I understand how it gets harder to write to your pre-set standards, and that sometimes reading your endless pages of introspective philosophical rhetoric can be like swallowing a brick, don't you think that either of those things reflect badly on you.
You didn't get that subscriber count by accident. We genuinely think you're awesome.
In sort, cheer up chuck.
Yes, The End Of Ponies is a very long story that is too detailed and boring in places. Yet I read the entire thing. Guess why.
While you may be correct, you do deserve to give it some form of closure.
If you do, that's up to you. Not us.
~Skeeter The Lurker
I like spoilers.
Twistclops
EoP is, for all intents and purposes, THE fic that got me fully engrossed in this fanfic-reading business at FIMfiction. Thus, it bears a lot of sentimental value to me - there is NOTHING I want to see more on this site than to see this story reach its conclusion.
I can understand how getting back into it after all this time can be intimidating to you, but don't let it discourage you! You have the support of over 3&1/2 thousand followers who got your back.
If putting it off for longer is how it has to be, then so be it - it's not my place (nor is it anyone else's) to make that decision for you. I've waited a very long time already - I can wait a little longer.
You say I don't want End of Ponies continued, but I've done a damn good job of convincing myself. Besides, the modifiers are no more dense and superfluous than in most of your writing, this blog post included.
B-but I want to see what happens to our intrepid traveler
Still, EoP is an insight to the limits of how you used to write, an ode to your verbose nature perhaps.
The End Of Ponies is the fic that kept me sane and sober during my nine month contract on a sweatshop *cough*Princess-Cruise-Lines*cough*.
I am patient. One of my favourite fics updates yearly and is on chapter 10 now.
Muh heart...
Skirts. I love your story. What you're saying is entirely correct and a good point. I don't fucking care. I love it. It can be flawed, it can be outdated, it can be held up by a stack of porn magazines and made of asbestos, and I will still love it. Your heretical logic is not going to take it away from me.
You know, End of Ponies was the only fic I have ever read in which I picked up a pencil and paper and drew out a story board for an animation. I want to make an entire animation based on this story. Why would it be considered bad or boring if it would inspire someone to do an animation? Or heck, just look at your fanart! I think you are merely just being too critical of your work. I think no matter what, when you are done with this fourth re write, just post it. Don't revel in how bad you think it is. Just post it. Let your readers judge. At least that way you can continue on with the rest of the story.
Like the
infamous battle for Namek in DBZ?1542819
I'm not alone!
This story is, as I've not shut up about before, the most life-changing experience I've had since Lauren Faust drew a horse. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a l'il peeved about it being so long since it updated.
That said, I'm content to wait so long as it happens one day. If it wasn't the best it could be, it'd be like settling for drinking root beer because you don't wanna drive to the store for Dr. Pepper... or something. Whatever. Pterodactyls or whatever Jake said.
Though I doubt the ravings of a mad pegasus are anything to make a basis on, I have been surprisingly patient in my expectant waiting of a continuation of End of Ponies. I won't lie for the sole purpose of stroking your ego, there were a few points that were excruciatingly dull. However, the vast majority of the epic kept me wired to my computer screen any free moment I had for the two weeks it took me to read it.
That being said, as a flailing author myself, I do understand the feeling when going back to something after a long time and trying to continue it. I believe it's a feeling all authors get at one time or another. However, I will keep waiting for End of Ponies to continue, possibly forever if need be. It's the only other story I want to see with an update when I check, the other being Ordsjot.
Someday, perhaps, the wasteland will have it's closure.
I remember a time where I would check only a single thread on Ponychan multiple times daily as part of my routine, waiting for chance that the next draft chapter of the Petra might pop up to be devoured. In fact, I remember doing that twice. Kaizo was indeed kaizo, but I felt HHH smoothed out much of it's craziness and left behind a more solid story.
But still, dang it if I didn't love them anyways. I can't tell you how obsessed I was with the awesomeness of the scene where Harmony dons the Biv's old armor and goes into battle. That was almost literally my first thought after Dredgemane, of how she should find it and use it, and you did it.
