Five Score is completed, so have some FAQs about the ending! · 5:04am Jun 9th, 2014
1) Hey everyone, first up this is just a general announcement to those who favorited Five Score several months ago and have been waiting for it to be complete.
Well, the story is complete. (It has been for like 5 weeks actually). So go finish it if you were waiting. ^_^
2) The second thing I wanna mention is just to address the issue of the first 12 chapters having some typos. Over the past week or so I re-edited and totally cleaned up the first 4 chapters, and I'll be getting through the rest of the chapters over the coming weeks. So if you find yourself worried at the errors in chapter 6 or so, just plow past it, the other 90% of the story should be fine. (And apologies for those errors being there in the first place, naturally).
3) People have also been asking me about what new fic I'm working on. Truth be told, I'm not working on much in terms of fics right now. I actually don't have a summer vacation this year, and I'm quite busy with real life stuff. However, I am hoping to add a few more chapters to my oneshot clopfic compilation, Twisted TF Tales (mature content story), but the new chapters won't be added until late June since I'm currently preoccupied with RL stuff until June 27th. Later in the summer, I'm also planning a new multi-chapter clopfic (à la, Royal Duties). Expect that in July or so.
4) Alright, now let's move onto what most of you are probably here for, some frequently asked questions about the Five Score finale and the epilogue.
Story spoilers ahead
Not safe for Woona.
Why?
She hates spoilers. (But seriously, only read the rest of the blog post if you're done with Five Score)
Alright, lots of you posted questions (or heartfelt thoughts) in the comments of the final chapter, and unfortunately I was unable to reply to really anyone at the time (real life stuff intervened and I was out of town for a while, then entered two busy weeks of finals.) So, anyway, I just thought I would answer the big questions here that many people asked. Later this week I'll also edit the story's “Credits and Acknowledgments” chapter to include this same FAQ. Also, I want to give a huge Thank You to everyone that posted in the comments of those last chapters and shared their thoughts and reviews of the story. I read every single comment, and you were all far too kind in your words. I really appreciate everything you guys said, and I won't forget your emotions any time soon :' )
Alright, warm fuzzy time over, let's get this FAQ started.
What happened with Celestia and Luna at the end? They were up and active during the story, but we never hear about them once the end came in sight.
I admit, that really didn't go as smoothly as planned. To be perfectly blunt here, I never intended for Luna or Celestia to be in Five Score, I started the story with the idea that both of them were dead or utterly banished. But then, around ch 12 or so, side fics started popping of for dozens of ponies, and naturally people wanted to write about the Princesses. I hadn't expected that, so I ended up retconning Celestia's death so other authors could use her in side fics. That was all good an fine, but then I realized I would have to have the Princesses at least show up in my story. So I sort of crammed them in there on the farm, (Luna meets Dash in her dream, and Celestia shows up to tell Twilight what she has to do). They are just shown in those brief scenes to confirm that, yes, they are both still alive in this universe. But that's all I had to say about them. I never wanted to actually write about Celestia or Luna in my story, so I never really had a place for them in my ending. That's not to say they didn't have some very important part, it's just that I intentionally didn't bring them up. My story was just about the mane six and their two brothers, I leave the fates of Celestia and Luna in the hands of the other, very competent authors.
So what happened to them in the end? I don't know, I assume they made it to Equestria for the finale battle and played their part, then they helped rebuild. Or maybe they stayed on Earth and did stuff there. I left it open for the reader to assume whatever they want. Or, alternatively, if you want to read more, I encourage you to read and enjoy the side fics that deal with Celestia and/or Luna. There are multiple such side fics, and that makes sense since there is more than one possible way their tale could be told. Read whichever you want, the "canon" of the side fic universe is yours to decide.
Did the Mane 8 get all their pony memory back? With Discord gone, Sweetie is free to undo the memory spell on everypony. We already know RD got her memories, what about the others?
