Shakes on Shakes: "The Last" Series · 4:19pm Mar 4th, 2023
So, with my "The Last of Us" series concluded, I'm going to be taking a few weeks off from writing while I start my new irl job. (I do have a contest coming up that I'll be hosting, so stand by for that announcement in about a week!) But before I put the dust cover on my keyboard, I wanted to take a step back and talk about some of the questions and comments that have come up over the course of the series and try to shed a little light on the how and why of certain aspects of the series as a whole.
Major spoilers ahead!
Read the stories first!
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Now with new cover art!
The Last Unicorns was originally written, firstly as a play on the movie title, The Last Unicorn, but also as an allegory for the difficulty that Earth zookeepers had been having, getting endangered animals like pandas to breed. Quite in fact, pandas are kept in the enclosure across from them for precisely this point. The idea being that perhaps they were genetically family and therefore they did not actually want to have sex. And since I'm a jackal that walks on two legs, I thought it would be delightful story fodder to throw Twilight and Shining into that exact scenario, with the zookeepers trying to do everything they could to get them to breed, even if it eventually meant doing so by force.
Although it was later suggested, it did not involve the manual collection of semen from the male and the artificial insemination of the female. (Although that does occur later on in the series). And while this would have been the most accurate solution, in universe, it wasn't especially sexy to read about in my opinion, so I opted to not go that route right away.
With The Last Unicorns written and published, the obvious comments came asking about The Last Pegasi and The Last Earth Ponies. And while Unicorns was chosen specifically for the title reference, it was meant more to be The Last Ponies. But given the interest, I had started considering doing one or sequel stories, Likely with Fluttershy & Zephyr, and Applejack and Big Mac. If these choices seem obvious, it's because they are. That, combined with not wanting to essentially write the same story two more times meant that Unicorns remained a standalone for nearly three years.
As I have said before, I don't do commissions. But I have an open door policy for ideas. Anyone is free to suggest an idea for me to write. And if I like it, I'll write it for free. Though I'm up front that it's very unlikely that I'll say yes. I have a very busy schedule and my time is valuable.
So I was approached by someone with ideas for sequel stories to Unicorns. Or rather, several pairing suggestions for the various equestrian races, including dragons, hippogryphs, and changelings. If I were to write the stories as a challenge of one per week for five weeks I was promised "fabulous prizes". I explained that I didn't want to just write the same story over and over for whatever pairings they wanted. If I was going write them at all, there needed to be something different enough about each story to make it worth telling. So over the course of several exchanges, we changed up the pairings a bit, and talked about what would make each story different besides the characters until everything was agreed upon.
In exchange, I was gifted up-front the cover arts for each of the new requested stories, and also NEW art for Unicorns (see above).
Cover arts made by https://www.deviantart.com/natt333
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With The Last Pegasi, it was siblings again. But what set it apart was that Twilight and Shining were both adults who knew what sex and incest was, and were not attracted to each other. With Pegasi, Pickle and Barley are both naïve characters who have no concept of either, and have to muddle through learning about what their bodies are feeling. One of the criticisms of Unicorns was the direct intervention of the aliens forcing them to breed, rather than just letting the chemicals in the water make them go mad with lust and finally give in. With Pegasi, they figure out what they are supposed to do by watching the other animals in the zoo (giraffes) having sex. All in all, it made their story unique.
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With The Last Earth Ponies, the difference was that only one of the characters, Button Mash, was naïve, and his mother, Cream Heart was being protective of him in spite being internally conflicted with her own biological desires as he began to discover himself, making her the aggressor for the bulk of the second act. Hyenas were chosen for their animal counterpart for the matriarchal nature of their breeding, with a dominant female over the male. Landing somewhere between Unicorns and Pegasi in terms of mutual desire, some (less severe) external intervention came into play to finally get them together.
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The Last of Their Kinds offered a unique opportunity to have two sets of sibling characters opposite one another: The dragons, Smolder & Garble, opposite the hippogryphs, Silverstream & Terramar. Smolder and Garble have no interest in each other and, as dragons, have a somewhat antagonistic relationship that makes them barely tolerate one another. On the other hand, Silverstream and Terramar both secretly lust after each other without the other being aware of it.
