History of the Thousand Year Change · 5:31pm Sep 9th, 2015
Well, I’ve been wanting to write this blog for a while now. The reason for this is that several people have asked me where I got the idea for my main story. At the time I wasn’t able to give a complete answer, just saying it was because of the pic I used. And since I’m having trouble writing the next chapter of the Thousand Year Change, I thought why the hell not do it now.
The Thousand Year Change started out with a picture. I remember that day well. I was looking at various pictures on Equestria Daily when I found one of Luna in high tech looking armor that I thought looked freaking awesome. Later that day I was at the gym, working out while watching one of my favorite sci-fi shows: Eureka. As I watched, an idea began to form in my head. It literally began to manifest inside me while I ran. I could see a small, yet highly advance group of ponies living on the moon under Luna’s wing. I could see Twilight dating a bat pony because I love bat ponies and they were my first introduction to the fandom. I could see conflict and battle being played out in my mind.
When I got home, I began trying to fill in the blanks like why is Luna on the moon and how did they gain such advanced technology. For this I went to Eureka since it was the original inspiration. For those who have never seen the show, Eureka was a show sent in a small town of the same name where geniuses are brought in to keep pushing the boundaries of science. I loved the idea of an old fashioned looking town holding a population that is building talking cars, smart houses, gravity control devices, and more. It made sense to me if you had all these brilliant minded people in one location and gave them an encouraging environment then they would advance faster than everyone else. It was with that in mind that allowed me to plan the origins of the Lunar Republic. Luna had ponies that appreciated her night and were the free thinkers. Something would happen that would cause a rift between her and Celestia so that Luna would feel forced to take her ponies to a safe place.
I’ll be honest, I had never read a Lunar Republic story before and still haven’t. Nor have a read a Lunaverse story. The reason for LR stories is because I have heard about them and they all sound the same. As for the Lunaverse stories, I am not interested in reading about how Trixie is Luna’s apprentice while Twilight is a criminal running from the law. The one thing I did want to do was not have the two nations go to war…right away. Mainly because, well, Celestia and Luna are sisters. While I have never hid my dislike of Celestia, I do understand that neither of them would go to war unless a lot of shit hit the fan. And even then they would try to work things out. That’s the way I saw it and wanted to write it.
Once that was done, I wanted to think about where the mane six fit into all of this. I wanted a good set up, something that no one had ever done before. I didn’t want to start off with just boom we’re in space. So I thought wouldn’t it be interesting if this was a spell? So the ‘what if’ idea came into place. Then I had to think about who went where. Originally I had planned to split them right down the middle with Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash being from the Lunar Republic and Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy being from Equestria. However, I decided just to have Twilight be from the Republic because I felt it would make Celestia a bit more desperate. That all she needed was one more element, but it was on the moon. Worse it was probably the most important one of them all.
After that was done, I began to work on Shadow Blade. I won’t lie, that wasn’t the best name I could come up for him. Truth be told, I was having a real hard time with him name. He was designed to be Shining Armor’s opposite, a fighter rather than a defender and needed a similar name. Gleaming Sword, Dark Blade, Deadly Strike, Mr. Happy Fun Pants. I literally considered all of these names. Then, while I was getting frustrated, my dog (a puppy at the time) made a mess on the floor and I had to clean it up. His name is Shadow, an Alaskan Husky. By the time I was done, I figured why not and decided to call him Shadow Blade. Nothing about his has changed since I originally thought him up so no more to say about that.
The tech in this story comes from everywhere. From Starcraft to Stargate and anything else that caught my eye. Its fun to see how many people can correctly guess what comes from where.
Now many things have changed since I began to write. One of the biggest is the scope. Originally, I never really planned on expanding this story beyond the mane six and the princesses. However, as I began to write, I realized what kind of opportunity I had here and began to slowly expand on the world. Showing more and more ponies and other races that this one change is affecting. A butterfly affect if you will.
Speaking of Princesses, no other character has had more additions put to her that Cadence. In my original plans, Cadence had a minor role in all of this. She would adopt a bat filly, crush on Shining Armor, and that would be that. Yet as I wrote her scenes down, I found myself wanting to explore new realms for her and showing her to be the true princess of love. Actually spreading love across Equestria rather than just sit in a crystal castle all day. My favorite bit with her thus far has been with the buffalo, trying to peacefully solve their problems while pointing out the flaws in their logic.
Another change was Scootaloo. When I first started writing, I thought about having Scootaloo in the Republic and making her Twilight’s little sister/assistant. For some reason I didn’t and I have been kicking myself ever since. I would have had her go along with Twilight and Shadow, have her meet the CMC, and have them bond like that. I was able to come up with another idea for her, having Twilight and Shadow find her, spend time with her, and then get adopted. I like the way it turned out but I could have been better.
