The Later Installment

Alright folks, here's an explanation. Some of you might have noticed that I changed one of the tags for MWBD. Principally, the Twilight tag. I recently did another look-over of all the lore and universe materials for Yeodoor, spurred by the inclusion of SilentBelle into our funny little group of fellow pony writers. As a sort of 'initiation' I ranted at him for a while about this sprawling pile of mysticism that I call a universe, and slowly realized that past-me was awfully clever at putting the framework together in such a way that it would be easy to continue including bits and pieces of show-canon as they arise.

If any of you remember, I stated rather forcefully that Yeodoor was self-contained and followed an alternate line of development as of the end of Season 2. While my universe is still self-contained, it does not follow a strict tangential line of divergence as I had originally thought. Instead, there are numerous opportunities for it to cross the line of the show, kind of like drawing a sine wave on top of a line. 'Alternate universe' is a misnomer, as well as parallel. My universe has a sort of common destiny with the show, seeing as how they are following the same general direction, but if we label the show as a "constant" then my universe would be a sine wave that will slowly grow farther and farther afield. The frequency with which the wave will intersect the show will taper as the peaks and valleys reach higher heights and lower lows. Think of it like a graph. Let's call the X value Time and the Y value can be Mood (as in the relative sense of 'dark' vs 'light', 'sinister' vs 'comical' and so on and so forth). The show starts at origin (0,0) but Yeodoor starts at say, (-5000, -200). It's a pretty steady slope up to origin but the inertia of the previous vector doesn't allow Yeodoor to stick with the show's canon, however, it's relative flexibility allows for a high frequency of crossings even though the sine is still decidedly on the darker side of things. As events pile up over time, it will be difficult to overcome inertia so the wave will have to stretch out to conserve momentum and stability. As even more time passes, Yeodoor will grow so massive that it will take a very long time for it to change direction.

Psudo-science aside, the tag change from normal "Twilight" to "Princess Twilight" (not Twilight Princess) is well-grounded and mired in deep thought. I carefully considered every element of my universe and the implications of the possibility of transformation into an alicorn. I had originally determined, a the end of S3, that this would destroy the backbone upon which my universe was built, but I later realized that the transformation made sense. I had left a way for it to happen, but that didn't mean that it should. After more deliberation and a two-hour-long rant I made the decision to incorporate Princess Twilight Sparkle into my universe. Yes, this means that TGBM will have to be retconned a smidgen, but honestly, that story is such a mess that it needs a full-on rewrite. Ultimately, Twilight's transformation (which still follows the finale of S3) does not impact the universe a great deal. You will understand as my other stories that take place in the "past" begin to roll out. I could try to explain how Twilight could be an alicorn but that is a subject better discussed as a story. The transformation and how it's possible is not the main focus of those stories, instead it is more like an underlying plotline that helps support the true conflicts as they occur. Because it is so minor, I felt comfortable sharing it out of story context.

Now, more about MWBD.
We have begun writing again. MWBD6 has some well-ripened jokes and an over-developed sense of mystery that I hope will make up for the long wait. Rets is doing more than I am at this point but we'll both be up to speed soon enough. Meanwhile, Pissfer and I have been going through the previous chapters, finding and eliminating typos and other errors. Castlor/Plebeian and SilentBelle might hop on in as well to double and triple check for quality control. The Office is fully staffed and I am happy, as well as excited, to say that we all should be churning out higher and higher quality literature about our beloved miniature equines.

Also, S^4 is... being sluggish, but I'm feeling more like my old self, if with a few more bruises. I've pretty much given up hope on that animation degree. Walking away will be hard, in the same way that walking away from a fresh grave is hard, especially when it holds something you dearly loved. But the past is the past; what matters is now and I can look forward to the future especially for the fact that I won't be spending it alone.

Write on

--Laich