Let's Talk About "It's for the Best" · 5:26am Nov 6th, 2023
Just a heads up, this blog is going to go into detail about my thought process while creating "It's for the Best," so if you want to go into it blind, do that before reading this.
So uh... how's it going?
I certainly didn't expect "It's for the Best" to generate so much discourse. I apologize for my relative silence during most of it, but it was difficult for me to engage with any of the discussion without delving into spoiler territory. So, I just focused on writing so that the story would do the talking for me.
Still, I am very surprised and flattered at how much people were engaged with this story. This one meant a lot to me, and a great deal of thought went into crafting it. As a result, I figured it would be appropriate to go into detail about what I was trying to do with this story and address a few common concerns along the way.
WHAT IS THIS STORY EVEN ABOUT, ANYWAY?
It's about a few things, but most notably, it is a story about regret, forgiveness, and toxic relationships.
The themes of regret are, I feel, the most obvious. This is not just because of the regret Anon feels at the end of the story, but because of the regret he doesn't feel for the majority of it. Whenever I see regret portrayed in other forms of media, it is often (but not always, of course) coupled with the idea of a "redemption arc." A villain does some bad stuff, learns the error of their ways, works to help the heroes, and becomes a better person. However, this is usually a fairly simple process, as there is often a bad guy nearby that needs punching or some other issue that can be easily resolved.
Real regret isn't that simple.
Have you ever said something you can't take back? Burned a bridge with someone you wish you could repair? Do you wish you had done something with or said something to a loved one who has since passed away? Real life isn't always like (fan)fiction. It's not always easy, or even possible, to "make up" for your mistakes. Sometimes we just have to live with our actions, knowing they can't be remedied. The same is true for Anon, as from the very first chapter, his deeds are set in stone. He can't bring back the lives he took. He can't undo the trauma he caused.
He can't expect others to forgive him.
Thus, the second theme of the story. Forgiveness is a virtue, make no mistake. However, you'll never hear me saying that you're obligated to forgive anyone for anything. There are some things in this world that just shouldn't be forgiven, and frankly, many of Anon's actions fall under this category. It doesn't matter how sympathetic he may be (we'll get to that in just a bit) or how badly he wants to change. No one owes him anything, and the fact that he doesn't feel remorse until after he learns that Nightmare Moon doesn't love him isn't helping his case, as even if he is feeling legitimate remorse, from everyone else's perspective, he is only doing so after he personally is being negatively impacted by Nightmare Moon's cruelty.
Oh hey a nice segue into my third point here, toxic relationships.
I don't need to tell you what a toxic relationship is, but when writing this story, I wanted to really hammer home the idea of being blind to how toxic a relationship can be. Anon is completely oblivious to the many, many red flags Nightmare Moon gives off in every single scene she's in. This was my attempt at muddying how she feels about Anon to the reader as much as to the character. Nightmare Moon is a manipulator, and said manipulation doesn't stop with Anon, nor does it stop within the boundaries of the story. Or... maybe I'm just giving myself too much credit, hehe. 
That's not even mentioning Damien, who was just as manipulative as Nightmare Moon. Of course, I imagine his betrayal was much easier to see coming than Nightmare Moon's, which is why his words to Anon are all the more poignant. Damien is speaking honestly when he talks about trust. After all, from his perspective, he is one of those many, many liars. He is one of the people he is telling Anon to look out for, and someone who is "honest about hating him" would be the opposite of Damien. However, as Nightmare Moon showed, that doesn't make her a good pony. It just gives her a different avenue with which to manipulate Anon.
There is quite a bit more going on, but I'll leave it up to all of you to draw your own conclusions there, haha! 
That said...
WHY WRITE SOMETHING LIKE THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE?
This story means a great deal to me. I'm not about to give some sob story about my life, but I'm trying to convey topics that are both extremely interesting and deeply personal to me. I'm trying to explore feelings and experiences I've had in a creative way, and I hope others were able to at least get something out of it.
