Sharing the Night: Chapter 11 Author's Notes · 2:57am May 30th, 2014
Chapter 11 Author's Notes
Whelp, it's finally out. Six months? How did that even happen? Well, the thing is... I've posted several times about how Chapter 11 is "complicated" and has been "difficult." Those comments? Those aren't about this chapter.
Yes, that's right. Absolutely nothing that I planned to happen in Chapter 11... actually happens in Chapter 11. I kept realizing that I had to do this and that before Twilight and Luna go into the Sinkhole of the Royal Pony Sisters until at one point I realized that it just wasn't going to happen yet—and here we are.
On the bright side, now half the jokes in this blog post will make sense.
Thanks go to q97randomguy, Spacecowboy and PPS for prereading this chapter!
Sharing the Night: Chapter 11 spoilers past this point
Parents
I was pretty apprehensive about actually writing Twilight's parents in at first. I don't read the comics, and while I've read plenty of stories that use them, I've never really felt strongly enough about any to say: "That's my new headcanon."
As it happens, though, I needn't have bothered. Half of the chapter sprung up on its own solely out of what I already knew: That Twilight had previously lied to them about being an alicorn and that her mother is pushy about finding Twilight a stallion. Frankly, even at 13.5k words—the longest chapter yet—I'm not sure there was even room for much else. Twilight's dad wasn't even going to have more than two lines until the very last minute, when one of my prereaders suggested I find something to do with him.
And no, I don't regret making Twilight Velvet the bigger fiction geek.
Cargo Ship
Read "Cargo Ship" on tvtropes.org
Now you know.
Next Chapter
I swear they will go in the damn hole. It'll be a huge deal. A lot will be revealed. Basically everything, really.
glad to see such a fine piece update
I look forward to that damn hole.
It did drag things out a bit but there was so much good humor and character stuff that I didn't mind. And even as they didn't go into the hole their thoughts and conversation brought it up, so it's not like it was being ignored. I thought it worked but only as long as they really do go in next chapter and don't delay more.
It's a… plot hole.
I just hope Celestia gets some light in the next chapter. Eh? Eh?
I'm going to drop some wild speculation here: Maybe all Mortal ponies have stars (though it's also possible it's just the ones with astronomy cutie marks). If all mortal ponies have stars, then maybe there weren't any mortal ponies before the cataclysm. If they all do, when the alicorn of stars fell to earth in pieces, some of her became ponies, some became starbeasts and some became the lurking thing under the earth. Being so scattered would also be why it took her longer to regain physical incarnation than the moon or sun.
It also explains how ancient unicorns raised and lowered the sun. Just like Celestia with the moon, they didn't actually control the sun at all, they pushed it around with the stars, making your joke line about Luna being heavy important. They could do this because in a way they were all tiny fragments of an alicorn, so enough banded together could mimic one.
It's actually kind of an interesting origin story for the species, being made out of bits of a dead god.
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I'll just clarify one thing: Twilight said that everyone in the room had a star, which included her guards and heralds, so it has nothing to do with cutie marks.
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Well, that's why I leaned towards the 'all ponies' theory but I hedged my bet just in case even the guards of the Princess of the Stars had astronomical inclinations.
"I swear they will go in the damn hole. It'll be a huge deal. A lot will be revealed. Basically everything, really."
You know, all you really did there was make everyone that much more rabid for the next chapter...
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Hey, on the bright side, Chapter 12 is actually 10k words right now
Almost definitely gonna be 15k before it's done though