I don't think you were wrong to want to bring some action back to the wasteland, even if it was overdone from a writing standpoint. The first arc romanced us with the grimdark beauty of this world, but the later arcs shut us out and sent us elsewhere. Four arcs in with only glimpses of the place meant that we were in need of a reminder of exactly what kind of world Harmony lives in, and we needed some conflict there. So with that, the direction of Petra was certainly understandable and even quite enjoyable as it was. For that much, it's insanity can almost be forgiven.
I'm glad you put these up though. At the very least, to give people an idea of where this story was headed, if not to rekindle the dormant flame in our hearts for this story. Granted, I already had them saved (what kind of obsessive fan would I be if I didn't?), but once I finish Dredgemane again I'll probably hop back into these, and that means I might have more people to talk with about them :3
You may be right that this is a story we really don't want to see continued. But even if that's the case, why do we want it so much? Maybe we've just seen the bright shinies. We've fallen, and by Entropa it's been a marvelous fall all the same.
-------------------------------------------
A rather humorous observation I've made while writing this:
1st Age - Chaos Wars - The age of craziness and chaos all across Equestria.
2nd Age - Pre-MLP Episode 1 - More stable age born from the ashes of the 1st age. An age of general peace and calmness, but not yet the best things could be.
3rd Age - Post-MLP Episode 1 - What was supposed to be the dawn of the golden age, but was tragically short lived.
4th Age - The Cataclysm - The "end of ponies", as it were. The age where only few survive to remember the old days of Equestria and seek to bring back it's former glory.
1st Draft: Petra (Kaizo Edition) - Crazy, chaotic, and certainly kaizo.
2nd Draft - Petra (HHH Edition) - More stable, born from the ashes of the 1st draft, but still not all it was meant to be.
3rd Draft - Petra (2013 Edition) - What should have been the golden age, but came to a short and unexpected end.
4th Draft - Petra ("For Realz This Time" Edition) - The draft that, as you say, may end up being written at or after the end of the fandom (the end of ponies?). This one has been waited on by the few, but with the hope of bringing the story back to it's former glory.
Spooooooooky!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh wowsers...I certainly didn't expect to wake up this morning to come to FIMfic and see this uploaded, that's for damn sure. I had no idea about the HHH version of the Petra Arc draft, so this is a treat.
Haha no.
You make valid points, however. Yes, it is lengthy. Very. Some bits are slightly repetitive. Scoots does an absurd amount of navel-gazing. Plots drag on. It's difficult for a new reader to pick up the story unless they have a persistent, vested interest in seeing what happens next. I'm still having trouble getting a friend of mine to stick to reading it for the past few months.
But the long journey is all worth it in the end. Long, spaced-out time leads to world building and scenery description. You told an amazing tale in the cobbled streets of dreary Dreadgemane. You breathed life into the Twilit Wastes with the bustling, grimy goblin city of Petra. I'm still fascinated with the lore of the Princesses such as Elektra, Entropa, and Nebula. Separate from this story, you carved out a massive world through the vast landscapes traveled by Rainbow Dash in the Austraeoh series.
My good sir, you sell yourself far too short. And you just might find things different from the practice you've gotten from writing other things in the meantime, and the help you've gotten from other in the fandom. I'm positive that you can still finish this story with flying colors.
End of Ponies was the first story I ever read of yours, and one of the first ten I ever read when I joined this fandom. It is still my favorite, because of how epic is is and feels. That feeling that there's just something so much bigger going on, and it all stems from a time-travelling chicken in a destroyed world. I ran into it back around the last few weeks of December 2011 as a pdf someone compiled and hosted on DeviantArt. I ran into the Petra Arc draft (Kaizo edition) around November 2012 on the ponychan thread, downloaded the pdfs to my phone, and held off on reading them them all until the last weeks of December. I still maintain that Kaizo could have been published. I came close to tearing up at the end. (small rant)And you left things on one mother of a cliffhanger, you bastard. It's tough enough I'm already reading a draft of all things, but a cliffhanger in a draft? Something that I might not see published for years? You monster.
