Cantering Death

by Scriber

Author's Plea

Hey, all! Scriber here.

I come to you, dear reader, with a request: I need proofreaders. Try as I might to iron out grammatical inconsistencies and potential plot holes, I find that the old adage "two heads are better than one" is quite appropriate in this scenario. Should you find yourself interested in being among the first to read a new chapter before it's published, send me an email at [e-mail]! Even if you're just sending an email about what you've read so far, I would still be delighted to hear from you.

That brings me to the final point: what do you, the reader, want to see in this story? Should any of the mane 6 succumb to the deadly virus, or was Nurse Redheart's death quite enough? I am open to all suggestions, and will give credit to anyone whose idea is interesting enough to make it into the story. Additionally, once this story is completed, I will give credit to any proofreaders who decide to hop on board and lend me a helping hand (or hoof).

Thanks, all, for your interest in this story. To be absolutely honest, it wouldn't have come as far as it has without readers like you. Hope to hear from you soon! Try not to get bitten!

Horrifically yours,
-Scriber

Comments

[MetalPony]

if i was good at what you needed no problem but im not that at finding grammer issuesand etc

[MetalPony]

if i was good at what you needed no problem but im not that at finding grammer issues and etc

[Sweetflank]

Ooh, I'd like to lend you a hoof.

[Oceanus92]

I'd gladly proofread your story and/or bombard you with ideas~!

[Scriber]

4560
That gets explained in chapter five. I know it's probably a bit confusing at first, but stick with it!

[Voidheart]

Having seen this before wouldn't the princesses know better than to make everyone gather up? That just makes them easy pickings for the zombies, which we already saw happen in Ponyville.
Barricading in their homes would be safer wouldn't it?

Honestly? I was put off by Redheart's death enough. I don't think having any of the mane 6 or major supporting characters should end up infected. It gets very hard to read.
I'd say that sticking to unnamed ponies and MAYBE ponies that have been given a name but little in the way of anything else would be the way to go.

[Scriber]

4594
All will be explained later on, trust me on this one. There was a reason for Luna to issue that particular order - it's been a concern with some of my proofreaders, but I can't say too much without spoiling anything. Stay tuned!

"...what do you, the reader, want to see in this story? Should any of the mane 6 succumb to the deadly virus, or was Nurse Redheart's death quite enough?"

You know what, I may not be particularly fond of this story so far, but I will forever respect you for actually taking the time to ask this question. I hope that you might hear me out on a little stance, then, that I have held for a long time. I hope that you'll read the whole comment and not simply tl;dr me, because I feel I need to make this point, and it is a rather long winded one...

One thing you want to remember is that you're writing fanfiction. You are writing a story taking place in a world that is not your own. You are writing for characters that other people have grown attached to, that you do not necessarily know all the nuances and qualities of, and that somebody else put a lot of time, effort, and soul into.

So with characters like this, one thing I really don't feel you want to do, is disrespect them. Now I know a lot of people immediately say "but they're fictional characters. How can you really disrespect fictional characters?" Well, for one thing you can certainly disrespect the original author. You can disrespect the other fans by completely ignoring how they might feel about the show and the characters, but if we were to speak strictly about the characters in the story then consider this: Would you really write fanfiction about characters that really didn't transcend just being "characters" to you? If you would write about something that is just a "fictional character" to you, then I envy the amount of free time you must have on your hands. Personally, though, I would never devote much time and effort to something that didn't mean more than that to me. So if this really means something to you, then I would think that it would be both in your best interest AND your readers' to respect the characters.

That being said, we now talk about killing characters. Believe me when I say it IS possible to kill off characters and respect them, but it is very VERY hard. There needs to be a real proper buildup to it. There should be foreshadowing. You should develop them to show that you know who and what the characters are and how they are meant to be portrayed. You need to show them dying in a manner that is suitable to their character. You need to show proper emotion and reaction to their death. To respect a character while killing them off, they need to go out "right" for who they are.

Now you ask us who should die. Should any of the Mane 6 die? Should supporting characters die? should background ponies die? Should anyone else with a name even die? Well, I honestly can't answer this question for you. As the author, it's completely up to you. But I feel the need to ask you a question: Are you capable of sending these characters off properly?

The thing is, these characters don't belong to you. They belong to the makers of the show, and they belong to the fandom as a whole. People are going to be offended, upset, and angry if you keep sending them off wrong. Yes, I really do feel Nurse Redheart was killed off wrong. It was abrupt. There was no real look into who she was. There was little emotion spared. She died in a way that I really feel disrespected her and the fandom.

