Species Swap · 12:14am Nov 27th, 2022
"As I pull you out the oxygen tank..."
The species swap contest was an interesting affair for me. This is the first contest I've entered with cash prizes (which I'd be hideously surprised if I won), the first where I had such difficulty in settling on a subject, my second longest work ( longest finished work) and the first where I actually illustrated the cover. Yes, that awful scribbling is mine. I've no real artistic training and merely did a mixture of freehand, tracing and referencing to get the end result. The main 'Diamond Dog' body is based on this piece of art. I had a bit of difficulty in finding the original owner whilst scrolling through Deviantart, so I apologise if I cannot give you the credit you deserve. If anyone knows who it is I'd be happy to link to their actual gallery. The clothing is one of Sci Twi's many outfits and the skirt is based on a real brand, albeit it's referred to more as a kilt despite having a female model.
I'm moderately happy with the story. Originally it was significantly longer and had Rarity help Twilight come to terms with her issues. However, I found myself running out of time and felt the end result might have come across as a bit too expository, cliché, convenient and generally a bit too 'neat' for such a heavy-hitting subject. This is a messy reality and nothing like this is ever really dealt with in your 22 minutes. Friendship or no friendship.
I may return to this world in the future, despite the obvious big difference (Twilight being a Diamond Dog) there's a smattering of others you may have noticed, all of which lead to subtle changes here and there. She's still everyone's favourite adorkable nerd of course, but there's a bit more under the hood now and not all of it runs smoothly.
Once again, thanks must be made to Gravelordnito for generally being of great aid in helping this fic get finished. Without their aid, it wouldn't be in such good condition.
The story ended on a perfect note, and every word fit in it's place.
I'd definitely be interested if you returned to this world - it blends the little things from the show and twists them all with originality into something completely new.
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I've got some ideas percolating currently. It's just trying to keep characterisation together (and the amount of characters) is hard lol