017 Making of: Fading Away

017 Making of: Fading Away

I’m feeling a bit nervous right now.

I am about to publish the final chapter of Fading Away, a relatively acclaimed [Sad][Tragedy] story in which we follow Princess Twilight Sparkle and Spike’s return to Ponyville in the most unfortunate of circumstances. A quick reminder in case you’ve been living under a rock for the past six weeks or so.

Several years into the future, Twilight and Spike have gone their separate ways. But now, it is up to the princess to find her former assistant and convey a message that might bring them together again: their mutual friend, Rarity... is dying.

In this blog post, I would like to reveal a few aspects about the process of writing, give a deeper insight into certain things regarding the plot and contraction, as well as respond to some issues I couldn’t address earlier. Obvious spoilers below the break! So if you haven’t read the final chapter yet I urge you to do so before plunging further. Of course you are more than welcome to check it out even if you didn't follow the story in the first place, but then the chances are that you won’t find anything of interest in this blog post… or will you?

I’ll try to keep it as short as possible. You guys did me a great honor by reading my fic, so I see no reason to force you into reading more of my stuff – try to think of the following as bonus DVD content for a movie you’ve just seen.

Origins

The very idea for Fading Away originated in early July when I was working towards my Summer Genre Tour project. In short, I noticed that there were no [Sad] or [Tragedy] tags in my arsenal, so I decided to work something out in that area. Choosing Rarity for the role of the moribund one came relatively easily for me. I don’t know why is that – she is my favorite pony of the Main 6, but both in Mirrorless and Dreamlocked she seems to be in mortal peril. I want to believe that it’s just a coincidence and not because I’m a bad person who, deep inside, wants things he likes/loves to die.

Anyway, it was supposed to be Rarity and Spike story only – with letters being the main theme. Slightly older Spike was supposed to receive those letters and make his way to Ponyville on his own. This gave rise to the following question: why wasn’t he in Ponyville with Twilight? The answer was simple: they weren’t on good terms as for then. The only thing I needed was a backstory to justify it.

Composition

Before we’ll get to the essence of the plot, one or two things about the composition.

Usually my chapters were titled Chapter 1, Chapter 2 and so on – with occasional Prologue or Epilogue tossed here and there. Boring! I wanted to come up with something interesting, so I created a letter Rarity would send to Spike out of them.

My dearest Spike, I am writing to tell you that no matter who you have become, you were the one who made my life complete.

But Prane, you forgot about the word ‘complete’ in the final chapter! No, I didn’t. But you need to think outside the box to spot it.

Chapter 1 – "My dearest Spike..." • 13th Sep 2013 1,585
Chapter 2 – "I am writing to tell you..." • 28th Sep 2013 1,585
Chapter 3 – "That no matter who you have become…” • 13th Oct 2013 1,585
Chapter 4 – "You were the one who made my life…" • 2nd Nov 2,745
Complete • Everyone

Now you see it? Perhaps it’s too meta, but I suppose it adds just the right touch to Rarity and Spike communication. There are letters read by Spike throughout the story, but in the end he didn’t even get a chance to talk to her. The communication is severed, it ends abruptly, but is there really no ‘complete’ for their story? Well, I suppose you’d have to ask Spike about that – did he end this chapter of his life, or at least come to terms with it? So yeah, symbolism and meta layers everywhere – sorry if it isn’t your cup of tea.

There is one more thing about the composition. First three chapters begin with a rhetorical question (What would you do…). It’s something I wanted to employ from the very beginning: I used three characters and three pieces of a man’s very self to show the challenges the heroes of the story had to face. Chapter 4, however, does not have such introduction. Instead, it has an ending with no character’s example used here – or rather with the actual reader being one: what will you do…

The answer to the given question should be very personal for each of us. It takes us away from the story’s setting level and, hopefully, encourages to ponder over it a bit. It’s the ultimate catharsis I was aiming for from the very beginning. Because at some points of life we’re all like Spike: filled with anger, grief and sadness. We’re like Twilight, downhearted and full of blame. We’re like Rarity, unsure of what the future will bring. But we’re all capable of overcoming our troubles just like these heroes.

Time for a big secret. The story was already completed at the moment of release. No kidding! I wanted to see how does it feel like to have something already written. You know, without the stress of an approaching deadline, but also unable to change the content under readers’ pressure, just simply put a schedule and publish chapters one by one, watching patiently as the story grows. It was kind of a lab experiment: controlled conditions and stuff, sitting behind the glass, taking notes. It was fun, but it was also something that kept the story from being even better.

Essence

Now let’s get back to the essence. I needed a setting to justify the plot, so I started thinking. This is when the idea has grown rapidly. Everything from the Dragon Dominion, failed diplomatic summit and the Dragon Registration Decree was a result of creating a setting where the plot of Spike’s voluntarily banishment could come true. Where Kryvarost could come to life.

That’s something I’m really, really proud of. Dragon ambassador Kryvarost is, in practice, an OC dragon who doesn’t say a thing in the story, who is only barely mentioned and yet gains a certain popularity. In one of the comments I said that the greatest credit a reader can give to an OC is actually using that OC’s name outside the story – in this case, in the comments section. People apparently recognized Kryvarost as a character, not simple plot device to bring Spike’s problems up. This is especially important if we think about Chapter 3 and Spike/Twilight reconciliation.