On top of that, I realized during my initial conceptualization of this story that I was in a unique position to pull something like this off effectively. I'm not blind to my own reputation, after all. I'm "the guy that writes a lot of Anon-centric romance stories." I get that. I love doing that! But this format is exactly what I'm trying to dissect and use to my advantage here. Why use Anon instead of just letting him be "Ryan" the whole story? Because Anon is familiar, and often associated with relatability. Why frame it around his perceived romance with Nightmare Moon? Because the assumption is that I will write a story that ends with them (or, at least, he and Luna) together. By going against my own status quo, I have attempted to create a story where the audience slowly relates to the protagonist less and less until they hate him just as much as the characters do. Because no matter how relatable or sympathetic he may be, he did do terrible, terrible things.
And even then, this idea of a typical happy ending was unlikely from the get-go. After all, Nightmare Moon is dead from the very first paragraph.
WHY NOT LET THEM BE IN LOVE?
Setting aside what I said before about wanting to portray a manipulative, toxic relationship, this one is still pretty simple:
Because it doesn't matter.
Nightmare Moon is dead. Anon has done awful things to many ponies. These are both true as early as the first chapter. So... what does it matter that she didn't love him? Objectively speaking, what difference does it make? If I were to have him learn to regret his actions through any other means, the climax would either be extremely boring or completely circumvent the core themes I was trying to convey (in my opinion). If I were to have Nightmare Moon like him back, some readers may get the impression that I'm trying to justify his actions, which is far from the truth. In an earlier draft, I tried giving Nightmare Moon a bit more "depth" with her debating whether or not to feed Anon a Nightingale apple so that she may look into his dreams, paranoid about why anyone would ever genuinely like her. However, I found that doing so muddied the purpose of her character in this particular story, so I cut it.
Plus, it was simply fun to write a story that goes against my own tropes. "Of course Nightmare Moon likes Anon back, it's a RunicTreetops story!"
Even if she did, it wouldn't lessen either of their crimes.
AND WHAT OF LUNA? WHAT EVEN IS NIGHTMARE MOON?
Is Nightmare Moon a foreign entity that invaded Luna's mind? Is she a physical representation of Luna's restrained desires and negative feelings? Is she something else entirely?
For what this story is trying to do, it doesn't matter. What's important is Luna's behavior after Nightmare Moon's defeat.
The reason why Twilight (and several other ponies for that matter) is more willing to forgive Luna than Anon is because of her actions post-defeat. As soon as Nightmare Moon is out of the picture, Luna is remorseful and apologetic. She is working to better herself and to try to remedy what Nightmare Moon did. Meanwhile, Anon is bitter, angry, and making excuses for both himself and Nightmare Moon. Perhaps, if he was truly showing remorse when he was no longer under Nightmare Moon's influence, even Twilight could soften her view of him (not that she's obligated to, though). However, he didn't. After everything he did, he didn't show even an ounce of regret.
That is what separates him from Luna.
Okay, now for some specific issues that came up throughout the story.
THE DESCRIPTION
First and foremost, I would like to apologize for the initial description of the story. I wrote it with the idea that it was being told from the same narrative standpoint as the rest of the story (that is, biased towards Anon and his view of things). However, many readers made it clear that I didn't convey that very well, which is what prompted me to change it. While the story does have twists and turns, I did not mean for anyone to feel "lied to" when it came to the description. Again, I offer my sincerest apologies for that.
BUY SOME APPLES
I really didn't expect the Nightingale apples to be so controversial, but to be fair, I did cut a significant amount of dialogue surrounding them. It just seemed to interrupt the flow of the chapter when I was editing. Oops. 
The apples are not meant exclusively for mind control. The Nightingale apples make the creatures that eat them more susceptible to magic of all kinds. This does make Nightmare Moon's simple mind control spell easier, but it also makes ponies easier targets for whatever purposes Nightmare Moon can think of. Meanwhile, her forces don't eat them, giving them a significant advantage over much of the population.
