Behind the Mind of Countryside Knight's Origins and first half.

Behind the Mind

The Countryside Knight is technically my second big story after HAP, it's also my proudest story so far. Fuck off Anon's betrayal. I'll be honest I didn't expect the story to ever bypass a [100/5] ratio, due to how cursed HIE is on this site, so to be able to do so... feels pretty good! I thank all my readers and even passerby's for taking the time to read my story. I hope you continue to ride this train with me. Now then, with that out of the way let's talk about how I even made this story.

Starting foundation and concepts

Originally the story was very, very different. Being a future story project called "The Canterlot Knight"

The idea for the story was... vastly different. It was going to be about a human child teleported, or summoned around the era of Nightmare Moon's sealing. The first chapter would've been about Princess Celestia hearing reports of missing ponies, heading to the site with a guard unit and find a scared, yet dangerous human child surrounded by bodies of dead ponies with a blade in hand. Feeling pitiful, she would take the child under her wing and give him a better life. Despite how that sounds the story was going to be... dark. Exploring the discrimination and fear normal ponies would have towards the human as he grew up in the castle to be Celestia's knight, as well as exploring the desperate loneliness of Princess Celestia at the time.

I mean you have to think about the time Celestia spent by herself in the castle. Losing you own family, someone who understood you, and you even grew up with. It makes sense that around this time she'd attempt to seek a connection to fill in the spot that was abandoned. Of course this story never happened. The main reason why I never put it out or wrote more of it was because it was just... too generic. To me the purpose of writing is self fulfillment in creating a imaginary world that people simply read the words and can foresee the events in their heads as if they were at a theater and everything they read was a play.

Publishing is different however, because then it put's you in mind of being advertising management. You have to gain an audience that WANT to read your creation and feel fulfilled or not have their time wasted, there is no bigger sin to a writer than making someone feel as if they just wasted their time reading through your story. To me getting the audience's attention is in a fishing sequence, hook, line and reel. Title, picture, and ploy synopsis is all important, and "Canterlot Knight?" it was too far generic, similar to (Not to insult) Stranger in Strange Lands. I needed something to bring readers to me and stick them around.

I adored the concept of a human being Celestia's knight, but I needed a way to make it interesting. Through browsing stories the idea came. The Only Mark that Matters, and Everyday Life with Guardmare's. Gave me a more founded and interesting idea for the concept. A human being the captain of a unit, but not just any unit, the Lunar unit... with an addition of the human not being the main character but rather somepony else, thus giving birth to Ratimir.

Research

That's right. Despite how bad my writing can be... sometimes or misspellings due to my type speed. I actually do a LOT of research regarding my serious stories. Yes, I fucking analyze a cartoon horse-show. I started off with deciding to throw Ratimir around the time of Nightmare moon's banishment and looking around the timeline for that, using that because it's an absolute blank slate. I mean it really is, all the villain's had been dealt with while Luna was around (Except Chrysalis) but there were key hints as to what the time period was like, such as the founding of Ponyville, but that's enough of that.

Through that research I discovered that the series didn't go by... months or years... or dates for that matter, despite most writer's on this site using those.
Equestria goes by moons. At first I thought it was just early seasons thing... but no, they keep this concept through the ENTIRE SHOW. Yet, despite them using this unit of time... the writers have no idea how it measures just going by "humans cannot understand". I do have a theory of how the time of Moons work but that's too long.

While I enjoy The Only Mark that Matters, I also do have an issue of making Equestria and the characters seem more... human than pony. Minor but I am the type that like's to get as close to the source material as possible. Which is why I go by moons in my story.

Next! Was the Lunar guard. This one was fun, as I stated in my story there was a difference between Night Guard
and Lunar Guard.
During the daytime of most episodes we see the standard guard, but around Episode 20 of Season 2 we see the darker armored guard a night, and only those guards. While it can be said those are elite guard I like to twist it and say that because of Luna's absence Celestia had to make a night guard of her own to compensate.

Allowing me to use the concept of Night Guard and Lunar Guard being two separate entities. This also left me with the questions about the Lunar Guard, where were they after Luna left? Where did they live, and how did their guard function. With how most writer's use the idea of a Lunar Rebellion despite Nightmare Moon getting pretty much oneshotted on the day of her debut, I used that somewhat differently. Making it more of a confused, desperate mess resulting in the mass lock down of the Lunar side of things. Letting Celestia take over, but of course with her character she would be displeased by this. Allowing me to make room and scoot in Ratimir in this blankness.

Next was location of all of this. I decided to go with Fillydelphia due to the map showing the land having a more rural environment on the edges... while also being next to hollow shade which I saw as a good spot for the Bat-ponies home to be.

