The Making of Fluttershy's Garden: Sequel · 10:09am Jan 11th, 2015
This is one of a series of blog posts about the making of Fluttershy's Garden, and contains unmarked spoilers. If you haven't yet read Fluttershy's Garden and its sequel, I would recommend reading them first.
0. Introduction
1. Inspiration
2. Character Design
3. Storyboard
4. Mechanics
5. Character Reactions
6. Ending
7. Loose Ends
8. Sequel
“There are basically two kinds of sequels, planned and unplanned. An unplanned sequel is often the result of an author discovering, much to their delight, that the original did well and readers want more stories with their favorite dashing hero.”
The story was well received, more than I had expected. Apparently, the emotional content of the story (what is usually described as "the feels") was strong enough that it made the readers overlook my many technical failings.
When I wrote Fluttershy's Garden, I planned it as a closed story, with no prequel and no sequel. But one loose end was still bothering me: Discord. His role in the story had been planned since the beginning, but he didn't get the chance to appear.
Then, one day, the name of Spring Egg's daughter suddenly appeared in my mind.
Flora.
After that, I knew I had to write a sequel.
The sequel starts by introducing its main character, the daughter of Spring Egg and Script Letter, who is also Fluttershy reborn. I aimed for “adorable” in her behavior.
She's kind, like her mother and Fluttershy. She can talk to animals, like Fluttershy. And the whole town pampers her, out of guilt for the way they sometimes had treated Fluttershy.
And in the last scene of the first chapter, she meets Discord.
He disguised himself as a stone statue, so she wouldn't be afraid to get near him, but also to give her an idea of how it would be if he were turned again into stone. Once she's near enough, he reveals himself, and convinces her to not tell anypony else.
I aimed for “creepy” in his behavior. He has a plan, and every action he does is to further that plan. His wide smiles are when his plan is working perfectly. That, however, doesn't stop him from almost giving himself away by trolling other ponies; he's Discord, after all.
By the fourth chapter, cracks in the town's Dark Secret start to appear. Discord helpfully shows Flora that her mom's best friends are hiding something from her — something about a pony called Fluttershy...
The coincidences in this chapter might seem contrived, given the timing constraints; there were only a few days before the yearly memorial. But he's Discord; a few subtle manipulations would be enough to have Rainbow Dash ask Twilight about Flora, to have Twilight arrive at the precise moment Pinkie goes to the kitchen, and to make Pinkie see something which reminded her of Fluttershy before returning from the kitchen.
While Discord is the focus of this story, other characters from Fluttershy's Garden come back to play their own part. Spring Egg is still bad at calculating the amount of food, and she's still traumatized by Angel. The twins still love Daring Do stories.
And there's Pebble, the “little dead colt”.
After he died, his mother had another colt, who is actually Pebble reborn. She forbids him from playing with kites, since that's how his older brother died.
His chapter is a reprise of the corresponding chapter in Fluttershy's Garden. Like in that chapter, in this chapter he enters the story at the beginning of the chapter, and exits the story at its end. Like that chapter, this chapter is a Breather Episode; it's the only chapter in which Discord doesn't appear, and as a Breather Episode, it comes just before a climatic chapter.
While the rest of the sequel answers the "what about Discord" question, this chapter answers the "what about Pebble" question. It brings closure to his story, since this time, Fluttershy saved him.
In the Fluttershy's Garden universe, not even Discord can communicate with dead ponies. However, he can take a living pony out of her body (“This much I can do.”); to anypony else who looks, that pony is on a deep sleep.
It wasn't only the ponies who were hiding the secret from Flora. Even the animals were hiding it from her, and Spring Egg let them watch over Flora so she wouldn't try to go after them during the memorial.
The two unknown mares at the memorial next to Twilight are Celestia and Luna, disguised as normal-sized ponies and hiding their wings under their dresses. Everypony present knows who they are, they do it mostly out of respect, but any outsider or younger pony wouldn't recognize them.
Flora felt betrayed. The whole town was hiding it from her. Her animals were hiding it from her. Her mom and dad were hiding it from her.
She ends up telling her parents about Discord — exactly as he had planned. And her parents tell Twilight — exactly as he had planned.
Discord then provokes Twilight while Flora watches, calling her out on her actions. He can't see Flora while he's visible, but he knows what she'll do.
I wrote this sequel in first-person present tense solely to keep the same style as the original story. This might have led to a bit of All First Person Narrators Write Like Novelists, but in this story it can be Justified because Flora's father is a novelist.
Were Discord's actions justified? I leave that for the readers to decide.
The writing on the sequel is not as strong as the writing on the original story was, but it was fun to write, and it cleared the most important loose ends.
Thank you for reading.
