Something Sweet To Bite · 8:03pm Oct 3rd, 2012
I first came up with the concept for the story of "Something Sweet To Bite" around March. I had finished writing my second big arc series, Broken, and I was looking to write another one shot story. While my arcs tend to focus on adventure with some horror elements, I like most of my one shots to be dark, if not outright grimdark. It had occurred to me though that I hadn't written a grimdark story that was really all that violent since one of my first pony stories, a sequel to Cupcakes. I love writing conflict, be it verbal or physical, but I especially love writing violence. Sue me, I'm an American, we treat violence like other countries treat fine art.
It also occurred to me that I hadn't really written a story in long form, over a period of months, since that Cupcakes sequel either. Everything had been written in one week, or in some cases one day, and then edited by someone else before being posted. Even the arc stories had followed this pattern, being written bit by bit rather than all at once. This is fine for what it is, but I really wanted to give some love to the story that would be Something Sweet to Bite.
So where did the idea for this story come from? Many places, as most stories do. I've always absolutely adored Halloween, since I was very small. (Since my birthday fell so close to it, as a child I considered Halloween to be my holiday. Everyone else just got to join in!) I also had a love for movies such as Halloween, Trick R Treat, and other such staples of slasher and anthology horror. That all ties into this story, but they weren't exactly the basis. No, the inspiration was a series of questions.
What was Nightmare Night before Nightmare Moon? We know from the show there was a time when the three pony tribes ruled themselves, so there had to be a time when Nightmare Night first started being observed, like with Hearths Warming. Further, why would ponies build statues to Nightmare Moon? Just to leave candy to her? What could possibly be the true origin to this tradition? That was when I started to think of all those old legends about Jack-o-the-Lantern and Will-o-the-Wisp. All those Celtic and old world traditions that have been warped and changed over the centuries until a night that was about honoring the dead, guising, and reconnecting with the community around a bone fire became about getting candy, watching horror movies, and throwing parties.
There's always something behind even the most nonsensical tradition. That was where the idea of the true nightmare of Nightmare Night came from. That was where the pumpkin seeds were first planted.
Now, as to the Candy Mare herself, she had been bouncing around in my head for a while thanks to an old Dr. Who episode called "The Happiness Patrol". Those old episodes may be fairly campy, and were often played for silliness, but there was something truly horrifying about the candy robot in those particular episodes that went far beyond the show itself. The Candy Mare was born from my musing about a much darker, harder edge version of that robot, and of course a little bit of how I think of Pinkamena. Not Pinkamena Diane Pie, but the creature that lurks in the tumblr blogs with a smile and a tray of delicious (if suspect) baked goods.
(Well, that and the running gag that Rarity is actually made of marshmallow.)
So I set about writing a short story about the origins of the Candy Mare. How she was a little filly who loved life and magic, even if she was only a lowly earth pony, and ended up being brutally tortured and murdered because of her naive curiosity. It read well, but was far too bleak.
And it was around that time I first contracted a flesh eating anti-biotic resistant version of MRSA. After part of my leg turned necrotic and the flesh had to be excised (without anesthetic I might add, because the flesh was too swollen with pus for the drugs to be effective), I ended up hospitalized and had to have antibiotics pumped directly into my heart intravenously through a catheter inserted in my right arm for about three months. This would end up keeping me from seriously writing for the duration of that painful experience.
While it was a horrible ordeal, it did give me plenty of extra time to think about the story... What I really wanted to say, and how I really wanted to present the Candy Mare. Honestly, Something Sweet to Bite can only be a better story for the extra time spent on it. Though I had always intended to take my time writing the story, there's something about being partially vivisected, watching yourself rot slowly, and being out of your mind on painkillers that really just does something for the creative process!
In the end, Something Sweet to Bite took everything I love about Halloween, about grimdark ponies, B-horror movies, and about supernatural fiction in all its forms and mixed it up. The extra time let the whole thing marinate so that the flavors began to blend and seep into one another. I think it turned out very delicious indeed!
Towards the end of my writing, I realized I wanted a cover image for this story. A stock picture wouldn't do and unfortunately, while I can draw, what I had in mind was well beyond my talents as an artist. That's when I commissioned someone I've been following a long time on tumblr and devart to bring the image of the Candy Mare to life! Kvernikovskiy did a fantastic job. More art of the Candy Mare has been requested by people who have read the story, but sadly no other art of her exists at this time. So I thought instead, I'd include some of the scrap work he sent me for the piece:
That art is too damn cool. My favorite story on Fim or ANY fan fic host. If it is possible..... could you make another candymare story, but like a prequal. From the eyes of the candymare herself.
Her life on the farm(idk) to the lengthy tourture to the final transformation. what were her thoughts on becoming... more... than a pony, how was she stopped, her thoughts on being brought back and her assault on those who summoned her. So many options. 
need more. It's like my favorite.....................................candy.
441395
I've been giving a lot of thought to writing another Candy Mare story. Though Something Sweet to Bite itself was meant for Halloween, I have to admit I had a lot of fun with this from start to finish and that kind of makes me want to write more. Having said that, I do subscribe to the motto of "always leave the audience wanting more". A lot of the Candy Mare's history is touched on in the original story, but specifics are left intentionally vague so that you can come up with your own ideas about what she was like before she was reborn...and let your imagination run wild with the possibilities of the creature she became loose in old Equestria.
Although, I also believe in "giving the people what they want", so I wouldn't be surprised, if I did end up writing a sequel to Something Sweet To Bite, that it wouldn't weave in some of the Candy Mare's past. (Be it her time as a filly or the time that came after, when she was haunting the dark places of Equestria and luring children into her hungry maw.)
Either way, I'll keep thinking about it. I won;t have time to write anything new for awhile yet, but you never know what I might get up to over the holidays.
http://cbsnews1.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2011/04/26/179b8ba2-a643-11e2-a3f0-029118418759/resize/620x465/6b68a9534650b5808fecdcf03fb4d529/mrsa_skin_moran5.jpg I'm guessing this is how horrible it was in the hospital?
More like this actually, but you get the idea.
3998339 podiatry.com/images/eZines/RI/12-13/18/figure1.jpg
My favorite scary MLP story. My psn avatar is a picture of the Candymare