Dash's memories came back in a unique way, but I always sort of imagined that the other characters would get their memories back gradually. Sort of like the old "you never forget how to ride a bike" analogy. Once the ponies were in Equestria, living as ponies and hanging out with their old pony friends, they would slowly, subconsciously get all their memories back. For example, AJ would go to the farm, and after a few weeks of cleaning and working there, she would start organizing the place exactly like it was 30 years ago. The memories just sort of come back over time, and they don't even notice they have their old memories until they stop and think, and then realize they remember things that they didn't remember before. It would be like a reverse Alzheimer's Disease, if you will.
And, of course, Sweetie is always there in case someone needs a jolt to remember something important. I imagine most of the ponies would rather get their memories back "naturally" and slowly from simply living in Equestria, but having Sweetie there with the power to instantly restore all memory is a nice option for those who are impatient.
Alright, I’m knocking these questions out of the park, what’s next?!
Cadance and Shining are supposed to be together! What the hell dude, Rarity should have nothing to do with Shining.
This question? I thought answered that pretty well already in the story and in comments on several chapters. Maybe I can just ignore the question and move on to—
Thumbs down for breaking up Shining and Cadance.
You expect me to believe Shining's prior marriage to Cadance is worth nothing?
Poor Cadance...
Really disappointed Shining went with Rarity, it makes no sense.
Gah, my personal shipping chart is all ruined now!!
Cadance...
But... Cadance and Shining! WTF!!! OMG!! BBQ!! QQ!! GG WP!!
You broke up the marriage of the archetypical knight in shining armor a just so you could have your pet favorite doink him.
MAH CADANCE
Well, fuck, I didn't realize this would be such a big deal to you guys. I just didn't have room in the story for another female main character so I didn't want to bring Cadence on board. And since there were only two males with a group of six females (and since the story is tagged Romance, and has a clop version) I would have been pretty hard pressed to not have Shining involved with one of the story characters. I also honestly didn't think Shining and Cadance would still have had feelings for each other seeing as how they had 99% of their memories removed. But Rachel and Tom were pretty much dating when they were humans just before the transformations began, so they actually had memories and close feelings for each other...
Anyway, I've explained this all multiple times over, but people still seem sore about it. So here, I'll let someone else try to spell it out. The following was posted by somebadauthor in their comment here. Copy and pasted:
It's a necessity to bring in the Mane Six very early on to get where the story is going (the Mane Six defeat Discord and restore Equestria); Shining Armor's skills are also invaluable. But Cadance really doesn't have anything to contribute. I feel like she's only in the story at all to acknowledge and deal with the show canon that she's Shining Armor's wife.
So you have the Mane Six, Shining Armor, and Big Mac as main characters early on. Romantic interests among 25-year-olds happen. With Cadance not around because she's not important to the plot, things develop a little differently. Not to mention.. it's now been 30 (or so) years since they married, and they were together for almost none of it. That generates an exponential decay of intimacy and relationship strength. I would have trouble believing that Shining Armor didn't break it up with a mare who's not been around, or necessary, for the vast majority of the story (and three decades).
Right, that's all there is to say about that. I'm sorry if you're still upset poor Cadance lost her stallion, but I'm sure she'll find someone else.
I mean, look at her, she's adorable.
Daaww... look at that? She's happy she has her boot. See? She doesn't need no stinkin' stallion right now, she has her shoes.
(But seriously, sorry to the people who felt that love story didn't make sense. And trust me, I love love love Cadance. Best Princess. <3)
What was the deal with that creepy horse on Jack's farm? And why did Jack start to go "feral" when she left alone in the stables?
That was just a fun little easter egg that connects to the ending. Discord was turned into a horse and sent back several hundred thousand years to live for millions of years on Earth... and chance has it that for one of his 'feral horse lives', he ends up being one of the farm horses owned by Jack when the story first starts out. Discord (aka, "Sara" the mare) is mostly powerless as a horse, but he still was able to try and screw with AJ's head when she went in the stables by herself.
