Another Day in Ponyville [Self-Commentary]

So, Another Day in Ponyville has been completed. If you haven’t read it yet and have skipped the story just to read this blog, go ahead and read the story. I’ll wait…

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Have you read it yet? NO?! Fine then, be that way.

For those of you who have read it, thank you, I love you. If you’re a guy, no homo—I’ll stop.

Anyways, about the story. Another Day in Ponyville was an interesting story to write. I actually had this story sitting on my computer for the past year. I finished writing it last august, but I didn’t post it until now because I didn’t think it was well written and presented. My anxiety kicks in when it comes to posting things I’ve made online and just in general when showing things I’ve made to other people.

Recently though, I read the story Broken Bindings (very good story by the way, check it out), and it reminded me of this story. I decided to reread it and I thought to myself… what the hell, I didn’t write this for it to just sit in the dark.

For a first story I wanted to make a good impression. I didn’t want to make the common clop story or a general slice of life fic—not that I think they’re bad, don’t get that idea. I wanted to make something that would captivate people and that would be interesting to think about. I overall just wanted to make a fun read (even if it was depressing at the end) that people could explore and try to figure out. And to do this, I needed a good storyline.

At the time, I was a huge fan of a horror game called SOMA, which is a game that mainly deals with the concept of ‘what is real and what is just a simulation.’ It got stuck in my head and when coming up with this story, I ended up thinking to myself: what if Ponyville were to be just one giant simulation and no one was conscious of it?

And thus, one part of the storyline was set. As for Twilight’s role in the story, I had a thought going around in my head about the popular idea that since Twilight is an alicorn, she is immortal, and therefore, would live on while the rest of her friends passed away. While that’s not necessarily what happened in the story, I combined it with the simulation concept, which led to the idea of, what if Twilight created a simulation because she couldn’t handle the grief of losing the ponies she held so dear to her heart?

So now I needed a way to kill everyone Twilight ever knew and loved. What came to mind? A meteor. The result: Another Day in Ponyville. TADA!

In terms of writing the actual story however, I wanted to portray it in a kind of style that no one had really done on fimfiction before, and as someone who likes games and stories where you can find elements to piece together the story (FNaF is an easy example of the top of my head), I wanted to, in a way, make my story interactive in that while it proceeds, you’re hinted toward the fact that there are secrets to be found. In short, I was daring you to piece together the puzzle before I could complete it for you. Other than investment, it puts you in the (horse)shoes of the characters in the story who are also trying to figure out why everything seems so wrong, and the 16 stories idea popped in my head as a way to say: this isn’t your ordinary story, there are messages to be found, and it requires your participation.

By the way, have you read the story yet? Alright, just wondering…

Now the original plan for this story was to have much larger of an audience, so I could have a bigger group of people commenting their discoveries while reading the story and sharing what they had learned. Unfortunately, that was not the case, but I’m still happy that my story got the attention it got, even if it was very little. I’m not striving to get my content to the top of the popular stories list (which would likely never happen), I simply write so those who kindly take the time to read what I write have a good time, and even though things didn’t go exactly as planned, I’m glad some could experience and (hopefully) enjoy what I brought into existence.

Honestly, I could swear I had 50 panic attacks whilst working up the courage to upload Another Day in Ponyville. As I said, my anxiety kicks in when I post stuff that I know people are going to see and judge. I had this feeling in the back of my mind that people were going to look at my story’s tags, read the first chapter, and immediately start disliking it due to its presentation, which I didn’t want because I really wanted to make a good first impression on this website. When it came time to publish this story, my finger was on my mouse for literally an hour. All I had to do was press it and my story would be on the site and it took me an hour because I was so scared. DON’T JUDGE ME; IT’S JUST THE WAY I AM!!

But then, well, I posted the story and needless to say, no one hated me.

There are some things I wish I could have done better. The story and writing itself I’m fine with, but I feel the way I presented it could have been better. The story’s description for example. Looking back on it, it seems kind of rushed and for the type of mood I was going for, I feel it didn’t fit that. Maybe it’s just me, I don’t know, I just wish maybe I did it better. I also kind of wish I had written the climax better, but I left it as is, just so I can see my progression as a writer from then to the present.

I had sometimes also considered changing the whole meteor concept and going with something different. I had an idea at one point where I could make this story kind of like a sequel to, ‘The Cough’ where Twilight is the last remaining survivor, and everyone else fell victim to a virus that was actually caused by a gas released from a comet. But then I thought… meh, too much work.

But anyways, that’s really all the commentary I have to offer on Another Day in Ponyville. It was fun to write and hopefully you had fun reading it… that is, if you’ve read it yet.

I did consider, after writing Another Day in Ponyville, writing a sequel to this, where in a prologue, a group of survivors enter Ponyville after Twilight ends the simulation and they discover her body, and the rest of the story would be following these new characters as they try to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. That is, until I realized there isn’t really anything I could do with a story like that to make it interesting, and plus, it would stray from the topic I would have originally been trying to portray (though, if someone thinks they can tackle that topic, by all means, don’t even ask, I’d like to see what you can do with it).

I plan on doing these types of commentary blogs with future stories that I write. Not so much with short one-shots, more with stories that have bigger story arcs.

As for future story ideas, I have one in the works and a couple in my head that I’d like to write out soon. Stay tuned for those, thank you to my current readers for reading my stuff, and I shall now excuse myself and go make a sandwich.

Story Details (that aren’t too obvious)

Cover image: The foreleg of a skeleton is peaking out from behind one of the houses to the right.

Cover image: The shadow to the right is a Twilight Sparkle vector.

Story 1: Fluttershy notices a purple hair on her shoulder, which is intended to be Twilight’s hair.

Story 2: At the end, Spike wonders how Twilight knows he’s been to Rarity’s four times that week.

Story 3: Twilight notices the Best Young Flier award on Rainbow Dash’s bureau and appears to grow upset.

Story 3: After Twilight leaves Rainbow Dash’s home, Rainbow hears an unusual teleportation spark outside, which is not teleportation, but actually Twilight modifying the simulation.

Story 4: Pinkie Pie claims she sees someone behind the trees next to the path to Fluttershy’s cottage.

Story 5: When Rainbow Dash sets off her Rainboom, it repeats three times, and each time, there are new colors. All the colors, in order, are actually a color alphabet code.

Story 6: Twilight lights her horn for some reason and suddenly, Applejack forgets what she’s doing.

Story 9: When turning the page to night time mode, the address to a youtube video will appear at the bottom.

Story 10: A set of capitalized letters reversed spells out an important word.

Story 11: We learn that Twilight has been spending a lot of time away from her friends.

Story 16: Twilight wonders how the town citizens were able to follow her as far as they did in the previous chapter, since we learn that the simulated ponies can only walk a quarter mile away from the objects that represent them and the only way they can walk farther is if the objects are moved. This is implying that Twilight felt so much guilt that she subconsciously tortured herself by allowing the simulated ponies to follow her through the town.