When to expect ETC Update/Previews of One-Shots! · 1:02am Apr 16th, 2014
Just thought I'd give a quick heads-up... I'm shooting for the next chapter of ETC to be up over the weekend.
The reason for the delay is because I happened to send it out during a period where my editors are very busy. So I have two choices: post the chapter with minor editing, or wait it out for the editors. Given how incredibly helpful and talented and amazing my editors are, I'm not willing to post a chapter of ETC—ESPECIALLY one this important—without getting their expert input.
So apologies for the delay, but I'm just not gonna post something unless I've had a group of eyes to look it over and tell me what's working and what isn't working.
During this delay, though, I've been mapping out the end of ETC and getting some of it down on paper. It occurs to me that writing "the end of ETC" is such an insane thing to me... I have NEVER had a project of this size that has had an ending before. I legit got misty eyed when I wrote "The End" at the end of Smiling Flowers... I imagine a similar reaction to ETC.
So with this delay, I thought I'd have a bit of fun and post a few little previews of various one-shots that I have had in the pipeline for quite some time. Usually when I have an idea, I like getting down a few scenes at random, just to get an idea for how I want the fic to feel. So don't expect these to make a lot of sense in context, they're more just to build a bit of excitement for the stories... and hey, if there's one thing I know how to do, it's HYPE.
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"You asked me to show you how I preen, right?" Rainbow said before flying in front of the hole and holding her hooves out as if to present it to the world. "Well, this is how!"
"Um," Twilight began, raising a hoof in the air, "preening is defined as the act of cleaning one's wings using a mouth or beak, I thought."
Rainbow Dash stuck her tongue out. "Ew, no way! I'm not gonna do that, that's totally gross. I don't know where my mouth has been!"
"...you don't?"
"The point is, over the years I've been coming to this spot every time I need to preen my wings, and now I have absolutely perfected it!" Dash triumphantly said.
Twilight examined the hole in the tree. As she looked through it, she realized that the hole extended forward through every tree behind it. She lit up her horn and sent an illumination spell through the hole, only succeeding in finding that it seemed to have no end.
"Still not getting it," she mumbled.
"It's simple!" Dash exclaimed flying right in front of Twilight. "When I need to preen, I just get some speed up and fly straight through this hole. As I go through, I make slight movements and adjustments as I go through to cause the leaves to groom my wings for maximum aerodynamicality!"
"You came so close to using the right word," Twilight said. "Does this really work?"
Rainbow grinned. "Watch and learn!"
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The pony grinned wider. "Screwball! Nice to meetcha!" She grabbed Twilight by the foreleg and hurled her overhead, and Twilight crashed down to the bottom floor of the library, her head smacking into the edge of the overturned table. She shakily pushed herself up to her feet, and Screwball landed next to her.
"You hurt daddy," she said, stepping towards Twilight. "You made daddy go away, and you made everything all boring again. With daddy gone now, I'm going to have to do what he wanted to!”
With a burst of adrenaline, Twilight leapt to her feet. Running on pure instinct she lowered her head and blasted a shot of magic straight at her assailant. The beam slammed into Screwball, but instead just dissipated around her body and shot off behind her.
"What? But…" Twilight said in shock, only to be grabbed around the neck again by Screwball.
"It would make sense for your magic to hurt me, huh?" she said, squeezing down on Twilight's neck. "Well daddy always said that there's no fun in making sense!"
Her hooves dug tighter and tighter into Twilight's throat, until her air supply was completely cut off. She backed Twilight up against the wall, chuckling as Twilight's eyes started to roll back.
"The dragon was the one who got all those letters that brought you back," Screwball said. "He got his punishment. Now it's your turn, Element of Magic!"
She squeezed even tighter. Twilight desperately looked around the room for something that could help her, but the edges of her eyesight began to fade and the only thing she could focus on was the pony in front of her. The world was darkening quickly, but still Twilight saw the pony in front of her clearly. Or more specifically, one part of her.