Will there be a sequel?
No, I feel like I wrote everything I'll want to with Five Score. I loved writing the story, but I'm also glad to be done. In all honesty, I don't like writing long winded stories, it just takes so much time, and my hours of free time dwindle every year. Any future stories I write will be either 10k one-shots, or short 30k stories that I can finish in a week or two.
Will there be a published book I can buy?
That's the plan, eventually, but it's very tricky to get it all set up. It's illegal to profit off anything like this since it’s a fanfic, and every one of the online "self-publish a book" companies have strict rules barring any and all fanfiction for that same reason. So it’s fairly hard to find a reputable place to get it printed and bound at. There are a few ways around it, but like I said, it's tricky. Anyway, I'll work on it later this summer.
If worst comes to worst and I can't get it published anywhere, at the very least I will convert the final story into an edited "book format" PDF, and then share it with you guys publicly, so anyone interested can just take it to your local copy shop and get it printed and bound yourself.
But yeah, I have plenty of other stuff on my plate right now, and before I worry about a publisher I’ll need to finish re-editing those first 12 chapters and get some other stuff done. Stay tuned!
One final note!
As I’m sure you all know, the site admins made a rule barring any new Five Score side fics unless the author wrote over 30,000 words before publishing. That was quite a tall order, as very few people have the fortitude to sit and write for days to pump out over 30k words before being able to get any community feedback.
But a select few authors have undertaken that challenge, and as of today we have a new side fic! Huzzah! It was written by the ever polite Phenrys, and I encourage anyone interested to give it a look. If you do read any of it, be sure to leave him a comment, I can’t even imagine having to write 30,000 without any feedback, so now that it’s published poor ‘ol Phenrys is probably eager to hear every last word any of you have to say.
Hehe, anyway, thanks for reading this lengthy blog post. Take care everyone!~
Very nice. It was a Hell of a ride, that's for sure.
*Sigh* That first question reminded me of needing to get back Lunar Phases.
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The people are waiting!
I agree about Shining and Cadence. It's more realistic this way.
FO:E recently did another print. I wonder where they printed theirs? Although, they aren't making profit off of their sales (supposedly), so maybe that's how they did it.
Thank you so very much for bringing us the universe of five score! It gave me the courage to put thoughts down on paper and to actually have someone else read them.
Also, thank you for the shout out!
My reaction to my readers' comments:
media.tumblr.com/208fb415e33dc989fe0d1c182da3a513/tumblr_inline_mg5mku5rc51rsnjcq.gif
It's a good philosophy.
All this bitchin 'bout Cadence.
fuck 'er!
But, nah, she has totally no place in the fic. All you shippers can't run on this mountainous territory, eh?
Still love the TF's in the fic, just great. I wish though, during the animal ones, we would see them slowly start to turn feral, though it lasted a short time. Do the side fics cover the characters' feelings during their TF's? or is it all left up to the imagination on all accounts?
Was a great ride, from the start, to the fic ban, to the finish, through the ship graveyard, and Discord's heart. What a twist on him becoming the mare in the beginning!
I expect great things from you, sir.
Great things.
Maybe a food TF in that there Twisted tales? Could be Pinkie->pastry or something completely unexpected, like you always do.
You know you want it.
~Dash The Stampede
Wait wait wait. I got that Sara the mare is Discord at the end. But I didn't realize they'd sent him back in time as well as curse him. So Jack's regression wasn't part of the original curse? Because I thought I remembered something similar happening to someone else, like Shining or something, and I thought that part of the curse was a bit of Discord essence imprinting in their minds to fuck with them. I kind of used that concept in my own story. Did I just make that up out of nowhere?
I'll be honest, the CadanceXShiny issue only bothered me in the context of the ponies' memory restoration. To some degree, raising TLC to be story-canon is probably the biggest problem here. If we could do it all over again, retconning Sweetie's ability to restore memories would (IMO) be the best for both stories. Honestly, I'd accept an in-place retcon, right now...
