The Crown of Night and other stories · 10:11pm Aug 22nd, 2014
A couple of days ago, The Crown of Night hit 100 likes, so congratulations to Star Swirl and Luna! I know 100 likes isn't very much in the grand scheme of things, but we always like a good reason to celebrate, right? So let's have some music! Give it up for Jason Webley.
The recording is from Welcome to Night Vale, in the live show episode The Debate, and ever since I first heard it I have been of the opinion that this is Star Swirl's theme song.
So, the other week I finished writing the most recent chapter of The Education of Clover the Clever, and found myself uncertain what to write next. For several months now I've been writing just Clover, out of a desire to get through to the end of something, and not have two ongoing serials both making me feel guilty for not making faster progress on them. And well, Clover is ultimately going to be of a manageable length. There are four chapters left to go, barring any sudden titanic epiphanies that demand I completely shift the plan, so it feels possible to reach the end. Whereas, Star Swirl rather demands that his story be greater than the universe which contains it, and I have absolutely no idea how many chapters it will ultimately take to write out all the ideas I have for him.
For now, though, I'm not quite sure what to try to write. I have a bunch of one-shot ideas lying around, though, so I thought I'd throw a few out and see what you guys think of them.
The Marriage of Princess Cadance to House Sparkle.
Tags: Romance, Ambiguity.
Rated Teen, unless it's rated Mature.
Centuries ago, Princess Cadance found true love with Warding Glow, a member of Celestia's royal guard.
He eventually grew old and died, but Cadance's love never did. It's okay, though. So long as he has surviving descendants, she'll never truly have to say goodbye.
Cadance's foal-sitting arrangement with the Sparkle family is a lot older than anyone realizes.
Cadance's love for Shining Armor isn't just for him: she's actually in love with the whole Sparkle family. As the Princess of Love, Cadance has ensured that the bloodline keeps going strong and pure for centuries, and every few generations she marries one of them and lives happily with him/her until he/she dies.
Possibly similar to Big Mac Goes to Therapy, as it is a concept piece with a theme of “I can't tell if this is heartwarming or incredibly creepy.”
Might involve non-procreative incest. Or not. I haven't decided for sure.
Untitled Dystopian Future Story.
Tags: Dark, Adventure, Ethical Debate.
Rated Teen.
In the distant future, in a land without Princesses, a King and a Queen of darkness are locked in never-ending war for control of the fate of Equestria.
Centuries after the events of the show, Twilight Sparkle returns from a voyage across the cosmos to find Celestia and Luna gone, and Equestria a burnt-out ruin, ravaged by a war between King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis.
Twilight resolves to stop both sides and rebuild her homeland. But this world may be beyond repair, and it is possible that a victory by Sombra or Chrysalis is not the worst thing that could happen.
Luna Spends A Month In Bed.
Tags: Adventure, Introspection.
Rated Everyone.
When she returned to Equestria after falling to evil powers and spending a thousand years trapped on the moon, Luna's mental state was a mess, barely held together by the Elements of Harmony.
Fortunately, nopony knows the hidden workings of the mind like Luna herself, the guardian of dreams. So once she was brought back to Canterlot, she put herself in a deep sleep and set about repairing her own mental faculties from the inside.
She won't take long. It'll be easy. Probably.
Luna explores her own dreamscape to put her mind back in working order. This turns out to be slower work than she imagined, and the voice of Nightmare Moon constantly berating her isn't making it any easier. Meanwhile, in the waking world, Celestia fears she might lose her sister yet again as the days go by and Luna refuses to wake up.
(One last thing: I don't know if long blog posts automatically do the "view full" thing, and I don't know how to do it manually. I have a paranoid idea that I'll write huge blog posts that spam all my followers newsfeeds and that someone is planning to hunt me down and kill me over it. I would appreciate it if, one way or another, someone would put a stop to this fantasy.)
Let me know what you think, or just to congratulate Star Swirl and Luna, in the comments.
-Daedelean.
Those sound great but the last one has the premise of luna being mopey after coming back and luna exploring dreamworlds which are just the two most boring things I've seen done. If you can bring something interesting to the tropes though, I'd give it a shot.
Man, that first one. I'm leaning towards incredibly creepy, but it's still an interesting idea.
I'd love to read the second one, though the third one I'm a little so-so on.
Actually, the third one seems promising to me! I always enjoy an introspective take and the dreamscape is the best place for things to...erm...get real (device heretic's eternal, anyone?)
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Upon further reflection, I think it's pretty much guaranteed to be creepy as all feck. I will have to think more about this. Right now it seems like it might be a halfway-sequel to Big Mac Goes to Therapy, and with a little tinkering it could be a full sequel, and with far too little tinkering beyond that it could be a dramatic epic of 100k words about the perils of alicorn magic. Big Mac vs Cadance foeshipping, anyone?
Apparently this is what happens when I try to write a one-shot.
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I guess I failed miserably at writing an interesting summary for that last one, but I wouldn't write it if I didn't think the story would be interesting. Much as I like me some mopey Royal Sisters feels-porn, I'd be constantly kicking myself if I didn't have more than that to work with.
The summary for Big Mac Goes to Therapy was basically just "Big Mac retells his scenes from canon" though, and people seemed to enjoy that.
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Thanks, I think it has some potential.
It is a pretty old idea, though, in more ways than one, and could stand more development. I will continue to think about all of them.