As for Anon, they don't just "get rid of" his magic resistance, they only make it less effective. Note that he was only slightly lifted into the air after he ate one. Also, that isn't a permanent thing. The apples only do their thing for a few hours before they're out of your system, so Anon's resistance would come back not long after eating one. That said, I didn't convey this very well in the story, and for that, I apologize.
(By the by, losing his magic resistance also lessens his ability to ignore the magic in his environment. If he ate one of those apples before Maud threw that boulder at him, he probably wouldn't have gotten back up! 
)
Also, since we're being meta here, the apples served several narrative purposes: Revealing Nightmare Moon's lies, allowing Luna to visit Anon's dreams and get insight into his backstory alongside the audience, and giving Anon a reason to interact with the Apple family while showcasing how terrible Nightmare Moon was being.
TLDR
Anon is a terrible person who learns that he's terrible much too late. This story takes many tropes that I am known for and turns them on their head, calling Anon's "default setting" of "relatable protagonist" into question. It's meant to be sad, it's meant to be uncomfortable, and it's meant to draw parallels to the grim realities many people face.
I am sincerely sorry for the first version of the description, which was not intended to be any more misleading than the story itself. I apologize as well for my lack of clarity regarding a few confusing plot elements such as the Nightingale apples. However, that's all I'm sorry for.
This story means a lot to me. If it's not your cup of tea, then that's perfectly fine! However, I have no regrets regarding the story I wrote.
With all of that said, I now grow weary of these serious topics. I'm gonna... I don't know, write a story about Anon cuddling Mayor Mare or something. 
See you soon!
As always, thank you for your time, and remember to be kind to one another!
Forgiveness as a topic is interesting. It's always in such low supply and people will never give it because you did something to personally offend them. That means you're not worth forgiving, right? Bet it's pretty obvious why people are up in arms about everything involving Anon, right? Especially with shit like Cancel Culture existing.
I ain't readin' alla-
I did it.
Thanks for giving me foresight on some plot-points (I haven't read far into the story)
Also, I didn't feel any of that had spoilers in it, so yeah.
crazy
At this rate Runic, you’ll join the ranks of Pen Stroke and ROBCakeran53 as the greatest writers to ever come out of this community.
Edit: I mean that is good way. Runic has kept in touch with us throughout all of this, making sure we enjoy his stories to their fullest. He’s one of the best and most involved writers we’ve gotten.
If you want some honest criticism, I think a lot of this story was wasted in flashbacks. I get that it's an asinine request to expect you to write almost 5 years worth of prologue just to get to the point, but there's something about the pure mechanics of the way the narrative lined up that didn't sit with me. I think it would take some special effort for me to figure out how to be more specific than that, but for some reason I have the notion that if you told the story in reverse chronological order, the reveal that Anon was just the product of being dealt a bad hand would have been a lot more impactful.
From the get go, I knew this story was going to be different, I just never expected that it was going to be taking a dive into the abyss. Not gonna lie, I was suckered in by the description along with quite a few others, but I kept on reading. I knew that the narrative was going in a direction that made my stomach twist in quite a few places, but I kept on reading. I know that the story wasn’t as advertised at first, but I was in too deep and just kept reading. Hopefully, the story will end on a satisfying, if bloody dark, note that’ll have made this all worth it.
Runic, I love and support your stories, but this one has been a rollercoaster. Bring it home.
WOW! You put a lot of through in this blog. Show more moral lessons (and detailing everything) into one story.
Congratulations 👏 for having 900th Followers 🎉🥳
I feel like even if the story had the revised description from the get-go people still might have ended up being pretty upset because of the "Romance" tag setting up false expectations. I mean what else would they expect other than NMM really do loving Anon/Ryan with that tag? I know I did.
That would've been far better than what we ended up. I mean, Nightmare Moon had to have at one point wonder why is Anon so genuinely supportive in spite of the rather cold treatment she's been giving him. Plus the apple twist would've been foreshadowed and thus wouldn't come out of the blue like it did in the end. It's a real shame you decided to instead do what you did. I feel like it hurt the story immensely.