But with the memory restore, I have to think that once Discord was out of the way, either the spell would be broken and all memories would be returned or Sweetie would immediately return every pony's memory. With their memories restored so quickly, I feel like the ShinyXRarity vs ShinyXCadance situation would get....complicated.
Just my 2 bits. I'd love to purchase a printed book, though.
I was going to write something about Luna in concerning the human side of things, but...
Well, there is already a Luna fic out there. Pretty much shot up any chance of me doing anything, especially since the fic already has a decent following on it.
Me on the other hand?
... Take a look at the mediocre offerings I have on store.
Not good by any standard.
Ah, the legend returns on the 27th. Good, very good. I've been hoping for more Triple T
Aboot Cadance, Shining, and Rarity when reading the story.
."
At first I was like "Wha?"
Then I was like "nah its k because
And everything ended up ok.
I'm glad you didn't kill any of the Princesses off. Would have been pretty depressing because they are all the best Princesses in my book.
Hey people, I have a title for you that could be the sequel. I will also write it, if I ever get to finishing all my ideas.
Here is the title.
Five Score No More
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*yes, we are
Also, I liked what you did with SA and Rarity, but not nearly as much as SA and Pinkie's relationship. Not like I liked the two as a couple, but I liked the kind of relationship you gave them. And when and why SA got kicked out of Twilight's room was just too perfect.
Just putting that out there. I was hoping for a hint of sparklecest too, but alas, can't have too much fun, else we would lose touch with reality
2190244 you better finish the story first.
2190221 naww, after reading the epilogue, I get the feeling those two got the memories back without sweetie.
I think people are aloud to upload stories that are shorter than 30k words if they are already completed. If anyone disagrees, please paste the rule in your reply.
Is it even confirmed that Shining and Cadence were married at all? Just because it took place in the show, doesn't mean it happened the same way in Equestria. The only reliable sources of information are the CMC (because they have their real memories), and the show bible (at least the parts based on Tess' fragmented memories).
What I'm interested in now is the 5 year gap between the battle the epilogue. I haven't put anything to paper yet, but I think I have a decent idea for a side fic. I just need to work on a few details first.
I'm kind of flattered by being called out as a story explanation.
Thank you, I think?
Ehh, I'm not going to lie, I didn't bother commenting on the last few chapters because I lost interest in doing so directly because of how Cadance and Shining & Rarity was handled. I didn't want my last comment on the story to be a large pile of bitching.
Well, as much as the whole Cadence thing was a thing, I was fine with it. New love blooms bloom on the battlefield... or something. Plus, Rarity and Shining are such a cute couple.
For some reason, I just read this entire blog in Jan from JanAnimations voice.
I was kind of hoping for a 3-way herd thing with Cadence, but there's no use harping on about it now: Five Score still one of the best stories I've read on FimFiction either way.
I... may get back to my Five Score story. At some point. It'll have to be a "Greatest Story Never Told" sort of thing, but I think I can make it work.
In any case, the Shining/Cadance thing makes sense. They had very different experiences, none of the memories that brought them together, and never met each other. There may have been some vague memories of wifehorse/husbandhorse as kids, but beyond that, they're virtually different people.
But if he succeeded and they never defeated him, then he never would've been banished to Earth to mess with her head and oh dear I've gone cross-eyed.
In any case, most enlightening. Thank you for this.
Yeah, I didn't get that sense at all.
Seemed to me there were simply unfortunate side effects to being around Earth-horses in general (possibly opposite-gender horses specifically, considering I was reading the M-rated version). It also doesn't really make sense that Discord stripped of his power for eons would be capable of screwing with AJ's head like that. I'm just gonna stick with my interpretation.
