Behind the words: Fallout Equestria and the MLP fandom · 2:18pm Apr 18th, 2018
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Let's get personal!
So, last week was the 6th anniversary of my first Fimfic- Fallout: Equestria - Our Finest Hour. I think I can safely say that I have grown a great deal since the ancient days of 2012, as a writer and as a human being, but it did get me thinking about the past and where I've come from. It's interesting looking back at it, and thinking "it's just what I thought was cool scenes, one after another". As a reader, I love the epic moments in my favourite novels. The last stand in Ghostmaker, the zombie dinosaur in Dead Beat, all the reveals in the first ASOFAI novel - freaking epic scenes because of all the quiet moments leading up to it.
if you'll look carefully, the story stopped updating in August of 2012. I had run out of steam, I had no idea where the story was actually going, and I was just writing pulpy nonsense for the love of writing pulpy nonsense. It was unrivalled passion, like when a teenage boy first discovers internet porn and eventually tires out - it either gets weird or we call it a day. I'm glad I called it a day.
The end signalled the end of my general involvement in the MLP fandom in general. I hung around on the FOE IRC for a time, playing the PnP game with a select group of people, but rarely strayed outside of that. It continued in this fashion for a while, until I eventually just dropped MLP all together. Not that it wasn't entertaining, but I didn't feel the need to contribute to such a massive gathering. I had nothing new to add, nothing new to discuss. I was happy to take a side line and forget all about it.
Then came August 2017. I had just arrived in Beijing, vaguely keeping an eye on MLP like watching the 100th episode because, hey, it's the 100th episode. I'm teaching my first classes, when a girl starts singing the tune. For a giggle, I sing the next line back, and a whole load of these Chinese kids start asking me
"Are you a Brony?"
Now, I denied it. Straight up no. But it started me thinking again - what has been going on in the fandom? I started looking through odds and ends, watching an episode or two to see what's happening, and a few weeks later I was hooked again. I rejoin the IRC, I start talking to people I haven't spoken to in 5 years, and yet they jump right on board with me being around. It's like I had never left. Before I know it, I'm writing hursewurds again, and I'm loving it.
So what is it that made me come back?
Partially curiosity, and partially because of just how wonderful my group of friends here were and still are. There are people I know IRL that, after just a few months of no contact, would look at me blankly if I said hi to them in the street. Yet, here are people who knew me for around a year, havne't heard from me in half a decade, and immediately welcomed me back to the community. That is the Brony fandom I remember, that is what is right about this place.
We're three months in to Waking the Dead, I'm currently writing the halfway point, and I've still got the steam to keep going. So this is a little part of the history of KendallKun's horsewords, just for me to look back on and for my readers to flick through. In these, I'll be talking about my thoughts on my own writing, what inspired certain characters and chapters, as well as other pieces of work I recommend that you read up on as well.
I hope you enjoy.
Wait... halfway through the story... So this isn't going to be a 2 zillion word monster
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Think there are plenty of monsters out there, even then the original plot was going to be much smaller. I've sketched out 5 more chapters than I initially was aiming for, either the chapter I was writing grew too big for a single read or there were bits I wanted to add on. Eyes peeled, things are going to get weirder in this wasteland.