I think the last minor thing I researched was Celestia's study room and Luna's manner of speech. The last thing I researched was... Nightmare Moon's transformation. In X - Mending the Night · After watching Princess Luna's transformation and looking in the season 7 episode 2, I came up with the theory of emotion's affecting magic. During Princess Luna's transformation there is a moment where Princess Luna falters and looks... surprised?

Combined with the first episode's origin story of her banishment

"The elder sister tried to reason with her, but the bitterness in the young one's heart had transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness: Nightmare Moon."

Then Season 7 Episode 2 shows us Starlight spilling out red smoke when she ever gets frustrated.

Led me to the conclusion that Nightmare Moon was probably a magical accident made by Luna's bitterness, and the reason I'm making a big deal about this is because this theory has MAJOR importance to my story, but enough about that, onto the next thing.

Characters

Twilight.
When it came to the character's as part of my desire to hook the reader's I decided not to make the main character human... but looking at a human from the perspective of someone else, combined with the concept being close to Celestia it was pretty easy to pick Twilight. Of course however I made changes, instead of Alicorn Twilight I went with early season 2 Unicorn Twilight. The reason for this was because to me it made sense that Celestia would give a higher ranked task to Twilight just after she managed to seal one of Equestria's most powerful villain's, and early Twilight's nervous nature would be fun to write.

Of course I cannot perfectly get Twilight's nature down. So I summed her personality when it comes to my writing, curious, nervous, straight-man, neutronic, nerd. I show aspects of this with Twilight's nervousness when talking to the guards and Ratimir, as well as her note taking and deep thoughts, as the story moves forward slowly she will shift into her more stable and wise alicorn persona.

Ratimir
Ratimir was very, very fun to make, as I moved away from being our usual modern times HIE. Ratimir is an early medieval era Slavic soldier, I demonstrated this with his clothing by making him wear more at the time clothing such as a tunic, baggy pants and boots.

He was inspired by Beryl Gardernant from An Old Man From the Countryside Becomes a Swords Saint: I Was Just a Rural Sword Teacher, but My Successful Students Won't Leave Me Alone! It's also where the title of the story came from, he contains some aspects of Beryl's calmness and tiredness in his actions and speech.

Rat-i-mir has a meaning, that meaning is "defender of peace". I didn't pick this name for no reason, his name goes with his motives and personality. Speaking of his personality, I designed Ratimir to be more so a lone wolf type of character, as well as being straightforward and focused. Akin to the emotionless character archetype but grumpier. There's a lot I want to say about Ratimir but most of it will be spoiler's that do not wish to show, just know... Ratimir is more than a grumpy human captain.

Ratimir's fighting style is interesting... I wanted something to make him stick out but also be logically. Eventually I gave him Cervantes's style. A long sword and a short sword but summed into Sword and dagger. I saw the style is really, really good! Offense mid to close range, while being visibly deceptive. It's light so it can be used by lightweight, speed types. I saw it as a good style for Ratimir due to how it can only be used by humans, and showcase the creative nature of this style. I can't wait to show you more of Ratimir's fights.

The Bat-ponies

I'm not going to lie. Researching Bat-pony's was hard. They have only... ever appeared in 2 episode, Luna Eclipsed and briefly in Cutie Re-mark part II. They have standard fears of sharpened pupils, ear tuft, and bat wings. Pretty simple at first, until I started going into character creation rules. In all the in-show batponies they normally follow a darker based color-scheme, to more so go along with the armor. Their wings are purple... which is strange if you think about it. That is why I went with my monster creation theory, if Twilight could make Flutterbat then what prevents somepony else from kidnapping a group and experimenting on them to see if they could do so too? I went with that origin story for them, tying them to Luna and giving reason to their outcasted nature.

Learning from HAP, I decided not to make the Lunar Guard one giant unit with multiple characters like the Solar Guard for writing and mental sake. Making the group smaller and making up for it with skill and good characterization. For the Lunar Guard I used the batponies from Cutie Re-mark part II as the templates for our well known guard unit.

Mainly because it was the only episode where there is a full body reference to them, but there is a strange thing in that picture. That thing being Rainbow Dash, as mentioned before Bat-ponies have purple wings, and so does Rainbow Dash... This makes that either the wings something connected to the armor, or the hybrid theory which I went with for Dusk Blade. Speaking of her, let's talk about our guards.

Dusk Blade
Dusk Blade was inspired slightly from Nocturnal Pike of The Long and Short of it. Mainly her size. I chose Dusk Blade to be small and chipper to go against Nocturnal Pike's characterization, accepting her size and being proud of it. The hybrid part was to explore the concept of hybrid bat-ponies, using Rainbow Dashes weird appearance I made Dusk Blade appear more pony than bat, which worked well in VII - A Real Nightmare Night.