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I was toying with that idea actually, but if I did food TF, I would just have to make it end with the food being eaten, leading to vore and digestion/absorption. Something like:
Like Pinkie does gypsy magic to make the most perfect cake ever for Celestia's royal visit. She realizes, too late, that the magic is turning her into the "most perfect cake". Celestia arrives, finds the most delicious cake ever, and eats the whole thing in one sitting. Fast forward two weeks, Celestia gained like fifty pounds, all on her flanks. With every step it jiggles, and if you hold a ear close to it you can hear a muffled Pinkie giggling with each step.
Anyway, vore is a pretty polarizing subject so I put that chapter on the back burner, but maybe one of these days I can write it.
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Mmm, you make a good point, part of the original curse did include the line: Your mind shall be weak, your outlooks bleak. That 'weak mind' very well sort of sets them up to be predisposed to lose their intelligence and go "full feral" so to speak. Maybe AJ was just very susceptible to it, and being next to Discord helped speed the process along?
Anyway, it's all up to reader interpretation, so you did nothing wrong
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Stahp!
Stop teasing me, you sly cunning monster, you!
I'm getting ideas!
~Dash The Stampede
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You make a very good point, and yeah, Sweetie ability to fully restore all memories does really fuck up quite a bit of the established story.
Truth be told, I was very against the idea of Sweetie having that power. The entire point of Five Score was to have everyday people who were actually ponies, but forgot everything. The memory loss thing was what set it apart from other "pony TF" and "humanized PoE" stories. Seeing the Last Crusade axe my entire premise was a bit of a "wtf is going on here" moment.
But, the readers spoke, and that was by far the most well received and most read side fic. It was even featured on EqD later on. So I worked with Cyborg Samurai and found a way to integrate the stories, mostly by telling him to "quit it with that memory-retrieval thing", and then doing my best to mention her ability as little as possible in Five Score.
But as subdued as I tried to make Sweetie's power, it did still have unforeseen complications with other parts of my story. Like, for one, the whole Cadance and Shining getting their full memories back. Full memory return was never supposed to happen, except to Dash in the story's final climax. You're quite right that the notion of Sweetie being there in the end would certainly cause a lot of upset to the balance of things. My personal headcanon is, even after the battle, Sweetie still refuses to use her power. Maybe she just wants to see how things play out on their own. Or maybe with Discord's power gone she also loses the ability to do that sort of anti-Discord magic. Whatever the case, I don't see her restoring everyone's memories, it's too much of a cop out.
Anyway, it's all too convoluted to rewrite anything now, after the fact. Though, if I had a time machine I'd go back and slap Cyborg Samurai when he first suggested that memory retrieval idea. I don't blame him for coming up with it, he needed something to make his side fic stand out from the main fic. Them having pony memories was a nice take on things, I just sort of wish he came up with another idea that didn't end up screwing up the entire basis for the story universe, and complicating things so much.
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That's correct. Stories have to be at least 30k or completed by time of publication.
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Hehe, as much as I have a guilty pleasure for reading that, it would have been really out of place in my story.
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Daww, that's adorable, I love his voice.
...I wish I sounded like that
I've been meaning to ask, was the fic at all inspired by Once Upon a Time?
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If I recall correctly, it was inspired in equal parts by a "what if" scenario relating to the cutie mark mixup from MMC, and lots of alcohol.
Then how the heck did Pen Stroke get Past Sins published(or at least made into a hard copy for sale)? I remember seeing a thing at some point where they were having it made into a full on book(hard cover and all) that people could buy. (I mean, I'm not looking to buy, I'm just curious)
2191287 for the first time in my life, I turned down revealing a spoiler. You truly are Twisted, Spectrum.
2191480 I completely understand. Incest is frowned upon here, and while it may be the same in Equestria, I'm pretty sure Rachel and Tess were straight regardless of which species/gender they were. It only makes sense that they wouldn't have even thought about it.
Like I said, jizzing all over their shared room before turning full pony was just as satisfying.
