About that story I threw together... · 2:51pm Feb 1st, 2014
Yeah. I get it. You guys liked it. Believe me, I'm just as happy with it as you guys undoubtedly are.
Now, I can't help but notice that the comment section on it is absolutely full of people requesting, and in some cases demanding a continuation showing Dusk's side of things. That was expected. I figured that as soon as I hinted as to what happened on the other side, you'd want to see it.
The problem is, I caved to my fans' requests once, on a ludicrously popular story on my main account. Opinions are very mixed on the continuation I wrote to that. A lot of people loved it, and a lot of people said it ruined the story. That, of course, doesn't matter to me. What does matter is that it took me nearly six months to muddle out how to execute a continuation properly.
That same problem applies to Mirror, Mirror. It would be extremely difficult to write a continuation showing Dusk's side without it becoming repetitive, or even more gratuitous than the second scene in Mirror, Mirror.
Now, will I write a continuation in that world? Perhaps. Many of you seem to have missed the implicit message at the end of Mirror, Mirror. That message was that while a gender-swapped clone would be appear an ideal partner, a romantic relationship is utterly infeasible. Any kind of long term relationship is infeasible. Biologically, psychologically and genetically, we're not meant to be involved with someone identical in every way save for gender, especially if their presence necessitates a heinous, out-of-context abuse of many quantum theories.
That was why Twilight sent Dusk back, despite the obvious signs that they were becoming attached. That is also why any sort of continuation, should I write one, would begin with Twilight's abject refusal to repeat her "experiment."
Because this sort of situation is nothing but a fantasy. And it should stay a fantasy.
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That said, it was a huge amount of fun to write. So we'll see.
In terms of premise, probably, but otherwise? Not really.
Swapping genders can do a lot to a story, especially if it's clop. Besides, how could anyone turn down hawt Rainbow Blitz/Dusk Shine action?
You say it like it's a bad thing.
Now let's assume that it DOESN'T mess with the quantum universe: How often would this be happening?
Just gonna say since I read your story yesterday. If rainbow wanted, she could easily bug Twilight into doing it cause she wanted to see opposite gender her--rainbow blitz.
I mean hell she planted the initial seed for twilight in the original story, I think she can do it again no problems! 
Treat "Sequel!" as what it is: a compliment. You've written well enough to get readers invested and they'd like to see further payoff from that attachment. Of course they do! You did something cool, and "more" for them just means a click through to the next story. That lack of effort doesn't encourage reflection. If I could snap my fingers to make ice cream appear, I'd weigh 500 pounds.
Because readers have no idea of how feasible a continuation is, you have to apply the reality check yourself. If you genuinely are excited to write a sequel, that's because there's an idea there worth pushing forward with. If you're doing it because it would be popular and you're not really sure what to do beyond "the same thing that made people like the first one," you're already in the weeds. Ultimately, just write what you were going to write anyway — that's what's going to lead to everyone having the most fun.
Also, after sleeping on it, I realized I really should say something about this:
All quantum abuse aside, I respectfully disagree. In fact, from a self-improvement standpoint, I think learning to live with yourself as a third party could be amazing. It would be a concentrated crash course in how the things you reflexively do come across on a social level. You'd have to commit to handling it with humility and honesty — which can be a tall order — but I suspect the sort of person who is fudging with breaking quantum theory is a lot more likely to have thought about the implications of that going in.
If I had a dimension bender/transporter/got digitized into a virtual world/etc, the very first thing I'd do with it is fiddle with it to arrange a duplication "accident." A long-term relationship with myself would be the best thing that's ever happened to me. It would be like an extra 24 hours per day. I'd be able to know for sure how my writing comes across to fresh eyes and how much of my self-editing is helpful vs. word churn. As for sex, I can't easily predict whether I'd be physically attracted to myself (genderswapped or otherwise), but there's something to be said for having a partner who knows all your kinks and fantasies without judgment, even the ones you've never told anyone. (It also doesn't hurt that I'm powerfully turned on by giving pleasure to my partner, and with a lover willing to accept a bit of weirdness, that would give me double the capacity to do so.)
I can see selfcest ending in disaster for a lot of people — anyone who fundamentally doesn't like themselves is going to have serious, serious problems when that person is externalized — and I don't even want to think about the consequences should children become involved. However, don't throw the metaphorical baby out with the bathwater.
1795560 Huh. You actually make a good point. A very good point. I hadn't considered that perspective.
Hm... I have to say, you've given me an interesting idea. Very interesting.
1795669
… … … … … Sequel?
WAIT NO STOP RUNNING AWAY
I personally would enjoy a sequel, but I totally get where you're coming from. It can be difficult to write properly, and you did make a point of that message at the end. Besides, stories need tension, conflict, but most importantly, change. Writing the other side would be difficult to keep compelling, because not much would change. You could always have Dusk show up and then he and Twilight disagree over their findings, but I can see why that might not work since they're effectively two halves of the same entity. It all depends on who you're writing for, I guess. Either way, I enjoyed the read, and thank you for writing it
While I agree with your thoughts that a direct sequel with Twilight and Dusk would be difficult to justify, you could always have Twilight pull the gender-swapped version of her friends over. Rainbow Blitz would be the most obvious one to "do", pun intended. Or you could write stories from the alternate POV - the next story is Dusk Shine pulling Rainbow Dash into his universe, and spit-roasting her between Dusk and Rainbow Blitz.