Secrets of A Nightmare Returned · 4:40am Aug 21st, 2015
Well now A Nightmare Returned has been finished and posted in its entirety. It was a lot of work and ended up being my longest story to date. I am proud of it, but also tired and exhausted. Even now, thinking about it wears me out. However, since it is finished, I can share some stuff about that readers might be interested in or curious about.
To start with the one that most people have asked: No, I will not be writing a sequel to it. For the most part, I feel like the story is done. There really is not much that could be added to it for me. There is also the matter of quality. A lot of people see it as a great story, which is why they want more of it. Even I think that it may be my best story so far (although hopefully not forever). But that's also part of the problem. I feel like I set a very high bar for it. As such, even if I had a desire to write a sequel or an idea on what it would be about, I doubt that it would be as entertaining or up to the same standard as the original. That's not to say that it would not be a good story. It very well could be great if it were a standalone. It simply would not be as good as the original, and thus a little disappointing.
That being said, if someone else has an idea and wants to try to write a sequel or their own take on the matter, go right ahead. I wish you the best of luck on the matter and hope you have fun.
The rest is going to be under the page break.
Some credit for this story actually should go to Firemind. It was she who had mentioned Grogar to me in the first place in the comments of another story, giving me a possible antagonist and helping me start putting the idea of the story together. If there had been no Grogar then the story would be very different -- had it ever been written in the first place, as opposed to just left as a idea fragment.
Speaking of the idea and different: originally I was going to have Nightmare Moon end up with Twilight Sparkle. I had actually started getting the idea for the story while reading a Twilight Sparkle - Nightmare Moon shipping group's story collaboration Full Moon Fever. The two of them would have had a larger part together, getting to know each other. Eventually, Nightmare Moon would have had sex with Big Macintosh and rubbed it in Twilight Sparkle's face, who would become jealous. At first, Nightmare would think it was because of Twilight's own feelings for Macintosh, but it would turn out that it was actually Nightmare that Twilight was attracted to. As a result, the two would become more of a couple as Nightmare Moon slowly changed her ways.
And then Chocolate Cherry came along. Or more accurately, she stayed around.
Some people who enjoyed the story seemed to really like her. Originally, when I came up with the character, she was supposed to be a one night stand character. Nightmare Moon would sleep with her -- as she did -- then see Big Macintosh and have an interest. After some time, she would make her move and seduce him. However, something about Cherry clicked with me and seemed to have a bit better chemistry with Nightmare Moon than I originally intended. It also seemed to work better in another way: Cherry would primarily be friends with Nightmare, with Twilight's friends being more on the periphery. It would also made more sense that Nightmare would want little to do with the others as they are the ones who defeated her prior. As a result, I ended up with a character who saw something genuine in Nightmare that was worth redemption and give some moral guidance, while also allowing Nightmare to find herself and not be stuck constantly hanging out with the very ponies she lost to. Since they started off having sex early on, the relationship just sort of grew from their on its own.
As for Big Macintosh and Twilight, that happened when I was writing the scene where Nightmare was ogling him. He was just this sort of quiet, stoic character that made sense for Twilight to have an attraction to for some reason. It also made sense because he could be a down to earth character that could help Twilight Sparkle stay better grounded and not as overly analytical. So she ended up actually being attracted to him, and when there was a time limit on when she could ask, it was the pressure needed to make her stop overthinking and actually do it.
I'm going to jump some of the other things I'm tempted to discuss and go straight to the big one.
The Final Fate of Nightmare Moon.
As I said, I have no plans to make a sequel, and I have seen some readers speculating on Nightmare Moon's end character. So I'm just going to spell it out how I imagine it. You don't necessarily have to agree.
To start with, she is for all intents and purposes believed dead. And that is how she is going to leave it. Yes, she is sad that she will no longer be with Chocolate Cherry, but she has no intentions of visiting her in her dreams. Instead, Cherry will be allowed to grieve in peace until she is finally ready to move on. Keep in mind, Nightmare Moon did love Cherry, and wants her to be happy. It just mean that Cherry will have to find happiness without Nightmare. She is also going to avoid interacting with the mane six, and try to keep from being noticed by Princess Luna.
Nightmare Moon also sees herself as the queen of nightmares. She has her castle hidden in the deepest part of the darkest region of the dream world. She also has power to see and affect the dreams of ponies, similar to Princess Luna. However, she is choosing to use them in a very different way. Where as Luna uses her powers to help ponies overcome their bad dreams and sleep peacefully, Nightmare instead chooses to seek out ponies who have done wrong, and give them horrifying dreams that she sees as fitting punishments.
Grogar just happened to be the first, and the one who cannot wake up from it.
do you have any plans on what you going to write next?
3336090 Several actually. One I've already started working on, one that -- if I write it -- will be a sequel to a different story that people liked, and one that is just a seed of an idea that I'm considering. I'd rather not go into specifics with any of them at this time.
3336100 Cool so keep our eyes open for the next story but I may have a idea that you might like if you are interested in a small discussion
3336100 maybe in the future you could write one with chrysalis?
just throwing it out there.
Thanks for the credit, but I'm actually a "she" ...
Thanks for your explanations. I really liked the story and I think, it needs no sequel. It is perfect in the way it is and yes, it is always a matter of quality.
I imagine she's going to have a hard time avoiding Luna, given the Night Princess knows where her castle is already...
Awe man, I only just put this in my read it later list and y'all finished it?
3336256 apologies.
3336748 Apologies accepted.
I think this fate suits Nightmare perfectly. I would be lying if I said I didn't want you to continue the story, even just to show what kind of horribly twisted Nightmares she could give to those deserving of them , but it's your decision after all. Looking forward to more from you.