I truly loved your story. I went into it expecting nothing, honestly, not gonna lie (I'm very sorry) but it quite literally became my favorite fic on the entire website. I don't even like the shipping pairings you made in the story (though I don't give a crap about Cadance, I totally knew from the get go that you had to change the story because of side fics). But yeah, not even kidding. Five Score is, hands down, my favorite story on Fimfic.
I would be very interested to see a TRUE version of this story that wasn't altered by the side fics which caused you to have to change your plans to match them. Without Luna asking Dash to EXPLODE HER COLORS over the city, how would they have gathered the ponies to all meet them there? Would there have been less chapters about the random other characters showing up? Like Chrysalis and Sombra? That always made no sense to me. That would mean Discord purposefully sent them over here as well. Why would he do that? Besides, isn't Sombra like... DEAD in canon? The crystal heart blew him to pieces.
Anyways... There was just something about your story that resonated so strongly with me. I loved it so much. I cannot express how much your story means to me. And if you ever find a way to get it in print, like Past Sins did? I would be the first there to throw wads of money at you to get a copy of it. Like, seriously, WADS. Take ALL of my moneyz.
I know you won't ever write another multi-chaptered adventure fic, but that's alright. ^_^ I eagerly look forward to what you'll write next, no matter WHAT it is. Till next time, Twisted!
I've got a question I'd like answered- can you come up with a deus ex diablos bad enough that you can't come up with a deus ex machina to get the leads out of it?
I didn't care for the ending, if you couldn't tell.
I just finished reading five score yesterday; the whole story was awesome. This is now one of my favorite fanfics and one that I'm putting in a time capsule to read a decade later.
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Nope, honestly never even heard of it before. I more or less came up with the whole thing just based on the idea that if a human got a cutie mark, the Season 3 finale seems to tell us that the cutie mark would force that human to live the life that the cutie mark represents. Human gets Dash's cutie mark? He better start learning how to be a weather pony!
(and I added transformations properties because, well, you can never have enough of those!)
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I'm not sure, though I do know there was legal trouble when the first printing went out. Back in Season One the first publication of Past Sins was front page on EqD and they were taking orders right there, but then they got shut down real fast.
The book was eventually printed a few months later, but it was more "hush hush" and under the table. They couldn't have a website for it or anything, the author just personally took orders from people over email, and then shipped them the book by hand.
Granted, Pen Stroke may have an actual system in place now and may have even gotten a legal case for her book after all these years. I'll look into it.
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Thanks for the compliments, I'm glad you enjoyed the story as much as you did!
As for your question, I don't know how it would have worked without any side ponies. I probably would have made the fic a lot smaller, my original idea for the story was to only have the mane six and end the story with them all just living happily on the farm.
Without countless side ponies there would be no reason for them to leave their home and go on a suicide mission against Discord. They were living quite well on the farm before all those other ponies showed up
I am fairly sure they don't force a 30,000,000 word count just to publish it on the site.
That's better...
All joking aside, I didn't really care much for all that Cadence nonsense, because it could always be explained.
Actually Amazon.com has a special thing for publishing fanfiction, but I advise against it. If you wish to publish it, you can make money off it (not much though, only like four or five percent of the profits) and you sell all your rights and characters. Meaning they own the characters like Tes, and Jack, and if you try and even make a side story they will sue you and you can't make sequels and side stories or anything like that.
If this isn't a book by Aug. 3'rd, I'm just going to print the story and staple it. If you can staple a book that large.
How long do you think it will take to make a book for this? I FUCKING LOVED IT SO MUCH!!!!!!!!
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A month or so? I should have some more info about it by the end of July. Make sure you follow me if you want news on it, I'll have a blog post about it in a week or two
Strange question!
Has Discord as a mare ever had any offspring?
I guess it would be more appropriate to comment on the story, but wth...
Well, I loved it. I started with "the last crusade", then this... I kind of feel ashamed of calling myself a fanic writer, this was indeed awesome! Brilliant, emotional, simply... simply great.me!
Just a small question... did Discord kill Sunset Shimmer or just turn her into stone?