It makes an enormous difference. Sure, it wouldn't justify what NMM did, but at the very least she would have at least someone who appreciates her(or seems to anyway). Also, "Romance" tag would've been justified in that case.
Nightmare Moon cuddles/comfytimes? The sheer contrast between the stories would be quite hilarious and it'd be quite nice to see at least one story from you where Black Snooty, hopefully, isn't being pointlessly cruel, she needs to have some actual fun too once in a while, you know.
Personally i really enjoyed it. A little flash-back heavy and sometimes the pacing felt off because of it, but it's difficult to do a story with this amount of history and back story without them.
I don't really know why everyone hated the Nightingale Apples either i thought it was explained well enough. A good plot twist and emotion gut punch for Anon to finally start listening.
Maybe everyone just wanted Anon and NMM's love to be real and didn't like her being so manipulative and evil. Even though you know... she IS evil?
Regardless just wanted to give my two cents. I appreciate how different it was compared to your other stories and it kept me checking in for new chapters constantly.
Would've liked to see the story continue progressing until it's reached 100k+ but nonetheless I still enjoyed the reading. Thanks for writing it!
I liked this story a lot! Getting to hear an authors insight/thoughts on how they went with writing a story is always neat. I've already left my thoughts throughout the story so I'll hold off on regurgitating everything here. Big ups for writing something that subverts your identity as the "Anon-centric romance" guy, and staying out of the discussion till the story was done. I think the discussion works out better when readers are truly left to their own devices to interpret the story
I gonna go on a tangent and recommend a story with many parallels to IftB, "The Lunar Guardsman" by Crimmar. Its, much longer (unfinished) story thats similar to this. Big warning through, it broaches some very, very dark topics and can get really brutal. Its portrayal of Equestria and Luna specifically were spectacular. In short TLG features a similar setting to IftB, but diverges in that Luna remains to be a problematic individual post NMM, with her meeting an equally problematic human and befriending them after the M6 dealt with her. I could compare and contrast IftB and TLG but I don't feel this is the best place to do so
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I kept the romance tag because I personally feel that a one-sided romance is still a romance, and said one-sided romance is extremely important to the overall plot. I'm sorry to have gone against your expectations in that way.
I won't do it right away as I have a few other ideas I'd like to get to first, but I will likely do a more standard romance one-shot between Anon and Nightmare Moon at some point. It will probably just be a fluff piece since I find it kind of hard to create a larger narrative around her without the whole "villain" thing becoming a prominent point (thus why I wrote "That Time I Accidentally Healed Nightmare Moon," where it is because of her and Anon's mutual love that she stops being Nightmare Moon at all), but I think I can make some cuddles work.
That said, thank you for your feedback!
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For the first half of the story I actually thought it was a sequel to "The Time I Accidentally Healed Nightmare Moon" and I was vaguely confused because I remember that one having a really sweet ending. I was kinda wondering if this was an inverse of your Tia stories, I.e. instead of a healthy romance with Tia it's a blatantly toxic and one sided romance with Moon.
Either way it was an interesting and raw portrayal, a portrayal I'd kill (not literally) for more of. You did a great job.
honestly feel it need more nightmare moon, we really needed to see the relationship develop, even if it was one sided, see how she treated him to the point he shared her bed, see the worse thing he did that she rewarded him for
What if Anon became his own villain determined to risk it all in order to bring back his love and revive nightmare moon. Escape with her far away so she can gain more power and then come back and take over everything so that their love may be eternal?
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Maybe if the story had ended differently, but as of now, wouldn't that just take away from the whole ending? I feel like if anything, a timeskip continuation revolving around the events of the movie would be better, maybe Anon/Ryan trying to stop Tempest from making the same mistakes be did.