This year, I was considering pulling them all out again for rereading in December, then you brought me this, along with something (slightly) new to look forward to. What timing.
(Also crossing my fingers to see a certain dimension-hopper's exploits before the end of the year.)
No matter what you say, Skirts, the faithful are still here. Waiting. Waiting for you to haul ass on that elephant and continue this amazing story with two(+) more years of accumulated writer's knowledge. We're with ya, buddy.
Oh, and this marsupial's waiting on you, too.
This. I recognized the speech patterns of that elk were the same as that blasted naga the moment he first arrived. I held out for the longest time on whether or not he was who he said he was just because of that. That's all in the past now, of course, but I never forgot.
1543439
Were it so that I could stay within reach of ponychan for an extended period of time, perhaps I could have witnessed these other drafts.
1542874
Actually, Skirts hates Pinkie, so maybe you'd like his treatment of her.
Can you simplify everything you say in here?
PS: End of Ponies is what got me to follow you...
You know, I'm always surprised when I see how many other people are still waiting on this. Half of the time I feel like the only one, then Skirts says something and people start popping up everywhere haha. I'd considered it before, but I think we need a therapy group: http://www.fimfiction.net/group/201195/the-end-of-ponies
1543478
I wish the original thread wasn't taken down. Alot of good memories there. Still, the second one still appears to be there, and HHH is about a quarter of the way down in original PDF form (though obviously it's on FimFic): http://www.ponychan.net/chan/fic/res/78823.html
I consider End of Ponies to be one of the greatest works in this fandom so far. Quit beating yourself up over this Skirts. I hate to see any writers I like in this kind of shape. I don't want perfection. I just want an awesome story that you wrote and so far everything I've read by you, most recently the tales of a certain rainbow pegasus heading east, has been pure joy to read. No matter how long it takes I'll wait for you to finish End of Ponies. Cheer up Skirts, a frown doesn't belong on a person as creative as you.
Yknow, I hated the idea of FanFics. I thought they were everything they've been lauded to be; tasteless, sex-driven and horribly-written nonsense that isn't well thought-out, are always amateur's work of storytelling, and they are an insult to the source material.
Then a friend of mine told me about The End of Ponies. He only needed to say "post-apocalyptic," "Scootaloo is the last pony," "creatures more intimidating than the ones in Silent Hill," something about a flying ship and briefly described a tense scene in a destroyed Canterlot that got me not only thinking twice about hope for humanity and FanFiction, but it got me reading to the point I refused to stop. Yes, the slow pacing is infamous but instead of complaining how bad it is, recognize what the problem is, and move forward. If you can't do that as a writer, well, frankly sir, you shouldn't be writing at all.
The End of Ponies has an ingenius and out-of-the-box creativity that told me there's more to the toolbox of writing a fanfic than I had originally realized, and it got me writing MLP FanFics in the first place. It'd be a sin as a writer, and a travesty and an insult to the people who invested so much time into it to not see it through to the end, especially if you know how it ends. Start thinking about some ways to surprise us, cut down on the wordplay you clearly recognize is a fault, or hell, just keep going with it because it's part of the story's "style" now, cuz you've got entire galaxies of potential with the world you've created and it'd be a damn shame not to take advantage of it all.
So, this is from a fan, a critic, and a fellow writer looking for his own place in the world: You wanna be a writer...
Then write the damn thing.
-M.
This kinda shit pisses me off. Next to Background pony, End of ponies is the greatest fanfic of all time. These fics completely changed how i think about things and how i percieve the world. I used to be so shallow... And i can even use big words now, though not usually soelled correctly. My point is, you are one of my favorite writers, on this site or otherwise, and for some reason you seem to think everything you write is junk. I totally understand the epic writers block and no inspiration, im an aspiring filmmaker, i have the same issue. But for the love of god(celestia) dont not finish one of the most epic stories ive ever read because you dont think its good. Fuck what we think, atleast finish for yourself. So you can quit these melodramatic blogs about End of ponies. I know one person who would love to see it finished. It really is an incredible story, and deserves to be completed.
