Update \ BTM of "The Horror of our Night" · 4:56am Feb 16th, 2023
I return, somewhat.
Anyway, first thing to address.
Countryside Knight is not cancelled, nor in a indefinite hiatus. The next chapter is either coming later this month or next the start of next month. (Hopefully). I've just been busy with other creative projects with another audience that wishes more from me. Despite that, I am committed to this story. I love the world of this story and each moment I have that I'm waiting or simply daydreaming to go by the day I see new scenarios, new idea's and new ways to increase the immersion with readers and my world, that and I also see idea's for other stories as well. Depending on how I feel at some poitn I might start releasing another long story. Perhaps around the time Countryside Knight is ending.
I have noticed that despite the lack of a new chapter, the stories... audience hasn't died down! The Like - Dis ratio gap ever increases and more and more people continue to favorite and add the story. Along with Anon's betrayal but we don't talk of the black sheep now.
Anyway thats the update for now, below is my thoughts on my oneshot love story. "The Horror of Our Night"
Behind the Mind
The Concept.
Okay so this story was... really interesting to write. Mainly because how I came up with it. For those unaware, the story is a one inspired by song. Similar to
The song of this fic is Ludo's - "The Horror of Our Love" The song is... strange. It is oddly romantic yet unsettling and I love it. The lyrics are on the verge of being that of poetry but also a story. Thus with this song in hand a scene had begin to unravel in my mind.
The first concept of the story was going to follow the lyrics of the song closely, and at first... it was going smoothly. I had the setting the character all planned out and the starting of the fic going. A 1st person story, taking place in the woods But then...
Carnivorous and lusting to track you down among the pines
I want you stuffed into my mouth
Hold you down and tear you open
Live inside you, love, I'd never hurt you
But I'll grind against your bones until our marrows mix
I will eat you slowly
Yeaah... The original story about this was going to be the bloody journey of a Nightmare Moons fanatic / EX-advisor of Princess Luna, going on a mass killing spree in a solar-follower town while exclaiming his love for the queen. It was going to be bloody, unsettling, and a fix to showcase 1st person madness. During the part I mentioned he was going to break into the home of a solar priest, kill him while he slept then his child would wake up, enter, and the fanatic would smash her face in. Afterword's he would fight the urge to eat her and.. yeah, yeah you can see why I decided to not go through it that version.
It seemed too much like some murder's wet dream, and to the normal human it was downright unsettling how detailing the deaths would be. So I put the story on pause for a long time. As Halloween passed, the song would pop up on my playlist every now and then. Fortunately while I was reading a fanfic love story on here the song came once again... and an understanding came to me.
I was focusing too much on the horror aspect of the song and now the "love" of it. So, I listened to the song on repeat for hours. Examining the lyrics until I formed an entire story. A love story, but a twisted one. A story taking place in 1st person through an ex-advisor who was in love with Luna on a journey to hunt down a target, only for things to backfire with a confession and a lover's suicide. It was basic, but that would change with the characters.
Characters.
(Art me / not that good a drawing beings other than hoomans)
Dawn Star.
In the story I really highlighted on Dawn Star's love obsession with Luna. Making almost anything involving the night be seen in a overwhelming positive light while also show casing his more reserved and professional personality. He loved her but he was the type who'd never ever confess, more willing to sit in the distance and admire his crush from afar, sort've like those possessive fan clubs. He was some one who thought he thought highly of himself and cursed any mistakes he made.
After the fall of Luna he had pretty much lost all purpose in his life, until Aurora Seer gave him one... and twisted it. Swearing vengeance on her, he would eventually break out of the dungeon and begin his life as an outlaw, leveling up his skills and tracking down Aurora Seer. He would find her eventually, being the priestess of Celestia in a small remote town in the woods. He would spend moons planning out and figuring how to isolate her but eventually decided he would have to brute force it with fear. A gamble, but he went with it. He started off by murdering those who went off into the woods by themselves and disguising it as animal attacks.
Of course this resulting in the town having a mass panic and a mood of fear sweeping the town. The number of graves having increased drastically the past few moons. Fear of the woods came at an all time high, unfortunately the ones who commonly ignore or rebel against warnings and fears are children. It resulting in their deaths as well as the his true descent into being unredeemable, he killed them while deeply convincing himself that they were pure solarist's like the rest of the town, unable to change or ever become ones to understand the lunar side of things.
