Let's Talk About Inspiration · 2:50pm Jul 20th, 2018
If you've read the latest interview from the Royal Canterlot Library, then you already know a bit about the story I'll be talking about. But what you might not know is that before I had a FimFiction account, I liked to read stories on the site still, and was fairly familiar with a few things and locating the Good Shit. This was a bit before I started writing, and the beginnings of the Iceverse were still just a few things in my head that weren't anything I was sure was going to put down yet, at least as far as I remember. Very little beyond a few ghosts of ideas and a fascination and love of ponyfic was brewing. But, I'm absolutely certain I wasn't writing at the time, so memory be damned, I know that much. I'm still probably could be getting the timeline wrong because I am hungry, and shit, I don't remember much when I'm hungry.
A few stories became a major inspiration to me as I read them offline. Among them were Bad Future Crusaders, Princess Twilight Sparkle's 505th Birthday, And a Dark Wind Blows*, and the major inspiration of Believing Stories.
While my own ideas were paramount in fueling my desire to eventually write, two of these early favorites - one of which was Believing Stories - really served as a sort of chief inspiration. Just like now, then my favorite ponies were still Luna, Sombra, Celestia, and Cadance.
I tended to try to read stories about them if I could.** One of those stories is the one I'm going to talk about, and you should totally read because nyah-nyah-nyah, my opinion is better than yours.
Essenza di Amore was a story I saw in the feature box way back when that actually looked my speed. Even then, pre-writing me didn't care much for the box and didn't find too many of the stories to be super appealing. (I recall it being a bit better than it is now, though.)
This story caught my eye, partly because I am a cover art junkie, and if you have appealing cover art, I will fucking notice that and because of the promise of things that I really clearly like, and anyone who reads my word blarf will notice that, yes, these are Story Things that can Attract an Ice Star: a Cadance focused adventure drama with the promise of delicious lore and headcanons, and myth-y stuff.
Cadance had always been a character I adored and planned to do more with in writing, and adventure was the genre for me in reading and writing, ponyfic and non-pony stuff. I also was forever in love with the adventure aspects of the show at the time.
Obviously, this was a word baby, and I was to devour this baby.
Yes, the story promises exactly what I thought it would and more, including some neato musical inspiration and bonus material you should also check out. It offers a unique version of Cadance that directly inspired how I wrote my own early on, with plenty of badassery for dear old Little Pink One, because in the story she's a flipping child. There's fantastic OCs, a freaky cool witch, and I'm fairly certain there were some delicious setting details too. If you want to read an extra very good story about an underrated character who is always in need of some love and unique portrayals, or just have anything close to good taste in general, go read the fucking story.
*Literally the first pony story I read ever, years and years ago. Like, before Alicorn Twilight years ago.
**Of all the early stories I read as an anon, the characters I read the least about were actually Luna and Sombra. Luna, because I usually didn't read things where she was the main character in big old longfics because finding her written well, or even a way I liked was hard. It's even harder now. So, I tended to read a lot of historical-type stuff where her and Celestia are the focus rather than her alone, not that there weren't exceptions. I didn't really think a lot of the ideas about her were particularly interesting in a general amount of ponyfic I consumed at the time, and instead preferred art of her. A lot of story ideas and other shit came from art-related things, watching episodes with her a few times and trying to piece things together, and trope inversions of her when I wasn't just letting how I had Luna unfold in my stories. So that was the early development for how I write her. For Sombra, a lot of art and stories about him tend to be too cliche that I can't say much more than a picture or two had any impact on his development other than how I wanted him to be. Guess that makes him a u n i q u e b o y e. Maybe I could make a blog on that or something though, I dunno.
Ima show Cerulean Voice this. He was the first friend I made in this fandom and he even flew up from Australia and visited me for a week back when. He'll appreciate this for sure.
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I think he already knows, hue hue.
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I was glad to meet you both on my trip, for different reasons.
If there's such a thing as internet legacy, you two are definitely a part of it.
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Well, thank you! Glad to be part of it! 👍