Update on 'Of Scales and Fur.' · 5:49pm Apr 23rd, 2021
Hello again,
Just wanted to keep you guys updated on my adaptation of 'Howlite Howler' to 'Of Scales and Fur.'
I gotta say, one of the worst things about writing is hindsight.
Looking back, I got an idea for 'Howlite Howler' where Shiva was tortured, not by some malicious pony, but by a changeling masquerading as a pony. The plan would've been for the changeling to turn Shiva and the other diamond dogs against the ponies enough that they'd attack Equestria. And as the ponies were busy dealing with the diamond dogs, the changelings would sneak in through the back and sabotage the ponies, leading to the events of Howlite Howler 2 or even the Canterlot Wedding, with the diamond dogs being the threat that Shining Armor was defending Canterlot from.
I tried to adapt this idea into 'Of Scales and Fur,' but then logic caught up to me: if the changelings caught Shiva, then why would they torture her and turn her against the ponies when they could just drain her of love and magic and then use that love and magic to go ahead with their original plans? Diamond Dogs aren't powerful enough to stand up to ponies, as the Mane Six proved when they saved Rarity, so why would they want to attack the capital of Equestria just because a bunch of changelings made them think ponies were being mean to them?
My mind answered with, 'well, the changelings are replaced by humans in the fantasy novel.' But again, logic pointed out that humans doing this made even less sense:
Essentially, in 'Of Scales and Fur,' the demi-wolves (whom Shiva is one of) want humanity dead for abusing them, and humanity made dragons to defend them because the demi-wolves couldn't tell which humans were innocent or guilty. But with the changeling idea, I'm saying that humans intentionally abused the demi-wolves so that they'll try to attack humans, and the dragons end up fighting them to defend the humans, all while the abusers watched the resulting fights.
Uh... what and why?!
Initially, my answer was, 'because the humans hate each other and want the dragons and dogs to kill them in the crossfire.' But then that mostly just meant that humans were fighting each other, with one side using dragons and the other side using demi-wolves.
I'm not really sure if I should go with this idea when I've already got the published version of Howlite Howler out, but I wanted to share it with you guys and keep you updated on my progress. Please feel free to let me know what you think.
Thanks as always for your help.