It only grew worse from there. Adults begun forcing children to stay inside the village while those whom partners or children's had fallen moved out of the town, calling it cursed. With lesser residents in town he begun to break in and murder, murdering pretty much half the town until the ones who remained abandoned the time out of fear of the land itself. Never knowing they were being killed by another pony. Of course he was gambling on how committed Aurora Seer was to her priesthood, hoping that she'd stay behind and attempt to ride the town of whatever cursed being plagued it. He left love notes [ Writings of his terrible poetry about the night and moon ] to convince her it was a night spirit.
After all of that, the story begins.
I wanted Dawn Star to be a character who the reader can't help but gain some dislike or horror to what he's done, rooting for what happens next that gives him what's coming for him but also show bits of the past to reveal that he was once a normal stallion, love obsessed but not one of cruelty. It was to really highlight how much Aurora's scheme had deranged his life and his character. It's why when Aurora begun to reveal her capabilities that he had begun to revert back to his old state as his confidence shrank and his fear grew.
In the end when it was revealed that everything he had done was foreseen by by Aurora I made him revert back to his old state full, being full of despair but finding comfort in that despite all the crimes he's committed he was given comfort, that comfort being a warm death with someone else.
He's unredeemable for what he's done but he's a sad character, used by Aurora for her twisted scheme. May the afterlife decide his fate.
Aurora Seer.
Now Aurora Seer... this was a character. Because of how the story was centered around Dawn Star being the main character and the length of the song I couldn't show much of their relationship between the two nor give all the hints of how smart she actually was. So, I focused on giving as many hints about her deceit as possible. First being her name itself, mainly the word Seer.
Seer is; a person who is supposed to be able, through supernatural insight, to see what the future holds.
It's why I highlighted her having heterochromia. Her design was to be opposite of Dawn Star, being more bright and feeling more so like she belongs to Celestia's court. During the segments of Aurora Seer I wanted to attempt to give the readers the vibe that something about her was... off, even Dawn Star felt it and ignored it. Overall, I wanted Aurora seer to lure the reader into a false sense that she was going to die and that would be it, only to subvert expectation and reveal that she was a challenge.
Afterwards the reader would be confused as to what was happening and what her motivations were, up until the end. Even then I wanted the motivation to be so... strange that normal people wouldn't really understand it.
To give some exposition on Aurora's Seer storyline, she was a talented mare that aspired to work in Celestia's court when she was younger... until she met Dawn Star. During their inauguration the two met and Aurora had connected with him, feeling that they were of similar mind... and intelligence. She wanted to know more about him, however after their inauguration he was transferred due to the overstaffing occurring in the Solar court. For a few moons Aurora longed to see and talk to him once again, sneaking glances and eavesdropping onto his talks with others until she couldn't wait any more.
She transferred and due to her skills set she easily advanced to Dawn Stars position, however she grew distraught upon finding out he had fallen in love with Princess Luna. For a while she sat on the sidelines, doing her best to make him look at her. Unfortunately his eyes only sought Princess Luna, resentment grew in her for the princess but she knew getting on her bad side would ruin her chances with him. So, she begun to scheme.
It started with light-hearted tricks, such as getting moments where the two were stuck together for longer than usual but as he grew more infatuated with the Princess so did Aurora with him, her morality had started to leave as her love-stricken heart wanted more of him, to the point where she had begun to sabotage others, she would go as far as nearly ruining businesses, blackmailing higher ranks to make problems, and outright causing or releasing destruction so the two would spend more time together to fix the problem itself.
Eventually through Dawn Star she would find the princess's weakness, her jealousy. Aurora begin a secret campaign by secretly planting seeds of distrust to the Lunar Branch and more praise to the Solar Branch to raise the princesses jealousy until Dawn Star would starting seeing the bad side of the princess. But, it worked better than she thought. With the public and most guard naturally liking Celestia and vocalizing it, she was able raise the princess jealousy... however she didn't expect the two sisters to fight and Luna get banished. Immediately she saw this as the opportunity to comfort the lost stallion and make him see her.