The main hook being that these characters had hands (more or less) and could communicate via sign language. Of course that required a precedent need for them to have known it in the first place, with a flashback scene in a classroom. But of course this led to the possibility of their language being understood by the aliens.
A pivotal moment in the series was when one of the aliens "talks" to Smolder using her sign language. She gets a glimpse at the aliens larger plans, for each pair of animals collected to breed and repopulate their species. She (and the readers) also learn the reason why family member pairs were abducted. It is revealed the the bright light tractor beam was miscalibrated to gather animals too closely related, genetically. Of course, this revelation comes too late after all the animals have already been gathered. (The stories in the series happen more or less in parallel at the same time). And before the alien could tell the others, they are killed by a frustrated and angry Garble who doesn't understand what is happening.
Once Smolder understands that they need to "make egg" or else be punished, she tells Garble and Silverstream, who tells Terramar. The Hippogryphs reveal their love for one another and it's almost a happy ending. Smolder and Garble begrudgingly participate and are rewarded with high quality gems as food.
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The Restart of a Hive was originally slated to be the sole father-daughter pair with Thorax/Pharynx and Ocellus. But not wanting to retread the beats of Earth Ponies, instead Chrysalis was selected. The main theme here was that unlike the antagonistically tolerant relationship of the dragon siblings, Chrysalis actively wants to kill Thorax. And admittedly, Chrysalis is a character I always enjoy writing, especially when writing her as a sadistic character. Her arc goes from wanting to kill Thorax to seeing him as a necessary means to an end, and she end up manipulating him to obey her will in a sort of 'bad end' for Thorax.
SUPER SPOILERS SECTION
for
The Last Humans
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The Last Humans presented several challenges. Firstly, having them both in Equestria as humans, and also, defining the nature of their relationship and their feelings. The mirror mishap was the obvious solution to the prior. And ultimately, having them estranged to one another would be the most unique relationship compared to previous pairs, and also, it was the most fitting to the established show canon. Without knowing the canon characters across the hall from them, they witness artificial insemination being performed on a pair of stubborn buffalo, showing them explicitly what is expected of them and, consequently, what will happen to them if they are uncooperative.
The "Epilogue" with everyone together in one main space was an idea from the start of the sequel series. The reasoning for the new setting being that it was a 'maternity ward' or 'birthing chambers', though it was made vague since the timeline and gestation periods for all the different species varied, particularly between humans and ponies. It's an opportunity for all the characters to talk with each other and share their experiences as a sort of diegetic recap to the series. This is also the big reveal when Sunset Shimmer and Sunburst learn the nature of their relationship, long after she had already become pregnant.
Chrysalis as a yet-unreformed villain offered a morally grey means of escape, especially since her magic was based on the consumption of love, independent of her location, unlike the unicorns removed from Equestria. (The Sirens in EQG Rainbow Rocks were able to do this in canon.) Behind the scenes, I was excited with the idea of Chrysalis as a changeling running amok on a space ship, somewhere between the suspicion atmosphere of AmongUs and the xenomorphs from Aliens. Ultimately, the sub-plot bloated the outline, and I decided to handle (most of) the gore off-screen for the sake of pacing, and also to not overly sully the central erotic tone of the clopfic. (No violence in my sex, please.)
It's debatable who is right or wrong, just how evil the aliens were, or not, though an argument could be made regarding the scene with Sunset Shimmer and the hamburgers. The zookeepers were never meant to be sympathetic characters.
The character themselves debate about whether or not they even need to escape, given they had free food and shelter. It comes back to the value of freedom, the core idea in The Matrix, whether it's better to live in ignorant bliss, or to be free, even if it means hardship.
Chrysalis's mass murder is hardly a diplomatic means to an end, but one has to assume that some kind of diplomacy had to have been attempted and failed (aside from Smolder's sign language) in the intervening months. Twilight's culpability in helping free Chrysalis is a point of argument as well, whether she suspected or not Chrysalis's means to an end. Either way, she is surprised to at least the degree of Chrysalis's plan execution.