Writing her dialouge is fun, let it be lewd remarks or jokes, or just her being.. her. One quirk I do when writing her is that she always ignores the ranks of the others and shortens their names, via calling Twilight just Twilight or removing Princess from Celestia. However she willnever do that to Princess Luna or Ratimir, as a showcase that she does respect them despite how she is.

Next was her combat style, normally a good combat style for her would be... well rogue or assassin-like, but's cliche, she knows it's cliche and I know it's cliche. That's why I made her move away from route, going fangs deep into the Grappling route. Why? Because... it's cute to think of this small mare grapping and taking down somecreature half her size and boasting about it.

Faded Light
Of course to go with a chipper and happy-go mare I needed her opposite. Faded Light is focused, cold, smart, with leader traits. I wanted her to be someone you could look and think she was the captain, only to find out she's not through her personality. While she is more determined and not as cheerful as Dusk Blade, I wrote in moments that showed that underneath her hard exterior she was still a mare, a young mare at that.

Her fighting style was designed to be akin to Ratimir's duel blade style. However because she is a pony she cannot fully replicate it, so with her sleeker body type she is a duel-wingblade user. Using her speed and length of her wings, as well as their flexibility to be harassing towards her opponents.

Moonfall
Moonfall is pretty much the Flash Sentry of the guard. Cheerful, helpful, and an all rounder. He designed to feel like a new recruit to the guard and to look like a gold medal versus Dusk Blade in terms of the private rank. He's much more relaxed compared to the others and thinks simply to things. However, underneath that happy, relaxed attitude is a fire of determination roaring in his stomach. An idea that will be explored into the 2nd arc.

As mentioned before in IV - The Lunar Captain Moonfall used to in the Solar Guard. I mentioned this due to his unique white coat and how most Solar Guard's are white coated, so giving him some hints to his backstory. Along with being in the Solar Guard is his fighting style, he uses a spear style but slowly with Ratimir's help he is adapting his style to be that of a human polearms.

Fallen Shine
Like above, with every happy go lucky there must be an opposite. Fallen Shine is stoic, quiet and keeps to himself. Being more of the Kuudere Archtype than Faded Light. He's wise, observant and helpful. Being the one to clean up mistakes after the guard or keep them focused, he can be considered the backbone of the Guard due to his silent all rounder, helpful capabilities.

Fallen Shine's combat style is a standard sword, I chose this due to how his personality relates to the calm, observant nature that one needs in swordsmanship. With how Fallen Shine is he can easily see the weak points of his opponents, making sure his moves are precise and calculated to quickly defeat his opponents are wear them down for his comrades to join in.

Great Star
Great Star was a breath of fresh air to me. Sticking out by making him the biggest of the group and proudest, boasting and being the only bat-pony who'd challenge Faded Light. Of course, despite his pride he respects and fears the Captain. For good reason as showed in X - Mending the Night after kicking the captain. It's nice to write a character who is just... almost comic relief in a way but not.

His Fighting Style is use of a polearm blunt object. As you can tell I haven't decided on what it is yet, but I wanted a fighting style that was... oppressive, aggressive and just down right overwhelming. With Great Stars strength, endurance, and pride. Using a weapon that utilizes muscle strength more than accuracy for a fatal blow is a good counterpart to Fallen Shine's and Faded Light's style.

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There is much more I would like to say but as I am writing / finishing this I am tired, hungry and no longer want to keep you here and listen to internet rambles of a Fanfiction story. As always, I thank you for spending the time to read my story, to comment on my story, and it to one of your bookshelves. Each comment interests me and encourages to keep going or think about how I am doing something. Writing is a learning experience, a experience I am happy to be sharing with all of you. I cannot expressed how pleased I am to be able to build on this idea and grant audience for it, it encourages other idea's I have and other concept's to explore later in the story.

Thank you, truly. May we speak once again after this arc for another BTM

Comments

[StarzGecko]

This definitely has been a interesting read about how you develop your story and the research it takes to create your fanfic. Btw I never thought of the human being from a medieval era because for the longest time I thought he was between Civil War or WW1 solider

Not that he should be since now looking back I totally see him how you wrote him as which you definitely wrote a better HiE story with no whole Anon nonsense. I could definitely compare this nice story to the likes of Arrow 18 which is like one of the very first HiE stories that’s a classic.

I definitely like the idea of a small team than having thousands of ponies. Even though you didn’t say anything about the Crystal pony here I guess she is definitely spoiler which I really liked how she came in covered a like Christmas Present 🎁

Can’t wait for the next chapter!