Long, long ago in the world of My Little Pony, the deer first mastered magic. It was a momentous occasion, a true milestone in the world, for it was the very first time any species had learned to harness the supernatural forces that infused the air around them.
There was just one problem: half of all deer couldn't use magic at all. The deer learned to wield magic by channeling etheric energy through the tines of their antlers, but female deer did not grow antlers, so they were not able to use magic.
This greatly upset the female deer, and they pleaded with The Wills That Draw The World, the supreme, ultimate creators of all existence. The Wills were silent, because as numerous as the does and cows were, their voices were not as loud as their male counterparts. So the female deer devised a new plan: they ceased mating and lovemaking with the male deer until they too could wield magic.
Now the bucks and bulls joined their female counterparts in pleading with the Wills, sending up prayers, hosting ceremonies, and simply complaining towards the sky. At last, the Wills responded. Like ink being drawn across a page, antlers sprouted from all the heads of the female deer. Even infant does and bucks grew tiny nubs. And when that generation of females had their first fawns, they too grew antlers, regardless of gender.
So it is that, in modern times, all deer, male and female, grow antlers. Therefore, all deer, male and female, can use magic- and indeed, some of the greatest magicians in the history of the deerfolk have been female.
Oh shit, I hope this lives up to the legacy
Boy, when you hint at a sequel, you don't mess around.
Seriously?
A sequel?
Welp. Guess I've something I need to finish before this.
~Skeeter The Lurker
To be honest, I'm not sure I want to even read a sequel; the story is so complete in my mind, and so much has happened in the lore since then that "fast and loose with continuity" is not something that would ever draw me in.
It's on the RIL, for now.
Interesting, will have to read the original first before tackling this story.
Also, what's with the weird descriptions? Almost none of this is needed to know about the actual story. Hell, most of this information can better be used in the author notes. I have next to no clue what this story is about unless I look at the short description. Not too huge a complaint, but it might put off new readers from the story series.
Dude, really, if canon bothers Dangerous canon, move on. It's already alternate universe, you don't need to be chained by it. Let your imagination free and do the best job you can.
Also, what kind of Original Fiction are you talking about?
What I got from your story's description:
I don't mean to be a downer, but fuck dude write a normal story description and put all this wanking over yourself in a blog post and just tag this story in it.
4241328 I tend to agree.
You should put some clearer descriptions of what's going on in the story and what it's about closer to the top. This mostly reads like a personal blog until that half-paragraph at the bottom, and even that's really vague and essentially just restates character/genre tags.
Remember that the short description is only visible in compact view like the stories panel on the right side of the page and in archive browsing mode. When you're actually looking at the story, it's not visible, and so the long description has to do the same job.
I'm in. Let's roll.
Umm, okay, question: What exactly is the story about? Just a plot summary, a teaser, something, if you please.
4241299 I'll agree with our sponge of awesomeness here. And slightly reword and not be a meanie like 4241328 .
Authors notes can be used in such a way, as he described, or even blog posts, as most of us would use them. We usually save a lot of these details for those who wish to read our blogs and dive deeper into how we think as writers, readers, and see our creative process. I highly recommend a lot of this information go to a blog instead, to clear it out and focus extensively on pulling in those new readers who truly need to read what you have to write and bring to the table.
I would absolutely put the Note on Antlers in an authors notes, although now I am rereading it, it might be better to weave this information throughout the story, and slowly begin to give us more information as the story goes on.
So please, don't get discouraged, and know so many of us support you and can't wait to see more of what you write.
Although, if I must comment on both this and Dangerous, did the formatting get thrown off transferring it? It seems the paragraph breaks were cut. I know it could be an hour or three long task to shuffle through the old novel to slice them correctly, but I want as many people to read these stories as possible, and losing those breaks can make it hard to read. Which is a crime, considering how well you write.
4241418
Never said I wasn't a bitch.
One suggestion... Give the world a name, instead of calling it "the world of My Little Pony." Equus is a fairly common fan one, but by no means the only one I've seen - just make one up! It just makes that flow better... "world of MLP" doesn't seem in-universe enough, if you follow me. Or just change that sentence to something like "long ago, in the ancient history of the world" or "the elder days" or something... Anything, really, that is less out-of-character - I found that sentence to be a bit jarring. When I do world building for my gaming, I write everything from the perspective of some latter-day scholar of the world at some nebulous point in the future. That allows you to explain as if to an outsider, while keeping it "in-character." By just removing the reference to the show, that's what basically you've got here - a snippet of legend and myth as told in-universe. Hell, you could add an attributation to some scholar if you wanted, an exerpt from their work.
4241465
You're awesome. Jus throwing that out there.
So, I imagine this is an explanation as to why female deer have antlers here when they don't in real life. I see this little anecdote appears to be based on the ancient Greek play Lysistrata.
Interesting.
I'd actually assumed that the female deer lost their antlers in the great war that broke nature, and that even some males were left unable to use magic (even if they had the antlers). But I see now that was a hasty assumption to make. After all, deer would start with sexual dimorphism long before any use of magic. Losing antlers would be better suited as part of a creation myth.
Um... I should probably mention that in the long wait after Dangerous Business, some of us (or at least myself and several colleagues) decided you'd probably never return to write a sequel. So there's been several leaps of logic and fancanon since then to keep up with the progress of the show, and some of it may be difficult to reconcile with the canon presented in The Wills of Evil. If you see any such difficulty, be sure to remind us that this is your story, not ours, and your headcanon. We may not remember on our own.
> mfw I just realized what "The Wills of Evil" refers to
So excited!