It could be argued that the aliens were needlessly killed even though they were only trying to help save them, but then so too does an endanger Bengal Tiger when it escapes its zoo enclosure. Admittedly, comparing a feral animal to sapient Equestrians is hardly apples to apples, but it makes sense in the eyes of the aliens in this story. Especially after one of their own was killed by an angry dragon.
Like any good Sci-Fi story, the ending leaves the readers with more questions than answers, certainly a few moral conundrums, and a vague uncertainty to what happens to the characters after the last page. And like any good Sci-Fi writer, I too will leave that entirely to your own imaginations.
- Shakes
Well, this thing was bigger than I expected. Great if you enjoyed writing it.
I personally prefer stories of small scale and read your stories mainly for the
bathroomcomedy scenes, tho.You in for making that ZephyrShy story sometimes?
5716587
Yes.
You're trying to make people pass out by presenting erotica that makes them think. The body doesn't have the blood to be both aroused and contemplating complex ideas at the same time.
But it's certainly a worthwhile endeavor from time to time.
5716600
That is just how I do.
This series were outright amazing from the very begining with The End to the very end with A Brave New World. Each instalment brought with it a unique & refreshing touch to the overall series. It never felt like we threaded over the same line & old grounds twice, which is an enormuse indication of your brilliant mind & equally strong writting. To see this grow from a single stand alone fic, to something large like this, has made me feel very complete as a fan & a reader. With each instalment making me wonder how the next one's angle was to be taken care off. This series will forever rest in my heart as some of the greats of this part of the fandom. Making the Top-10 list for sure. Thank you for these amazing weeks of pure fun my friend. Stay safe, stay happy, stay awesome, keep things up & keep being your awesome self. And i will see you in the next story you write.
Cheers My Friend!
5716600
*snicker fit* I had this same thought. Porn with plot and furthering concepts! *pass out*
Interesting to read.
Very interesting.
I do have an idea for a sprout cloverleaf story. But I doubt you'd be interested..most writers on this stie that I've talked to have no interest in him
I hope you enjoy your time off!!
5716609
I am not most writers.
5716610
Alright.
Glad to hear it!! (Was surprised by the response, I will admit. I've been told a lot that he's not worth writing about except as the butt of a joke)
So, sprout's had to serve community service, as evidenced in one of the episodes of the make your mark show. What if he was still being mistreated, and Pipp decides to help him out with getting good with the community again. And when she does, she gets pregnant as a result, and now some mares are interested in him.
Or something similar.
Just really want to see a sprout story where he's not the villain, or the butt of the joke. But actually getting love, like hitch did in the story "The Return of Earth Pony Magic" by Clopficsinthecomments.
Or zephyr breeze x tempest shadow. In which zephyr ends up in a relationship with her. A strong one that does have a few foals on the way
5716615
I have no idea what makes you think that I'd ship Sprout with anypony else besides Phyllis.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2021/10/1/2713036.gif
"Oh, your face looks cute enough to sit on!"
5716631
That works too.
Works quite well. Give momma another child.
What of the zephyr breeze x tempest?
5716640
Go back and read this conversation so far, and take a wild guess who I'd be shipping Zephyr with.
5716647
Fluttershy.
My bad.
I look forward to your eventual return, and hopefully sprout x his momma
enjoy your break man
I hope you prosper at your new job, and thank you again for the quality content.
Well first I'm glad you've found ample employ again. And of course, take all the time you need. We're Bronies. Still be here when you get back cause no other part of the web's will have us
And now to bring my silliness on this series of lecherous events to a close:
All future crankiness of bug mom shall hence forth be alleviated by Sunbursts Fist of Queens Star and it's most power technique!
https://m.Al wo torimodose Chrysalis
Or perhaps to keep with sci fi motif, The Spocker might be the better option
5716631
Guess she's also proud of her boy.
5716721
She sure is
I must ask, which one out of these 6 was the most enjoyable & least enjoyable to write? What is your Last One 6 Top List?