1544083after a quik reread i have decided never to write on my phone again. Lol, im a bad enough writer on a computer!
I have to say that while this blog post was too long and I ended up skimming near the bottom, I have thoroughly enjoyed EoP. I would've liked to see shorter chapters due to the fact that the time I have for reading only allowed me to read half a chapter at a time, but I found the detail to pull me into the story. I am debating reading the stuff you've made public, but I would much rather have your completed drafts of it. I hope you publish more before I get desperate enough to read incomplete writings.
I wholeheartedly agree with everyone else who replied to this that EoP is one of the best stories in the fandom.
Whelp, reading this just after finishing an EoP piece, too.
I think i will hold off on reading this. Not because I have some unrealistic expectation that it's going to ruin everything for me or because I' holding a gigantic torch that the fic will continue in full force just over the horizon.... but because I feel like I can wait and that reading this would make that harder!
Here's that drawing, anyway:
I, commenting as the gasping, foaming and nearly-incoherent fangirl your writing turns me into, feel compelled to add to the general milieu of this blog. Thanks for posting the Petra Arc blah blah ect. I love your writing the way John DeLancie's daughter loves heroin spiked with meth yadda yadda. I'll wait, staring forlornly at my computer screen (until my eyeballs sprout legs and crawl away like pale, bulbous spiders just so they can get a change of scenery), for the end of EoP. And so on.
While these things are close to the truth, they've already been said ad-ludicrisium, so I'll stick to a couple of other points I'd like to make.
1) Nothing is ever perfect. When you write stories, their quality always falls somewhere between somewhat enjoyable and life-changingly awe-inspiring. Yet, when you write blogs, you show your prose the same love and consideration that Ike showed Tina Turner. In your desperate scramble to show how critical, un-inflated and level-headed you are, you constantly take your self-flagellation to nauseating extremes.
Have you no concept of how flaws and imperfections can, ironically, add to something's worth? What is it you think we see in these pastel ponis? Rarity? Dash? AJ? All of them, every grain-chewing one of them, personality-wise, is flawed. On multiple accounts. And deeply so. Yet that does not make them unworthy of love. Quite the opposite, I'd argue. I know you grasp this concept Skirts, because you write about it and explore it constantly.
It's the damn same with your writing. Is your junk wordy? Hell yes. Do you, at times, bring the Hubble freaking telescope into focus on some equine navel or another? You sure do. Do your plots ramble and wander like a cold Alzheimer's patient through a sea of unknown faces? You betcha. But we love what you do with a capital L. Flaws. And. All. So pull your panties out of a wad, ease up on yourself just the smidgiest of smidgens, and continue to make the art that we all know you can. And I use the word 'art' in most defined sense, as in "The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination - producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power." There is no doubt that, as an author, your writing is capable of moving the human spirit.
2) I'm genuinely sorry to hear how much blood, sweat and tears have burned to ash in the remains of EoP. That's got to be one hell of a sting. Like living with chronic Angry Immortal Hornet disease kind of sting. All we can try to do is offer you our love, support, patience and understanding.
To give you perspective, my second-favorite author in the universe is Stephen R. Donaldson, so you may already know that I have an unhealthy attraction to tragic anti-heros and long, drawn out, borderline opera-esque stories. His greatest triumph, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, was one seriously spread-out project. The first book was published in 1977. The tenth and final book was published this year. What was the reason this author took 36 years to finish his story? Partly, he was intimidated by the scope of what he'd attempted. And partly he felt certain that he lacked the skills he needed to write it. Legions of die-hard fans of his actually died waiting to see the conclusion, but he eventually finished it. And despite its flaws, its one of the most touching and wonderful things I've ever read.
Point being? Cut yourself a little slack before you hang to death by your expectations in a basement somewhere. And if what you write is flawed, that's okay. At some point you just have to let your creations limp into the world as they are, to live or die. Perhaps the fact that your writing is wall-eyed and clumsy will make it all the more endearing.
