Two Paths

So yesterday, I had thought of a path that, while ultimately less depressing than the one I have in mind, will be shorter, resolving the story a week after the Valentine's Day Dance where as the original one I had in mind would have been longer and would have been darker. Both ultimately lead to a happy ending, but one of them employs the Don Bluth method of "so long as they have a good ending, you can drag them through the mud".

So I asked some people which of the two to take and while they didn't out and out say which one, they helped me realize that I probably shouldn't drag on Anon's depression any longer than it should and that I should throw the dog a bone.

The problem is that my story was gearing towards the dark path. The characters introduced, such as Starlight Glimmer, Angel Wings, and Radiant Hope, being to set up for a long, difficult journey that might lead to Anon's suffering and eventual transformation into the story's villain, corrupted by an Equestrian artifact that Starlight Glimmer handed to him.

However, as I wrote a lot of the story, I began to feel somewhat odd with it on all ends. When I began writing the story, I asked people if I'd take it too far with the route I originally have in mind, using the prologue to show just how far I'd be willing to take it.

However, the idea that came to me yesterday makes a lot more sense than the darker and edgier route I had in mind. And thus, I've decided to go for the lighter route.

I'll probably write up how the dark route would go in a later post, but for now, I'll begin to figure out how to tie up the ends I created when I originally had it in mind into this new lighter route.