Let me state in plain terms that I will not be doing this in any particular order once I finish my "this was how the plot rolled" section. Thoughts will fly through the air free like birds after that. If any of you are reading this anyways, you'll probably get bored. I'll make some god-awful puns or snappy comments to keep those of you who risk it entertained.
Alright, here we go. Prepare for spoilers. To all you guys who read this section first: if you don't want them, bail out right the cuss now. I'm not going to do any 'in this chapter, then in this one' business. I'm just going to give out some character analysis and my opinion of the plot.
PLOT STUFF:
Personally, I believe putting Rarity in that nasty initial conflict with Spike was a necessary evil. Sure it makes things hard to deal with between the two of them for a while, but in the end it makes their relationship more believable to me. Something real happens between them because of that strife in the end; I didn't have to base that love on anything from the show or any other fan-fic. That relationship is legit and independent. Kind of a big deal to me. Why modify, when you can create?
Likewise, that conflict also makes Spike's relationship believable with Celestia. She is completely, undeniably the feel-good character, and unless Spike came to her with some kind of problem, the entire thing would have crumbled into this nasty mush of nonsense. The only difference is that there's no direct conflict between him and Tia; but indirect conflict is still conflict. The other thing that really drew me to this relationship is that, in my personal reading history, it hadn't even been mentioned, much less done. Again; prefer to build things myself.
Spike's 'GTFO to Canterlot' was a the second hill in our little roller-coaster of crazy. It was a much needed reprise from the bad feels on his end, as well as a solid chance to put Rarity's views into perspective for the readers; though most of you just hated her freaking guts at the time. But she laid her heart out on the table to Twilight, telling her the whole truth, even though she knew Twi would be pissed. Respectable if you ask me.
That's the start of Rarity's upswing. Let's be honest, it's not a straight line; she's awful, then she sucks a little less, and so on and so forth until personally I didn't dislike her anymore, and actually kind of felt supportive of her new mission in life with Spike. Clearly those sentiments were not unanimous, but what can you do? Her little bout with Madam was her salvation in all reality. Without that push, she'd have stayed a jerk the rest of the fic.
Spike's 'pursue the love' moment with Tia was very snap-to. I like that, because it does set Tia up as a sort of rebound girl. She's not supposed to instantly be a 'better' match for Spike than Rarity, just the more available one. There's growth in that relationship, though most of it is transparent because none of it is caused by direct conflict. It makes things seem really fast, but that's half the fun of it.
And then the 'oh shit' moment. That kiss was just too fun to write. At last, we pit civil Celestia with regretful Rarity. Jealousy being defeated was the main theme here; Tia admits that she loves Spike, and Rarity can't really argue that. That would just be hypocritical. At last we lay the feelings of both mares on the table, and we put the ball back in Spike's court.
And then, the endings go <->. Smashing Tia's feelings was the really hard one to do for me: Rarity was kind of on the outside already by the time Spike broke it to her. But man, Tia had that relationship ripped out from under her, regardless of how sudden it had started. Not easy to do for me.
I prefer the dinner scene in Rarity's ending greatly to the camping trip. They both do something very important; they kill the stale-as-hell scenery. Dinner at a night-club, camping in the boonies... either way, they're not in the castle anymore. I was getting really, really tired of describing the balcony and saying 'in the study'. You're all lying if you say you weren't tired of reading it.
And then the epilogues: I regret nothing. What happened in each are clear representations of the benefits and drawbacks of his decisions.
Rarity's epilogue slew me... Having to kill her felt wrong, though I knew it was right in terms of what 'had to happen'. I cried, viewers. Like an angry, hungry baby. I don't even like Rarity that much, but for the love of Christ that heartbreak was bad. Maybe that was just me being drunk. Under no circumstances should you listen to anything sad or orchestral in nature while reading it.
Tia's made up for it. Some real, wicked-bad heartbreak for killing Twilight too, but that wasn't as hard: I think the Rarity shit numbed me. Worst part is I like Twi so much more than Rarity. Still, mostly good feels: all the six getting hitched, the very touching wedding. And then the unexpected! Children, not possible in any other Spike pairing. But hey, Tia's a goddess, she can magic up some genetics if she wants. Besides, it's not like mushing two life-forces together is an unbelievable or original concept. I am content with it, and as I said, while terribly unfair to the Spikity pairing, it 'makes sense'.
