Out of Premade Pony Words

Chapter 6 is out and AP burned some midnight oil to get it edited for you lovely people! Finally get to see Pâte la Lune, which as mentioned before, has great Crepes. We also have more things happening with Luna, so now feel comfortable adding it to a Luna group or two. With that, I officially welcome you to the end of rewritten words originally drafted between 2015 and 2019! Everything after this is now coming hot and fresh off the ol' noggin.

Get a reader who will look at your horsewords like Starlight Glimmer is eyeing that cake!

To keep you in the loop on how the writing is going, my first few passes of Chapter 7 are done and waiting to be reviewed by AP. Right now, I'm bogged down a bit in Chapter 8. A little peak behind the word processor: I aim towards a major beat of a story and then write dialog and draft simple actions to see where the threads go naturally. After that, I see if it is going to hit around the mark I wanted it to go in the first place. I usually keep nuggets of information floating around in my head that could come out, be it a personality quirk or something I want to reiterate again to draw attention to it so nothing comes out as needless fluff. The ending of chapter 6 and beginning of chapter 7 is one of those. I wrote something, kept going with it, discovered a new thing about the characters, and tied them in. Don't think that is the best way to write something, but my schooling is in script writing, so it is what comes naturally.

The crux of the matter is that I'm in the middle of making a major decision on how to bridge to chapter 9. I know where the story is going for its major beats, but the how between those is being a little difficult. I spent about 5-7 combined hours writing three different pathways for chapter 8 to go down to reach where it needs to go. Two were deleted outright, but the third is doing what I want it to do while exploring something I am very interested in, but it has come at the cost of a potential plothole forming under it and I will most likely abandon it after I finish writing it. I really like it though, so it'll probably fall into the 2K-3K word document category all on its own for either reworking it in later since it can or releasing it as a "deleted scene" once Electro Swing is over.

Now for some transparency. Once I find some time in my Electro Swing writing sessions, I've decided I will be doing a major rewrite of Forbidden Melodies. I am not embarrassed by it perse, but that story definitely needs some TLC since Electro Swing is technically a sequel to it. Once the rewrite is done, I will be tying Electro Swing to it using the Sequel feature. I have been avoiding it since I've been on the fence of rewrites before linking the two together, but now that I've decided for sure, I hope you will be looking forward to a cleaner Forbidden Melodies (hopefully). I did write the whole thing in a single day, and it shows.

I will apologize in advance though: One of the biggest complaints I had was about how the music was described. I will do my best to improve in describing them musically, but unfortunately, if the core of Octavia's visual experience of music is a problem, then I must inform you that it is technically not broken. I am modeling how Octavia listens to music in the way I experience music, which is visually. Think of it like daydream music videos. If I am listening to a song I really like, I experience it in head as images or even stories that unravel in my imagination with characters doing things. I will do my best to convey it more clearly what Octavia is visualizing alongside some more concrete musical terminology if I can figure out how to do that (will honestly be rereading parts of other works that have been inspired by music to see how they approach it), but she will still be experiencing it like I do.

The blog is over at this point, but if you want to keep going, I'll explain how I experience music.

Look forward to more Electro Swing! I will do my best to overcome writer's block.
- Rego

P.S. Okay! Let me give you an example of how I hear the character theme I have chosen for my version of Princess Celestia: 1940 (AmpLive Remix)

I experience this song as Princess Celestia 1000 years ago continuously basking in the love and attention of her subjects while Luna stews in the shadow she casts as she is driven into becoming Nightmare Moon. Each pass of the submarine (which is that echoing chug chug chug you hear) is a night cycle being quickly skipped through to allow the day to continue shining. Finally, the end of the song is Celestia herself waking up in the middle of the night before Luna returns. The whole thing is a recurring nightmare driven by the guilt she has for her part in ostracizing and creating a monster. Now for a few lyrical tie-ins for the major character points.

Something's wrong when you regret, Things that haven't happened yet.
This is a brief moment of lucidity of a much more haggard and faded Princess Celestia almost realizing she is dreaming.

But it's a glorious day when morning comes, Without that feeling of alarm.
Celestia glitches back into her dream state, perfect and pristine marching into a blinding morning light for Day Court.

You couldn't sleep for the awful fright, That kept you up in bed last night. While curious shapes shift in the dark, They vanish with the sunlight's spark.
Luna desperately tries to get anypony's attention to see her beautiful night while Celestia comforts trembling ponies and forces the sun back up.

So rise and shine, Now's the time to be alive! To stay awake with me a while! And smile...
Celestia has completely given into Hubris as she grows into a towering, Mount Canterhorn sized pony, not even noticing Luna trying to reach anypony as she is consumed by Nightmare Moon.

Somethings wrong... (Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!)
Princess Celestia wakes up violently in the middle of the night in a cold sweat in the moonlight with the visage of the Mare in the Moon casting a shadow over her. She is haggard, her usual wispy magical hair is matted into physical folicle strands, and she is not allowing herself the catharsis of crying since she brought this upon herself.