The inspiration behind Silent Wings

There’s a Fullmetal Alchemist alternate universe fanfic called All the Things We Cannot Hear, where Alphonse was born deaf. I liked it at first, but without spoiling too much, it eventually turned into a beat-for-beat retelling of Brotherhood with occasional mentions of sign language and Al angsting internally. (I wish fanfic authors would remember that the train hijacking and Youswell happened in the manga.) You can see the influence of All the Things We Cannot Hear the most in Gallus’ chapter; it inspired his love of reading¹ and the style of narration.

Last week, I got the idea to write about a deaf hippogriff. My first plot bunny was a Twilight Sparkle is an Espeon Now side-story about a deaf fledgeling who has to figure out how to communicate after being transformed into a Pokémon, but I’m still procrastinating on the ending of Rain and Lightning. Then, in a thread on r/mylittlepony exactly a week ago, I threw out the idea of an AU where Gallus is deaf and Silverstream invents a sign language in order to communicate with him. Later, I made an observation that Gallus and Silverstream were perfect opposites: a poor orphan, and a princess with a loving family. A few days ago, the opening sentences of both of their chapters came into my head, and then I realised I could use this as my Depth in Innocence entry, and thus Silent Wings was born.

P.S. There’s a more interesting AU where Edward becomes deaf, but it only exists as a bullet-point list. I’d love to see someone write it; I have other fanfics on my plate, and I’m not confident that I can get the FMA characters’ personalities right.

1. This part was also inspired by (Where Griffons Go) When It Rains.