You changed my life, Skirts. In more ways than one, and all for the better. You don't have to prove anything. Not anymore. This love is unconditional, and its not something you can use up or destroy or disinherit. It just is. So take all the time you need. Take more. Just try to remember what it was about this pastel universe that touched you in the first place, and hold on to that, timetables be damned.
Dude, it's okay to lose passion in something. Just don't lose the passion altogether. You were not made to be a casual creature, but a passionate creature!
It's been forever since I've read EoP. To be honest, I never actually did get past the part where she meets the goblins. But though I haven't revisited it, it's certainly influenced the way I write and conceptualize my own stories. Actually, I think it might be a good time to go back and give it another read through.
I hope you do finish it eventually. I'm especially interested in the Rarity arc.
I have mixed opinions on EoP. I can't say I enjoy it as much as Austraeoh & its sequels, but when it gets exciting, it's really exciting. The problem is that there are a lot of moments where I just hit a wall while reading the story and am simply unable to finish a chapter. And so, I let it lie until some point where I decide to pick it up until I hit the next wall. The key point, however, is that I haven't stopped reading it. Weighing both its good points and its bad points, I still find EoP to be completely worth the effort to read. I think I've had plenty of time to decide whether or not I truly want to see End of Ponies continued. And I'm not even close to one of the more fervent fans of the story.
I do hope you find it within yourself to finish the story. Just make sure you do it for the right reasons.
I LOVED End of Ponies. Background Pony as well. Something about those stories spoke to me in a way that a novel hasn't in a long time. I went from playing video games every day to re-reading every epic novel I could get my mitts on.
You're a spectacular writer in my eyes, Skirts. Keep ponying on.
So long, for now.
And thanks for all the fish!
lolsnaps.com/upload_pic/SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish-23844.png
EoP is, was, and will continue to be, way up on the top shelf of things I've read. Does that mean it's the best piece of writing by X measurement? Naw, it just means that it did more for me than the others. It sounds a bit absurd, but it actually had an impact on my life in ways that are still unfolding, even now. I loved it, and I will never stop loving it.
Whenever it goes on, I'll be there. And believe you me, I know ALL about taking too long to do something.
See? You say nobody wants to continue reading EoP, but looking at all the comments, you got yourself quite the loyal following, Shorts.
End of Ponies was actually one of the first Pony stories I picked up, and diffidently the first big story I started.
So know that while this group is small, we are all waiting for the continuation of End Of Ponies. It would be something that if you went away for years and came back, we still would read it. Because we love you like that.
Good luck
I appreciate that you don't want to do it anymore (Hay, it was a hell of an undertaking), but one thing you can't control is how people feel about the fic. I don't think saying "oh, it was actually shit" is gonna change the minds of the copious fanbase EoP still has, nor do I think it helps matters much. Discontinuing it is one (understandable) thing, but saying we were wrong for wanting it to be continued could easily be construed as either arrogance or needless excuse-making. You could just say 'thanks, but I can't do it anymore'. I can't speak for everyone, but I really don't see the problem with that approach.
I sincerely love your writing. We enjoyed the story (that's why we want it to be continued). You've done, and still do, a lot of awesome stuff that has been completed, and I'm thankful for it.
Maybe its time you validated our belief in you by showing some pride in what you do? The "everything I do is totally wack, and its fluke/idiocy that people like it" angle began to pall some time ago.
Okay, let me start out by stating: I am not some vapid fanboi of yours who reads everything just cause you wrote it (though I give most a chance). Also I had no idea who you were nor had I read anything of yours until AFTER Background Pony's ending was published (dozens of blogs telling me a story I meant to check out just finished & the ending was perfect kinda forced my reading list to update).
The first thing of yours I read was Background Pony (fucking brilliant btw), and that would have been it (so much to read on this site
), but then I found your sedna/Twilight story and checked out a few other shorts (couchtavia). THEN! After all of that, I found and started the behemoth known as End of Ponies...