The more I think about this the more I want it, but damn if the bittersweet ending we have isn't already amazing
*because of her relatives
(and maybe a bit of xenophobia)
It was a great story, and it's nice to see a different approach to it as well. It's nice that you're not sticking with a single type of story. It also would be nice to see the continuation of this story after the certain time skip. I think there is a big potential for exploration of various topics.
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The "Nightmare Rarity" comic story did give us a closer look at the dark spirits that created Nightmare Moon. Having Anon run into them could be interesting, though his resistance to magic would probably prevent them from possessing him directly.
It was an interesting story, but if I had to level one big criticism at it, it would be that there was too much "telling" and not enough "showing".
We are told that NMM manipulated Anon, but we never get to see any meaningful interactions between them where we can observe that manipulation. Anon is loyal to NMM to an almost zealous degree, but we don't see the sort of conversations between them that would inspire that sort of loyalty. Etc.
lol i look forward to that story where Anon cuddles Mayor Mare. Faust knows how busy alone she gets sometimes.
I am going to be honest, i haven't read much of your work so i never had the opinion that you were all about the romance and Happily ever after so i had no preconceptions of you.
Usually when i read a new story i look at 3 things. The Rating, The Tags then the description that is usually the baseline i go by. So I get a general idea what i'm about to read thus leading to me sometimes being surprised when the author does write the story when i'm given moments that don't follow my general idea and i encourage authors who do that because i like when my preconception is challenged or downright proven wrong
Sorry I never comment on any of your stories, but they have all been great. This one too was awesome. Thanks for sharing the thought process. Admiral Biscuit does these for almost all of his stories, and I've done it for some too. It's a good way to show readers how
insanesmrt we are (probably not).Now write an AJ story damn it!
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Flattery will get you nowhere, but a bottle of bourbon and a case of beer and you'll have me bought
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AJ is up next!
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Too be honest this story wasnt my cup of tea, but if its important to you then i respect it. I just wish that one day you would write a love story of nightmare moon ( which she stays nightmare moon) and anon living together
What's my issue with this story? Well in my humble 'one more anonymous user on the internet' opinion. I and many others feel like were honeypot and click baited in reading something that we don't wanted to read.
3 key factors:
1st (And the MOST important) The Tag: This story have the ROMANCE tag and it doesn't deliver in that department. Yes Anon loved NM and she pretended to love him but after the crappy Shyamalan twist you realize there wasn't any romance at all in the story.
2nd The Description: The previous one and maybe the current one with the other factors.
3rd The Cover: Who's in the cover? NIGHTMARE FREAKING MOON!! If she's to end as a untrustworthy liar dead villain it makes zero sense to be in the cover.
Bonus 4th YOU RunicTreetops: Dude like 99 present of your stories have good romance.
Combining all those factors. What's the obvious deduction a casual fanfic reader who wants to enjoy a good romance story will have? Bare minimum? This is a tragic story when Anon and NM love each other but she dies and Anon mourn her death and is the only sane person in the world (so he's the crazy one) who has seen a bit of good in her.
This is fanfiction. The tags are there for a reason and that reason is to avoid users to read something THEY WILL NOT ENJOY.
Overall it was a good story. Before the crappy twist I was really feeling the lost of a loved one and after I felt the betrayal and personally I really don't like being betrayed... Thanks for nothing.
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Wow, the entitlement of some people. Like, I actually want to laugh at your comment, but the fact that it's a real comment and not just a joke makes me sad instead.
I can understand that some of the story was not advertised as it was meant to be, but going so far as to say the author betrayed you (as well as the oh-so ominous "I don't like to be betrayed." line) is absolutely inane.
You've put so much effort into trash-talking a great author because of a few mistakes when you could have just silently walked away when you noticed the story wouldn't be what you wanted. It's so much easier than you think to just put down a book you suddenly find yourself not liking than to hold onto it and throw insults at the author.
Runic did not betray you. Saying something like that is one hell of an exaggeration. Unless you were paying them to write a specific story, they owed you nothing in the first place.