The spiral pupils of Screwball’s eyeballs were spinning around in their sockets at an almost terrifying pace. They suddenly came to a halt and just began to vibrate so quickly that Twilight could barely make them out. The world darkened even further as Twilight felt herself slipping away and she faintly heard the laughter of the pony in front of her.
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"Sure whatever," Diamond said. She passed by numerous maids and butlers all rushing around cleaning the house, but Diamond ignored all of them as she got to her room. She scribbled "DO NOT DISTURB" on the board outside he room, then slammed the door behind her.
Diamond flipped open the latch in front of the peephole and peered outside her door. The maids and workers were still there, but none of them were close enough to her room to cause concern. She stepped away and made sure her door was double and triple-locked, then turned to her bookcase.
She ran her hoof along the books until it hit one in particular: "Bullying: Is It For You?" She took one last look back to make sure she was alone, then pushed the book into the shelf.
The shelf rumbled, then slowly slid to one side, revealing the massive metal doors behind them. The doors opened up and Diamond stepped through, hearing the doors slam shut behind her.
"Verification," a robotic voice said.
"Bump bump sugar lump rump," Diamond seethed.
"Welcome, Diamond Tiara," the voice said as the entire room shifted and began to move downwards. "
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Celestia just stared at the twisted body of her sister, no noise coming from the room save for her shallow breaths. Luna began to twitch and she slowly pulled herself off the desk. Her body was surrounded by a green light momentarily as she reverted back to her Changeling form and the noisome sounds of her exoskeleton pulling itself back into place filled the room. The top half of Chrysalis' body twisted back to a natural position and she took a few deep breaths, each one causing a few final pops and cracks of her body repairing itself. A small trickle of green fell out of the corner of her mouth, but Chrysalis ignored it; instead, she smiled.
"You weren't lying," she said as she stalked back across the room towards Celestia. "I was wrong. I see it now. You aren't intimidated by me, and you don't hate me." She stepped forward until she was directly in front of Princess Celestia.
"You're terrified of me."
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Hey, for Exit, and more importantly for big, important chapters, the wait is actually vital. Take as long as you need!
As for the snippets there? The Diamond Tiara and the TwiDash preening ones are most intriguing for me personally.
I liked the preening, Screwball, and Celestia/Chrysalis snippets.
Those all look like a lot of fun.
i am not liking the osund of the one with screwball. like not at all. especially if twlight is actually getting killed, or spike gets hurt as well. especially the part where the magic just redirects. there is not making sense, and then there are ignoring common sense just so twilight gets hurt. caue even discord is vulnerable to thing if they physically hit him.
also the whole strangling thing is so not something discord would want to do anyway............... let alone screwball being very powerful at all as well.
.....maybe i am just overreacting because of a LOT of horrible stories i have come across lately. moment i read someone somehow defying rules like that and killing twilight, it sets off warnign signals in ma brain.
2029781
Honestly, these are VERY early drafts of each story. There is a lot of changing to do.
I will say this... "I Have My Daddy's Eyes" is my first attempt to do something sorta with a much darker feel than anything I've ever written before. I honestly don't expect darker stories to appeal to everyone, it's more an idea I've been playing around and want to see what happens when I get it down on paper.
2029795 shrugs. you don't need to kill a character to make it darker. in fact that is often a major mistake i find in most stories that go that route. especially when they do not bother ot think if the character could somehow escape that fate. or if said thing would attract the holy blazing vengeance of sun regents.
worse i have ever found is an evil twilight (creates a paradox as evil equals no elements), suffocating luna to death with a pillow.......... said luna was ill from poisoning by twilight, but a healthy luna is capable of shattering castle walls, a pillow would be nothing. next thing we know celestia somehow does not expect foul play, no autopsy is done on the body, and ignorance reigns supreme............
2029795 ......i have a tendency to overreact.