To Dance In Shadow: The Shadownating. · 3:57am Apr 25th, 2014
Fun fact. The first working title for this story was called "A Comedy of Terrors."
The opening scene played out quite differently in the very first rough drafts that floated through my head. Luna gets pulled into Rookwood's dreamscape, sees Rookwood going at her, and then becomes something so nightmarish that Rookwood dies in his sleep, sending him to Tartarus. With a hardon. And he immediately blows his load all over the infernal plains of Tartarus, causing a whole new species of shadow demons to spawn. Rookwood's other babies escape Tartarus and joins Nightmare Moon. Rookwood is made responsible for hunting down and killing each one of his demonspawn.
Luna meanwhile, was pregnant with foal and she had just killed the father. The original premise was similar... She goes to Tartarus to broker a deal, Reaper of Ponies takes Rookwood into service in exchange for giving him a chance to be back among the living, Hades becomes a wise mentor, and Rookwood and Luna get all kinds of fucked up from Nightmare Moon. Eventually, the story sort of ends up where it is now.
I changed a few things, obviously.
The wedding scene changed very little from its original incarnation. It grew a little, had a few gags added, but it was mostly the same.
The wedding scene isn't finished by the way...
Reaper of Donkeys is going to drop in with a special proposition. He plans to make a proposal to Hades about having a full time Reaper of Lost Foals and wants Wookwood to do the job.
And once that wraps up, we begin to see "The Hunt" begin. We'll get to see an old dead god find his lost sense of humour, take an interest in mortal affairs, and generally become something of a nuisance to the living, having suddenly decided that rules can in fact be broken and Tartarus can take a personal interest in various mortal affairs. Hey... Draconequuskind cannot be trusted. Chaos entities remain chaotic long after they are dead.
Thanatos will be entering the story soon.
Thanatos is a centaur.
Anyhoo, don't openly post the spoilers in the comments below. That'd be awful.
But do feel free to discuss everything else by all means!
