Slow progress · 5:28pm Jun 4th, 2015
Still whittling away at the last chapter of Not A Dog. Having one of those times where a story is being very slow to form, rather than the often self-writing speed I get sometimes. It sits at a little under 3000 words right now and not even to the main part yet, but I'll get there eventually. I can't give an estimate on time to complete because I don't know it myself yet. At the very least, I'll post when it gets into the edit and polish stage.
One of the holdups is the images in my head for my main effort that relates to late in the story. Epic speech by Soarin' before a desperate battle to protect Cloudsdale. Largest force of Wonderbolts ever assembled in one place and still outnumbered 5-1. It got sparked by thematic music.
The part that's hounding my brain most is the image of a thousand Wonderbolts taking to the sky from a staging field on the edge of the city. As they take off to engage the incoming enemy force, it's a scene eerily similar to a fleet of starships jumping to hyperspace in rapid succession. In the verse I'm building, every Wonderbolt is capable of some kind of elemental boom, ranging from wind, water, ice, lightning, and fire.
The image is...staggering...for the sight of it, at the fidelity it's playing in my head. It's for the 4th or 5th book of my main effort, but driving me nuts because I can't write it for a long while yet.
Obviously, I need to finish Not A Dog and get back to my main effort. It's driving me nuts now that I've been away too long.
I follow several stories that update... anually... if I'm lucky. So no worries.
But there aren't that many Wonderbolts. I mean they sent 3 for a rampaging dragon. So I picture them more as being fewer but about... Captain America level in contrast to average pegasus ponies. The Royal Guard would be more standard soldier grade.
3124081 It's in the large, complex universe I'm building. The Wonderbolts Initiative, which is also a side story to my main effort a lot of stuff is explained, is essentially the pegasus flight magic equivalent to the unicorn magic schools.
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OK.
I would look at that as more the weather control teams than the Wonderbolts.
I mean all unicorns learn magic. Celestia's school holds relatively lengthy auditions for each prospective student so they can't be that numerous.
I mean I'm not slamming the idea. It's awesome. I just disagree that canon supports that number of Wonderbolts. Probably because the Wonderbolts are a limited size team. That's why they have reserves.
3124451 That's actually something I've taken into account with the world I'm building. In the simplest form, I have a bigger Equestria than usual. It's much more complex after that, however. The reserves are a standing pool of candidates for the teams. Active Wonderbolts number between 40-50, with Spitfire and crew in Team One, that handles most domestic duties and all domestic performances. There's usually 8 per team, half standbys for a given show. Mission work is full team. The Wonderbolts Reserves are, in a sense, like reservists in the US military. They keep up a minimum standard of readiness, but for the most part, they live normal lives until called to action in times of need. At least, that's the gist.
It spawned from needing to come up with a way to explain how the heck the ancient pegasi clans could ever take on unicorns and their magic in actual battle. I mean, seriously, spears and armor against magic shields and ranged blasts? The disparity doesn't track to make parity. So I came up with something that did, drawing off their capacity for weather manipulation, the idea that they're born warriors, and what they could do that could genuinely match unicorns, as well as their capacity for fighting off dragons. The Wonderbolts Initiative grew out of that.
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I look forward to seeing what you do with them even if it's not super canon strict.
3124497 Well, there's a flight magic primer I created that can be found here, in addition to a battle that gives early indications of where I'm going. My main effort, in ch 22, has several other things presented. In addition to said battle being retold from Spitfire's perspective, it covers things such as Rainbow's Rainboom to rescue Rarity and the Wonderbolts was a ploy on the part of Spitfire and crew to push Rainbow towards what she could be, having a lot of rescue training and only pretending to get clocked as they were.
Overall, the verse is getting constructed around the idea that what we see on Earth is only a small window into a much larger world that the show was heavily based on the events and focus on the Elements, but took liberties with what was really going on in many of the situations presented. While retaining much of the show's substance, it also gives me freedom to develop things far beyond it.
To be honest, except for 'like the show' style fics with the 'Everyone' tag, I don't think anything could really qualify as super canon strict anyway.
I am sure that this means your creative batteries for your main effort are getting quite charged...but sometimes a ÜberCharge is helpful to.