Dawn Star wouldn't get over Luna, being broken about the loss of her, no matter how much Aurora was there for him he only looked at Luna. Thus Aurora gave up on trying to get him to naturally like her, she wanted him and she didn't care if he liked her back. At first she thought of foalnapping him or putting him into a situation where his legs were broken and he'd have to rely on her but she deemed that not enough. After an encounter with the Lunar Guard she gained the idea of a rebellion. Knowing Dawn Star she knew he'd hop onto the chance, and with how the lunar government was in disarray it was a perfect chance.
She would make herself the villian to Luna's name and Gain Dawn Star's fury so he'd come to her. Thus on the night before the rebellion she would confess to the Solar Captain and get banished from Canterlot after the rebellion failed. From there on she started researching towns and learning fanatical solar teachings to add coal to his ire. Picking a little town in the woods for it's remoteness and having a solar church in there she would move in and spend moons there.
With the use of her connections she was able to get updates about Dawn Star and his security. She would eventually gain enough coin from her occupation and bribe a guard to loosen security so he could escape, from there on she believed that one day he would track and find her so until that day came she studied magic and schemed for the best possible route for the two of them. Deciding that due to how Stubborn Dawn Star if the only way she could get as close to him as possible was through death, and she was fine with that. As long she was able to confess and feel his warmth against her she was content with it.
When he did come, she recognized it through the strange disappearances of villagers. When more and more villagers disappeared she had begun to see it as a way of courting her, thus she played along with it. She would be the one that sent children into the woods through placing their items within the woods or convincing them that it was okay to go there. Later on when the village was halved, her impatience had risen and she had begun to made up a superstition for the situation so the remaining villagers left while she stayed to "deal with it."
and deal with it she did, just as planned.
Story
When writing the story I really wanted to learn more about Luna's dialogue since Luna was banished around this time and moons later she was still speaking in old tongue, so I delved into Archaic Language. It was fun writing dialogue and learning new words or ways on how to use them. I also decided to go with a "Countryside Knight setting" with Equestria's government to make it feel like readers of that story can picture this story as a event that happened before Ratimir took place. It also why I included Dark Light, a character that will be mentioned later on in Countryside Knight.
During dialogue segments I really wanted to capture the emotions or feelings in the words, showcasing Luna's doubts on her thoughts and revealing the growing jealousy within her. Aurora's strange happiness and scheming, and Dawn Stars emotions in general. Also during the story I used lyric's of the song to describe some bits of the story. To go into detail.
I've murdered half the town, left you love notes on their headstones
I'll fill the graveyards until I have you.
This was pretty obvious during the first half of the story.
Moonlight walking, I smell your softness
This I used when he was walking toward's the headstones, bathing in the moonlight like holy light. The smell came around when he entered and took in her scent.
I wake in terror, blackbirds screaming
Dark cathedrals spilling midnight on their altars
I used the blackbirds and Dawn Star as a indicator of something amiss while not telling the reader that he had just entered her illusion. The 2nd line was referred to when Aurora was praying as the moon's light spilled through the window and onto her.
I'm your servant, my immortal
Honestly I thought this was a cool way of what workers would call the Alicorn servants, it felt fitting for the story.
The statues close their eyes, the room is changing
Break my skin and drain me
This was used when the illusion was revealed, the room changing with the cracks and the 2nd line referring to his nervousness.
Inside your mouth, I cannot see
There's catastrophe in everything I'm touching
This line I liked. I used this when Dawn Star begun to freak out over Aurora's magic capabilities, seeing himself trapped, outplayed, and unable to see a way out. The 2nd line being when he chased after her, destroying everything in his path just to get to her.
You are a dream among the sharks
Beautiful and terrifying, lit and restless
We dance in dark suspension
And you bury me in the ocean floor beneath you
Where they'll never hear us scream
And finally the last lines. During the ending I wanted to highlight the beauty of Aurora Seer while also feeling that was the predator. The 3rd line gave me the idea of the duo holding onto each other as they fall, sort've like two people holding each other in a slow dance, and then finally the last line which I concluded as the duo falling into the ocean together, never to be heard from again.
For the ending of the story I really wanted to leave their true fate undetermined, it can be seen as they died but also the possibility that the two survived the fall and with how Dawn Star came to acknowledge her love for him than perhaps a suitable epilogue will come to the duo. Whom knows.
Anyway, I feel like I've gone on enough about this... I do feel like I did a satisfactory enough for the story but could make it better, but thats me in general and this was just a oneshot I really wanted to throw on Valentine's day for some love diversity. I hope you enjoyed this blog and the story, see ya.