CHARACTER BUSINESS:
Spike... Ho ho ho, that dragon. I took him from heartbroken, teenager know-nothing to mature, confused, and lovesick. Not much progression, but pretty solid for seven days worth of plot. His reactions and outlooks on life are so typical of teens to begin with, but his time with Tia and Luna really shines through as he comes to accept that troubles happen in life, especially in love, and that he has to take charge of his heart. He's witty, polite, and all around he just feels like someone I would want to be around and lend a claw to.
Rarity... I did some bad things to her in this fic. Necessary, but no less turbulent to my heart. She's definitely not favorite pony; Dashie is. But I digress. I didn't like having to wreck her shit right off the bat, but that's her growth. She always came across as stuck up and selfish to me, minus the scenes in the show where they try way too hard to overcome her bullshit and make her seem generous for a few seconds. What the show does with her doesn't make her acceptable for someone of Spike's temperament. So I started her how I've always seen her; ladylike, but shallow and self-serving.
I did everything in my power to rebuild her; I had the technology. I took her from the ground up and made her into a mare who wanted to make Spike happy, who worked hard to earn his love, instead of expecting to simply fix her mistakes for her own sake. In the end, she came to represent what it meant to be a real lady, the way Spike is a real gentledrake.
Tia... I shot myself in the foot bad using her. I had no idea what I was doing; there was nothing to base her on besides the 'love everything, all is good, stay calm and do nothing' the show puts out. Worthless as a fictional character, perfectly acceptable as a 'silent god' kind of figure. That's what they use her for in the show, but that's unusable for romance.
Instead I took it upon myself to make her seem more realistic, by taking her typical image and turning it into a forced act. Spike catching her singing was the trigger for me to cut loose and create her from scratch as just another mare; a unique female with an atypical sense of humor and unending compassion. Certain things about her remained; tolerance, strength of will, etc. But her emotions were her mode of development. Through those and her sudden, spur of the moment actions, I did what I could to turn her into a real character.
Luna... What? Not much to say here, other than I just used her to inject comedy where appropriate, and to generate Philosospike moments. In other words, Luna the prankster. Or Luna, Relationship Scientist, Ph. D. Regardless of how you saw her, I enjoyed her role as a filler character.
ALL THAT JAZZ:
I had a great time with this. This is the important section; you, the readers, are fun and exciting, and have been very fun to work for. This wouldn't have meant half of what it did to me if nobody had read it. Even those of you that hated it brought me great joy, because an opinion is an opinion, and feedback is feedback.
I learned more about my own writing during this one fic than I have in all of my other combined writings because of you all. Insights, opinions, all of it mattered. Even if all you said was that it was well written and asked me to keep up the good work, I took your advice and kept up the god-damned good work. Even if you think you said nothing of note to me, or said nothing at all, you were the push I needed to make this something great. And it is, in my eyes.
There are some of you I have to thank in front of all my viewers, even though I am certain I thanked you all personally.
First, I would like to thank Ninjazz; he has been a ridiculously loyal fan, always willing to give his feedback, often in the form of page-long chapter reviews. His comments and e-mails really lit a spark in my mind for the final chapters, and for that, Ninjazz, I humbly thank you for the thousandth time.
Second, _Medicshy. True to your name, I understand you're not the biggest fan of public recognition. No matter how minuscule you think your efforts were on my behalf, they meant the world to me. Your pre-reading upped the quality of this work many times over for the final chapters, and they would not be what they are today without you. Give yourself a pat on the back when nobody is looking: you earned it.
Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly of all are my friends StormXtreme, Noata, and Cody [because Cody doesn't have a shnazzy username]. Without them, this never would have been posted in the first place. Their encouragement, support, and appreciation of my work led me to take the leap and get this fic on the web. And holy crap, it even got featured at one time. These are my bros back home, and I love them like family. Always there for me, guys!
That's all my personal hooplah. You've got my two cents, for what they're worth, and you all have my infinite appreciation! I look forward to seeing some of you again in future comments as I strive to always write my next great work.
This is Razorbeam, thanking you all. Goodnight!
PS - Curtain and bring the house-lights back up and all that stuff. Autographs later. Drinking first.