"Whoa, what's up with Chapter 17!?" Well, let me explain... · 1:25pm Dec 4th, 2014
Telling you RIGHT now, don't read anything below the page break if you have NOT read Chapter 17 of Black Equinox. Let not your eyes wander, for the spoilers are HUGE.
Okay... I'm going to break this up into FAQ format, because there are a few things to address, and you might not want to hunt through text-walls looking for your grievance or concern.
"Alicorn Twilight?! Pff! Ripoff..."
No, not really. Especially not since my first recorded MWord files of me WRITING Black Equinox are from 2011. Yes, I can prove it.
No, I hadn't hammered out EVERY detail of the story when I started, but I had a good idea of what I was doing, and from the start I knew this would all culminate in Twilight achieving what, at the time, I believed would be her ultimate destiny. Some of that changed at first, with a stretch of time having me change it to her simply becoming a sort of long-horned "super unicorn," but since the canonization of Twilicorn, I ultimately decided just to not rock the boat. The difference was ultimately cosmetic anyway, and for all intents and purposes, the same.
Ah yes, the canonization... Remember that one blog post about how this shit keeps happening? Yeah, Twilicorn was a BIG one. Exciting as all hell, WAY more evolution than I forsaw the series taking any time soon... but it has admittedly REALLY worn-down the novelty of Twilight Sparkle's ascension as this huge part of her character arc. And it REALLY doesn't help when the show itself starts to outshine me on the fight sequences! How the SHIT am I gonna come ANYWHERE near topping Tirek and Twilight duking it out with all the magic in Equestria?
So yeah, probably my fault for taking so long to write this story, but I don't think I lose much more than the "surprise," and looking back, I'm not sure how unique it would have been anyway. At least I was able to write the actual ascension scenes to match established canon, rather than to be "that fanfic" that TOTALLY divorces from series continuity, because the show changed or elaborated upon the rules in ways incompatible with it.
I at least like to think I brought more to the table than the series itself did, as much as I loved Magical Mystery Cure.
You totally blew off explaining why she's an alicorn now!
Ah-pap-ap-ap! No, no I didn't. I even explained in the author's notes, because I KNEW people were going to wonder about this one.
The ENTIRE cut scene in Twilight's mind explaining all of this will be at the start of the next chapter, in its entirety.
Why'd you cut it in the FIRST place then???
Because there had to be SOME surprise from the reader's perspective as to WHAT was going to happen next.
See, one of the biggest faults of Magical Mystery Cure, was that Twilight was never apparently given any choice to adopt her new role. It feels like Celestia just changed her, changed her fate, absent her permission to do so.
The reason for this is the 22-minute running time, and because the mood would be killed DEAD by having a scene where Celestia tells her (and the audience) exactly what's going to happen to her... and then watches it happen. There's no sense of awe that way, there's no intrigue, no anticipation. Suddenly you've quantified the whole thing, and it's like we don't CARE anymore. The magic is gone.
So, I crafted this scene so Twilight IS given a proper explanation, IS given an actual choice. The How and the Why get explained, now that the What has dropped down for all to behold.
So, you get to guess and wonder at the end of THIS chapter, and have all of that answered at the start of the NEXT. We cool?
Didn't you promise to have some animation in this?
Yeah... and it kills me to release this chapter without it. I still plan to make it, but... my chapter releases just take an ABYSMAL amount of time as it IS.
There's one thing I WILL NOT end this story without animating, but I have to put vanity and pride on the shelf for now. You guys deserve better than to wait months and months between chapters.
Sorry to disappoint, but as soon as Twilight took a break inside her own mindscape I figured she was going full Alicorn. Only surprise was that she had to take a second break first.
Great chapter, though. I don't normally like Dark stories and you killed off most of the best ponies, but I stuck with this one since I hoped the lack of Tragedy tag meant we'd have a good ending. You are definitely delivering, it looks like! :)