Nightmare Nyx Side Stories · 1:31pm Jul 11th, 2015
Lately, my dev team and I have been discussing details of the timeline in an effort to nail down some of the back-story events to ensure that they flow nicely and make for a good overall narrative. In particular, the section of the timeline we've been discussing is the series of events taking place when the war with the zebras began (nine years prior to the main story).
It has occurred to me that there are parts of this timeline which could do well as their own stories within the Nightmare Nyx universe (the specific blend of Fallout Equestria and Past Sins which I'm writing). The choice was to either tell these small stories in the form of flashbacks within the current story, or to publish them as separate fimfiction stories.
There are currently two stories which I am interested in writing that take place prior to the main story.
One story is about Celestia and Luna when they were quite young. This would take place over five-thousand years ago when they were growing up and cover their early adulthood. The story would tell what happened with their parents and cover the origins of the Elements of Harmony, the Tree of Harmony, the Everfree Forest, the Castle of the Two Sisters, and the catastrophic annihilation of pony society, save for a small number of scattered survivors who had to rebuild everything. I'm not sure how long this story would be as it depends on how much detail I put into it. But I suspect it could be somewhere between 30k and 50k words. I'm not sure if anyone has ever written a story that takes place more than 5000 years in the past in the MLP universe. The purpose of this story would be to expand upon the revelations which come in the main Nightmare Nyx story. As such, I probably would have to wait until later to write it. Also, the story would make extensive use of my alicorn headcanon which forms the metaphysical foundation for this universe.
The second story is about Nyx as a teenager and the key events which changed the course of her life. This story would be when Nyx just turns sixteen years old (six years after her creation in Past Sins). Nyx has a fairly predictable situation that one familiar with Past Sins might expect her to have by this age. She's got a very close relationship with Luna who is like a surrogate big-sister for her. She is in her last year of school in Ponyville, and plans to finish high school in Canterlot at Celestia's prestigious school for gifted unicorns, taking on a two-year degree in their Focused Talents program. It's the same program which Dinky attends.
In general, this would be a slice-of-life story. It covers Nyx and Rumble's relationship and how that got started. Nyx has a rather embarrassing event happen at school and is cruelly teased by Diamond Tiara for it. Nyx is devastated and hides in her room, wanting only to talk with Luna. The next day, word reaches Ponyville that war has broken out with the zebras. Both Celestia and Luna are now inaccessible due to the war. With Luna no longer able to talk to Nyx, she has to deal with her personal crisis without her confidant. Twilight, her mother, tries to help, but this particular struggle is a bit outside Twilight's experience. Nyx can no longer hide her feelings for Rumble (who has not been hiding his all that well anyway). The two of them have some private time to discuss their feelings for one another, and begin their courtship.
This one could be pretty short. Maybe 25,000 words. But there's enough material for an interesting slice of life story that fleshes out the backstory of this universe a fair bit. It gives me an excuse to write teenage Nyx which I'm fairly sure nobody has done yet. It also gives me a chance to flesh out the very start of the great zebra war.
I've even got potential cover art for it already.
Sounds cool, I think the story covering Celestia and Luna would definitely be of help covering the fate of the alicorns. Gives people some grounding so when they hear whats happening to Nyx they have an inkling of whats in store for her.
Regarding Nyx and Rumble I think that would work as a series of flashbacks and conversations. Helps keep the reader in the nowof the story.
That said there's no reason why you couldn't, teenage Nyx and the start of the war have plenty of dramatic potential and everyone loves a good romance
given your estimated word count I suggest making them separate story's with maybe a small flashback in the main one as a reference if you want to do that. The one about Rumble and Nyx by all means make a flashback chapter for backstory would be fill in some blanks. Still if you want to make that one a separate story fine by me though that would depend on how much detail you want in it.
Could be both, at least that is kind of the way recon and I are thinking of it,
here is the thing, remember that as of now, while there will be chapters released as they get polished off, the " final" drafts of the chapters won't be worked on until Recon writes drafts for all the chapters of the story. The whole thing will basically be finished first, under the current plan , before another chapter is " published". So it could easily be another year until the " final" form of say chapter 4 sees the light of day.
That is a long period of time.
So this would be something that would be published in the time before then. Not in the next month or anything like that but certainly much sooner than a year
. Indeed fleshing this out now gives us great hands on material to use in those flashbacks in the final definitive form of those chapters. basically it would give readers more material to show the world was not dead while simultaneously fleshing out the backstory not only for the benefit of the readers but of recon himself
We seem to have a false dichotomy:
If the stories are short, then a flashback makes sense. If the stories are long, then independent stories make sense. Since these are long stories, I say make complete side stories.
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Agreed, having a good amount of backstory would be beneficial for author and reader, helps you get to know the characters on a deeper level than perhaps a simple flashback would at this point.