A bit too quickly. Spike was absolutely convinced Twilight was responsible of the death of his mentor and an unpopular/unfair decree (…) and suddenly he becomes understanding?
~Raistlin

I talked earlier on how the story was planned. There were three chapters before the finale because there were three heroes written for the story. Wrong – it turned out that there were four. The fourth one, Kryvarost, was originally only an excuse for the actual story to happen and thus I never would have thought of choosing him for one of those opening rhetorical questions.

This is exactly why Chapter 3 might feel rushed – today, I could probably think of an extra chapter (Chapter 2.5 or something) beginning with Kryvarost-themed challenge, explaining on what happened on the summit and giving the story more time for Twilight and Spike to approach each other again. I could, but I won’t. Instead, I have a much better idea.

Future content

Now this section should be interesting. The story have left many questions unanswered: what about other letters? What will Spike do now with his life? What exactly happened at the diplomatic summit? Who was Kryvarost and if his name does not come from Russian, what does it mean?

(…) It must've at least come from a related language. Intriguing! Hopefully you won't forget to explain the etymology here eventually
~Superbowl

I am deeply, truly sorry, but I won’t explain it as for now. Names are very important, and this one bears the answer to the summit, why was he nice to Spike and why he died. Intriguing, isn’t it? Such explaining could be a thing for a blog post like this, but in conjunction with those unanswered questions it seems like a material for an actual story, a direct sequel!

Time for red bolding to reawake your attention! Here’s the question: what would you all say to a [Sad][Adventure] story about Spike, Rarity (not in person, of course) and another OC? Say, one who knew Rarity well in her last days, a pegasus and assistant at the Carousel Boutique – Flickerflight? I suppose they could travel across Equestria in search for the remaining letters, learn a thing or two about Spike’s past, perhaps even help soothe relations between Equestria and the Dragon Dominion? Oh, and how about Spike finally growing wings? Would you be interested in such story? It wouldn’t happen anytime soon, obviously, but somewhere in the future… please tell me what you think!

Trivia

Regarding the funeral scene: we know that the story is set in the future. With that in mind, I think every one of us has a unique vision of what will happen with the Main 6. Are they into mares or stallions? Families? Children? I honestly don’t know, but since I didn’t want to mess up anyone’s headcanon, I constructed the scene so it doesn’t directly tell us what happened with their lives (also, in case I sent your waifu to the other side, sorry for that!).

Fun fact for those who read any of my Conclaverse continuity. Do you remember the scene from Fading Away Chapter 2 where Twilight grabs Spike with magic and presses him to the ground? It’s later said to be Trixie’s variation on the Atmosphere Spell… the very same one she uses to restrain a prisoner in the beginning of Arcane Equilibrium! Another trivia fact: from Rarity’s letter we learned that Flickerflight is from Hoofington. In Shadows of Canterlot we’ve met another pony from Hoofington, who later reveals to have a sister…

Sudden realization – although it has no direct ties to the Conclave, Fading Away is set in the future of the Conclaverse continuity (read into funeral scene and you'll see a few more things)!

Equestria Daily

Call me a madman, but I submitted my story to EQD – just to see how it works, actually, I wasn’t expecting a feature. I treated it more like a learning experience. Long story short, they didn’t like it.

I cannot recommend this for posting.

Reasons for rejection:

Capitalization
Awkward sentence fragments
Compound word hyphenation
Adverb overload
Comma use
Word misuse (and instead of an)
Inconsistent perspective
Possessive nouns
Pluralization

This list may not be comprehensive.

I’m not going to rant and rave in here. In fact, I'm writing these words a few good days after I received the rejection e-mail from one of EQD’s pre-readers, so now I’m completely calm and emotionless towards the issue. I think I can see the point in most of those reasons, perhaps I’ll be more careful with those commas and adverbs. I only disagree with qualifying one single typo (I checked it – no lies, there was one) as word misuse. For me, word misuse would be a situation when somebody repeatedly uses a word in the wrong way, but I think I know the difference between ‘and’ and ‘an‘.

Of course it is near impossible for me to fix certain things. English is (sadly!) not my first language, so the concept of awkward sentences fragments will most likely elude me, and I honestly can’t spot those capitalization issues. So yeah, all in all I would like to thank that pre-reader (whose name, for obvious reasons, will remain redacted) who took time to disqualify my story: no hurt feelings, you did a commendable job.

Anyway, submitting to Equestria Daily was a great experience, but I don’t think it will happen again. My recent works, namely Of Lillies and Chestnuts something I’m still working on and Dreamlocked were rather praised than bashed. Ironically, motivation for writing each of them came from EQD’s write-offs, Nightmare Night and Batpony one, respectively, so I think I might as well live the rest of my days as a writer aiming for FIMFiction.

Is my writing good? Maybe not, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t getting better with every story I publish, every paragraph I write and every idea I conceive. That’s all that matters – Fading Away was a major milestone. I see many more before me, but I assure you – I’m not done walking.

Thank you

This is it! I would like to thank to everyone who liked, faved, commented or otherwise supported my story. It was a real pleasure to write Fading Away and I would like you to know that your interest in it is really appreciated. If you haven’t already, please drop a comment, here on or the story page. What was your favorite part? What was flawed? Maybe you have some thoughts on what would you like to see in a possible sequel? Would you recommend this story to your friends, if so, then why? Did it change your life? Now that would be something, but I don’t think I’m there.

Yet.

~Prane