"Late Night Conversations" Sequel Update + Sample! · 8:10am Feb 21st, 2022
Hello everyone!
When I first announced a sequel to "Late-Night Conversations" back when I published the epilogue chapter, I was targeting a publication date of roughly this week. Sadly, that won't be happening. I got through a big chunk of my first draft, but realized I was very dissatisfied with how it was coming. A lot of the themes I wanted to explore were there, but the characterization felt wrong, and I wrote the tension between Sunset and Wallflower as being so fraught and volatile that it didn't make sense that they would ever find a way forward, which isn't good when that's what the story is about. And then I decided to make a major change to a certain story element right in the middle of writing and... yeah, I needed a reset.
So I've more or less started over, writing a fresh outline that tamps the anger levels down a whole lot while still letting the emotions flow freely, and I'm now at work translating that into a new draft. I'm targeting a publishing start date sometime around the first-second week of March.
It's been an interesting process so far, especially working with a character like Wallflower, whose original animated incarnation I was not a fan of. A lot of stories contextualize her Forgotten Friendship actions by portraying her as someone who's in a truly dark mental place, hence the high volume of suicide fics involving her. Since I absolutely do not want to go down that road, I've taken a different approach to making her a sympathetic character. I like the idea of Wallflower having her life genuinely improve post-Forgotten Friendship, with the girls who join her in the gardening club (Derpy/Muffins and Roseluck, plus I also added Derpy's Rainbow Rocks bandmate Raspberry Fluff) becoming true friends with her and her no longer being "invisible". But that improvement is tainted with the guilt of what she did to get there, plus the shame of feeling unable to face up to Sunset and the Rainbooms in the wake of a summer apart after their initial efforts to help her.
I've also now received the finalized cover art from SwordTune! It looks fantastic and, if I do another update before publishing, I'll share it then. I've now asked about doing a companion cover in the same style for the original "Late-Night Conversations", which will replace the current Rainbow Rocks screenshot cover.
Anyway, since I want to have something to show when I said this story would be ready, enjoy this sample of the first section of the first chapter!
It wasn't unusual to see Wallflower Blush walking to school. She lived just down the block from campus, after all; while she had a driver's license, it would've been pointless to take a car over, even on a sweltering near-summer day like today. For a long time, it had meant that she could stay in the school garden -- her home away from home -- for long periods after hours without raising much skepticism, since security rarely checked in on it and she could be home in mere minutes if her family got concerned where she was. The previous year, in particular, she'd often snuck out at night to relax there, even falling asleep one time, which made for quite the awkward moment when she stumbled into the house the next morning, covered in dirt and being discovered by her alarmed mother.
(Her mother had no recollection of such an incident ever occurring.)
So it didn't strike Roseluck, who was glancing through the window slat at the back exit door, as odd when she saw Wallflower emerge from the garden path that morning, walking up to the gap in the gate behind the back parking lot. What was unusual, though, was her posture. She looked slumped, as though her backpack, which didn't appear unusually large, was filled with bricks and throwing her off-kilter. She'd stopped at the fence and was now leaning against it. Roseluck looked closer. Wallflower's eyes were looking downward, but she wasn't staring blankly. She was focusing on a spot on the asphalt in front of her.
Worried Wallflower might be getting a bit of heat exhaustion, Roseluck abruptly stepped away from her other friends, Muffins and Raspberry Fluff, and pushed the door open. "Wallflower!", she shouted, which seemed to snap the green girl out of her stupor. "Are you okay?"
Wallflower darted forward, slipping deftly between the parked cars as she made her way to the building. "I'm fine!" she called. "Sorry!"
"Sorry for what?" Roseluck asked as Wallflower made it to the door, panting a bit. "I'm the one who should be apologizing -- I wasn't trying to get you to run when it's already this hot out."
"Oh, it's fine," Wallflower replied sheepishly they stepped inside, Roseluck letting the door close behind them. "I guess I just need a moment out there. Nothing to worry about."
"A moment?" Roseluck asked, tilting her head slightly. "How come?"
"Nothing," Wallflower said, a bit more forcefully than she'd intended. Nervously, she disengaged from that line of discussion by turning to Muffins and Raspberry and greeting them. Roseluck wasn't amused.
How was your weekend?, Muffins signed to Wallflower.
"It was okay, mostly studying and stuff. But hey, last week of high school, right?" The two girls both threw their arms in the air excitedly, Wallflower's right accidentally knocking into Bulk Biceps as he walked behind them. "Oops, sorry Bulk."
"Aw, no worries, Wallflower." He looked up and waved to Muffins, who excitedly waved back before the musclebound student carried on towards class.
"I still can't believe you two are going to prom together!" Raspberry nudged Muffins as the grey girl blushed and gestured an expression agreeing with her sentiment.
Did you ever ask anyone? she signed to Wallflower.
"No, I... didn't feel up to it. I'm not feeling very excited about dating right now, even just for this. But we'll all see each other there, right?"
Muffins and Raspberry nodded as Roseluck put a hand on Wallflower's shoulder. "Of course we will, Wallflower," Roseluck replied.
"And hey, y'know, it wasn't that long ago that I wouldn't have even had you girls there to look forward to. So, I mean..." Wallflower's smile faded as she noticed Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash walking past them out of the corner of her eye. "I just feel..."
...like I don't deserve to be this happy, like I've been rewarded for being a monster, like trying to destroy a girl's life was the best thing to ever happen to me...
"I've gotta go. I've got my big calc exam in four minutes. I'll see you later!"
"Wallflower, the bell hasn't rung yet-" Roseluck trailed off as Wallflower tore away from them toward class. She sighed as she, Raspberry and Muffins dispersed to head for their own classes, Roseluck feeling very dissatisfied.
Looking forward to bringing you the full story soon.
This sample was great!
Excited to see where this goes!
Well, now, I'm sorry the story has been pushed back a couple of weeks, but I hope it comes out like you want. The scene fragment looks pretty good. Definitely excited to see more. I do wonder how this 'search for the magic magnet' plot you mentioned fits in here. Also, while I suspect what couples among the Rainbooms will be going to the Prom, I have to wonder if a certain athlete has already asked out her crush by this point.
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Honestly, I haven't thought about that story in a while; the last time I did, I'd completely re-conceived what I wanted it to be. I no longer consider LNC to be an excerpt from it (and I adjusted the description to reflect that) and I'm trying to be less continuity-focused in terms of my writing. (LNC and "Winter Holidate" are still connected, but I really should never have said "Unforgettable Luncheon" is part of that continuity because I don't want to be bound by what I wrote in that fic in terms of exploring the other girls' relationships.) If I ever get around to that "EQG finale" idea (I have at least one more significant story I want to do before I'd consider going back to that), it'll either be set over the summer after graduation or it'll be in a separate continuity from the LNC-verse.
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Oh. Well, if you've decided to split things off, that's your call. Now I really don't know what to expect with this story. In any case, I'm still looking forward to that 'EQG finale' story of yours, whenever you write it.