Seeds of Future Past and bits of Letters From a Little Princess Monster · 1:51am Jul 31st, 2014
My entry in the EqD Summer Fanfic Contest is now complete and posted.
Seeds of Future Past tells the story of the Tree of Harmony, from the very beginning to the present. It’s only the second first-person, present-tense story that I’ve written for the site, although Nightfall - Luna’s Reunion comes very close. (A lot of first-person, past tense there)
I’ve had a lot on my plate over the last few weeks (which is why updates are so slow, plus we’re painting the house), and you can take a peek at my pony workload and an excerpt from the upcoming Letters From a Little Princess Monster after the break.
Georg’s Works in Progress (and comment-enabled Google Doc links)
Letters From a Little Princess Monster - Presently over 100k words, and will be split into an archive and an active chapter arc section soon.
The Night Guard - Night Mares - A sequel to A War of Words - The Opening of the Guard - Four policemares from Canterlot face their greatest challenge as they try to show the Royal Guard that stallions are not the only ponies who can kick plot and guard Princesses. I’m a couple chapters in and want to get it completed before I start publishing chapters.
The Traveling Tutor and the Royal Exam - Second sequel to The Traveling Tutor and the Librarian - The newest Royal couple set their wedding plans, and no scheming Canterlot Royals or potential war against the Griffon Empire will stop them. Slow them down, maybe.
Cheerilee’s Thousand - Guest Chapter - Something I promised far too many months ago and have been attempting to make progress on. Cheerilee gets a date with a tall, dark, and handsome police officer. Who happens to be a batpony.
Twilight Sparkle’s Magic Kingdom - A step by step history of a short story, from concept to publication. Coming up next: Creeping Featurism, or how to keep a story from mushrooming into the Smooze.
The Back Burner - Things I have not updated in a while but am still working on
Changelings, Love and Lollipops - A changeling who crashes to Ponyville after the Royal Wedding finds love. Also bondage and being shot repeatedly in the face by a confetti cannon. Love hurts.
Nyx and the Accidental Assassin - A widowed clockmaker from Manehatten who discovers a talent for murder makes a unwilling trip to Ponyville for one last assassination attempt.
Now for the excerpt from Letters From a Little Princess Monster that I promised. In this arc, her parents arrive in Ponyville:
“Flower, I’ll be right back. Are you sure you’ll be okay for…”
He faded off with a look of concentration until Monster whispered, “This meeting by the tracks.” She squirmed inside the box, shuffling a little to one side before responding in a weak whisper, “I’m fine.”
It was a lie. She was anything but fine. Even the stentorian terror of exploding fireworks would be better than the beast in her heart that clawed and thrashed for the surface, itching to shred her new purple skin and flee into the sky away from friends and family.
She had promised. Trixie and mom and Tallgrass and Spike and her friends had all asked the same question, and she had promised each one of them that she was wanting to meet her parents, those fragmentary images of purple and blue that flickered in her mind when she least expected it. Meeting them was supposed to be a great joy, a pleasure to relive the wonderful times of her youth before she had split the sky open and attempted to destroy them all.
They trusted her. It was the only thing that kept Monster standing at the train station under her cardboard box instead of running away screaming. Two days ago, she was looking forward to this, confident in her ability to face her fears and embrace her real family, the one whose blood lived in her veins. Then she had split herself into three and been rejoined, and her carefully crafted mental blocks had all shattered into dust.
This was why she had dyed her coat back to its original color, why she had let her friends cut her mane, why she had tried so hard to fit back into that small purple box she had originally been inside. If maybe she could look like little Twilight Sparkle, she could be little Twilight Sparkle. That she could be loved without being feared.
No, that was not right. Mom loved her. Her friends loved her. Even Trixie loved her without fear, willing to step right into a maelstrom of magic to see her ‘little sister’ saved from the fate she had brought on herself. It didn’t matter to any of them what color she was or what shape her body had been twisted into. They loved what was inside.
That was what really frightened her. Her family from before had loved her. She had torn those deep emotions out of their hearts by her actions. If they could not love her now like they did then, her new family could lose that love too if she were to relapse. Then she would be alone again, drowning in the void. One single mistake and she would be lost.
Monster had lost control the night before last. She could still hear the screaming whenever she closed her eyes. It could have easily been one of her friends who had pushed that fragment of her personality so far. She could easily see Scootaloo or Apple Bloom dead at her hooves, dead from another loss of control, dead because of her.
They knew it. Every one of them knew just how dangerous she was, and yet they crowded up against her at the train station, whispering through the walls of the cardboard box about how excited they were and if Twilight was ‘okay’ in there. Like moths drawn to the flame of a candle, they seemed drawn by the fire that burned inside her, and only her control kept them from dying.
Trixie said that by letting other ponies into her heart, she was not endangering them, but that she was learning to grow. She said that even Trixie had learned more from her little friends than all of the teachers she ever had. Even Spike agreed, and the little dragon had volunteered his services for whatever she needed, whenever she wanted, even down to the last jewel in his hoard.
The distant train was much nearer now, and she could feel the vibrations through the earth spirits beneath their hooves. Even they seemed excited for her, making little happy rumbles as the train hissed and squealed to a halt.
Well that'll be interesting. I mean, I'd say she's not technically related to them anymore. It seemed like Twilight Sparkle sort of got vaporized and got a new alicorn body in the bargain. That would make her more related to Luna, really.