What you must remember is that these characters all have CHARACTERS. None of them, not even the smallest ones, are blank slates or simply plot devices that you can off whenever you need to build up the tension. Background ponies have been written up by the fandom into full fledged, three dimensional characters that people recognize and celebrate. Even Nurse Redheart, while she's gotten less attention than some like Derpy, Lyra and Bonbon, and Vinyl Scratch, had character that we, the fandom, built up, and you ignored that.

And here we come to the "point." All of these characters are close to us, and need to be respected as they're sent off. And the more prominent they are, the more they've been built up, the more we have seen of them or made them up to be, the harder this will be to do. If you try and off someone that we've never really paid any attention to, like say, Morton (the salt block owner in Appleoosa), then you'll still need to give him a proper send off, but doing that shouldn't be too hard. But if you try to off someone like, say, Octavia, that'll be harder because we as a fandom have built her up and will want to see her go out right. If you want to kill off Big Macintosh or Cheerilee then that'll be even more problematic because not only have WE built them up, but they've been established by show canon, so we hold them in even higher esteem than a lot of others. And if you want to bump off the mane cast, well... let's say that that'll be nigh on impossible at this point given everything we see and make of them... especially in this story.

Because you're already at a disadvantage simply by the nature of the story. This is Zombies. Now, zombies, by nature, are the most disrespectful way to kill somebody. To not only die, but then to have your corpse desecrated and twisted and mangled into a mockery and perversion of your former self, only to start going after everybody you once held dear... it's disrespectful from the very beginning. You've already made the characters ability to "go out right" difficult from the very start. I don't believe it'll be impossible, but it'll be really difficult. Difficult enough that I know that I would never even attempt it. These are characters that we all know and love and to just "make them into zombies" would not be well received.

Now obviously I hold a very passionate stance, but I know I'm not the only one. If you were writing your own original zombie story, then you would have a lot more leeway to do whatever you wished because they would be YOUR characters. But they aren't your characters. They belong to all of us. So, I can't tell you who to end up killing, but I can make the request that, before you do anything, to stop and ask yourself "am I doing this right?" Can you really kill of a character that everybody loves AND make them into a zombie, while still respecting the character and the other people of the fandom? If the answer is no, I'd say it'd be best to stick to OC's.

Anyway, thanks for listening. It's good that someone finally asked the question of what we may want. I may not speak for everybody in the fandom, but I speak for a good portion of it and while we may be rather more sensitive and passionate than a fair amount of the other bronies, the fact remains that we're all bronies here. And these characters belong to all of us.So from one brony to another, thank you for hearing me out.

[Brony Tom]

4833

Wow. That was very, very well-said. Like, for serious.

I do disagree on one point, though, and that's Nurse Redheart's death. While she did die quite abruptly, (and perhaps disrespectfully, like you said) I think it adds a touch of realism to the story. After all, not everypony gets dramatic, Hollywood-style sendoffs in the real world, and in a zombie apocalypse, ponies will die suddenly. It would be nice to have a proper build for every pony's death, but that just becomes too time- and space-consuming.

[richfiles]

I have a tough time with zombie themes when it's a game of pick off the main cast. Zombieland was great. It's a small clique of survivors, and for the most part, you do pretty OK unless you're Bill Murray... and he didn't even go as a zombie, just pretending to be one! 28 days later, I liked. While they did lose members, there are survivors.

My Little Pony is a different beast. We LOVE these characters, and we want to see them succeed! They have magic... Why the heck isn't twilight simply levitating these infected like the ursa... even if she doesn't have it in herself to kill them at the moment, I think she would realize quickly that they are in fact dead... true zombies, and abominations to who those ponies used to be. It becomes a matter of defense and offense, and twilight should be MORE than capable of protecting her friends.

I also feel that this virus may be a magical virus of some kind... a physical creation of an evil magic. What better tool to attack evil magic... well...

you need 6 special ponies for that, at the very least.

Cloudsdale... that's going to be ugly if it gets very bad...
a city in the sky with a spherical shield around it... is gonna... pool around the bottom.

I tend to avoid stories that hurt my beloved ponies. Zombification... that's what OCs and generic characters are for!
I felt so horrible when Nurse Redheart died.

I hope that these ponies can rally together and defeat this plague!

I have killed Main Characters off and gotten away with it majorly (it lended to the plot)

but keep in mind, it is very hard to pull off right.