By now I had read Background Ponies, Fallout: Equestria, and a few other 'epics', so I figured I could handle this...
I was wrong!
... so wrong...
So, yeah, this story is WAY slower, drawn out, tedious, boring, and various other terms, when compared to even Background Pony (which is pretty stretched out at some points).
It's so bad it's at the point where I haven't been able to cosistantly keep reading it.
I have read a single chapter, in short bursts, even pausing mid scene, over a week or 2 at a time, because it just trudges on for so long! Hell, I have STILL only finished the Fluttershy Arc (I'm scared of Dredgemane)!
So, if I find the story so boring to read through, and so long winded I need breaks from single paragraphs, why do I keep going? I mean, I did give up on Lord of the Rings for similar reasons, so why not this?
Simple.
This story DELIVERS!!
This story is like life, its boring at times, hard at times, confusing at times, and generally too dense to just assault. You must approach it with finesse, and patience. It must be taken in chunks and left to digest, knowing you are slightly closer to your goal. But when you reach that goal, or one of the smaller milestones along it's path? Oh sweet nirvana it's goood!
This story, is GOOD. It just is.
We know it's too long-winded, you know it's too long-winded, but that doesn't change the fact that IT, IS, GOOD!
So my point is: Don't get pissed at how hard it's been to work on the next part, or how long the delays have been (FFS, theres a story going on hiatus till the author finishes college and his follows told him not to cancel, they'd rather wait!), or even how thickly your descriptions have been and will likely continue to be going forward. The ONLY important thing, is the payoff, and we trust you!
TL;DR
The story IS good (if long-winded).
Take your time, we don't mind waiting.
Well, count me in with all the other people that want to see EOP continued.
Not sure if you're just tempting us to say "But I do want to see it continue" by saying that you don't think we will want it to continue...
...but even if you are, let me entertain you and say, YES, I do want the End of Ponies to continue. Actually that's an understatement. I really REALLY do want it to continue. It's quite possibly one of the best stories I've read on this site, yet it's not even finished - I hope that you will finish it or at least just continue it some time.
Maybe you should try aiming low first? Try just writing a bit, making it look good, then take a really good look at it and make it look a bit better. Even just one new chapter released would perhaps jumpstart you a bit, or at least jumpstart me into the story again.
I dunno if this helps at all, but I basically just want to somehow inspire you to please continue writing that particular story.
Now I will be off to read that so-called trash to see if it really is that bad.
I'm not sure if it holds true for everyone, but the reason I read EOP is because of how "dense and superfluous the modifiers are in every single mother-fornicating sentence, how the plot is so simple and clear-cut and yet it takes an eon for somepony to cross a single room"
The vocabulary makes me want to dig deeper into your work and has me looking up definitions on google to better understand the story. All the various expressions and turns of phrase give the characters their own unique feeling and life.
As for your "clear-cut story" that drags on for "eons", I think that is one of the strongest elements of this piece. The overarching plot is not too difficult to work out, many of 'the pony's' revelations were glaringly obvious to me long before she realized them herself, and the tantalizing tidbits of future/past events stick out like the color of your coat while they sail over 'the pony's' head but that's not important!
Your Story takes it's time and works it's way through the life of the pony. It bares her joy and bravery alongside the fear and pain of her existence, letting us see into the heart and mind of the characters that I have come to love. This work has picked up the original spirit of the show and worked to display what we truly want to see: not back to back action scenes with explosions and redundantly ridiculous epicness or forced songs and truckloads of pandering but rather the exploration of a soul that could be a -although highly fantasized- version of someone you met just the other day walking down the street.
What you have wrought here is wondrous and hart wrenching and I applaud you for it. You have taken the time to paint us a glorious picture of both the tragic and the divine through each slow and thoughtful line of text. And although I have yet to finish what you have created so far I know that it shall always top my list, standing proudly next to such as FOE.
Know that when or if you decide to finish this story, we will be patiently awaiting your next addition to the fandom and beyond.
With hope
-A simple Extra