Another thing I wanted to do was to have intermission chapters with Celestia and Luna in the real world. Show how the differences affected them like what caused Celestia to truly open her eyes to what was going on with the bat ponies as well as a scene with Luna trying to take part in politics. It was, however, pointed out to me that it was a good idea but I waited too long to put them in there since they were intended for after Twilight’s stabbing. Maybe I’ll write them as side stories one day.
Well, if you have any more questions feel free to ask in the comments below and I’ll try to answer them as long as there are no spoilers.
What gave you the ideas for all the ethical, political, racial, and criminal scenarios? Or something along those lines, what made you think of them? They're so well-thought-out. From like the conspiracy to the espionage and the politics, to even some religious disputes(I guess). From my thinking of the religious part, there was a lot of persecution against the Lunar ponies and were forced into an exodus. How did you think of this?
Edit: I'm probably saying these things wrong but do you get the idea on what I'm trying to say?
3380729 What gave me the idea for the racial hate against bat ponies was the fact that we never see them except in one episode and a few spots in the comics. I have read several theories and the one I hate the most is that their appearance is simply armor enchantment. I really don't like that for some reason. While I was working on the story, I realized that I needed to figure out bat ponies. Where they came from and how best to describe them. This was hard because of their non encusion in Hearts Warming. Then the idea came to me: mutation. They could be a subspecies of pegasi that were designed to fly at night. And what do older cultures (and even cultures today) do when they find something they don't understand? Try to destroy it.
It also worked for the ponies who were normal yet enjoyed the night. They acted differently. And, like several stories I have read that including witch hunts, anyone who acted differently from the norm was considered unnatural or evil and had to destroyed before they currupted everything.
As for Lunar politics, Demoltion Man and several other movies helped me think of how their culture should work. As I thought of the setting and Luna's character, I realized that she would do whatever it took to protect the whole. Going down harsher than Celestia would have becuase one slip up can spell doom for everyone. That's how I saw it at least.
That's a very broad answer
"It was, however, pointed out to me that it was a good idea but I waited too long to put them in there since they were intended for after Twilight’s stabbing. Maybe I’ll write them as side stories one day."
Couldn't you still write them now but insert them earlier in the story?
3380968 One thing that annoys me with some authors is when they suddenly add chapters in at previous points. It just bothers me and I don't want to do that
3381249
Ah, no problem.
Still, I do hope we'll see something, probably at the end, to lend more presence to the framing device. Currently I think the way it's just kind of... there at the very beginning and nowhere else could possibly be the story's weakest point.
No Gundam Seed reference?
Will the humans be showing up sometime?
it would be cool to see what celestia in the real world did for protecting the batpony, or see the struggles they had to face in history.
Heck, you could make a whole civil rights inspired thing.
My apologies. I said, with the story itself, I would likely not continue reading, but I did end up doing just that; skimming forward mostly. Now that I have, I have a... a strange question. And it could be too personal, so I completely understand if you don't wish to answer. I won't hold it against you at all, promise.
See, definitely up until chapter 30, things came across to me as very one-sided. The Republic was a Utopia with incredible tech and social progress, Equestria was racist, backwards, inferior. The same went for Luna and Celestia, where Luna was smart and Celestia was pretty stupid. However, things turn around after a while. A long while. It's still one-sided, what with Luna's supersoldiers wiping the floor with Celestia's guards for example, but things balance out more.
My question is this, and again, if you don't want to answer, feel free to tell me to go to hell!
Now then: Did you set out for it to go down exactly this way? Or was there a moment where, well, someone pointed this issue out in a convincing way? I ask because the later chapters feel different than the earlier ones. And there were years between those too. It felt like you let yourself cut loose more, whereas during earlier chapters, you didn't want to go the full distance with things like the harsh punishments for fear of being too hard on Luna. Not so later.
4744151
I always intended to go down this road
See, when the story began it was set in Equestria proper. It was hard for me to go into the darker areas of the Republic without breaking the flow of the story. So I settled for waiting to reveal of how bad things could be there.
4744152
Huh. Interesting. You thought it would break the flow of the story?
Truth be told, I'm not sure I agree with this idea, but I understand your reasoning now. That does carry the danger of discouraging some of your readers. I should know, I was one of them.
Did end up giving it an upvote though, after the end.
If not delving deeper in the Republic's darker side, I think I would have liked to have the Equestrians have something in their favour. Even taking everything into account, they were just so outclassed. No tech, no great magic, numbers mean nothing when the other side has weapons of mass destruction, and the Lunar troops even performed better on a skill level despite them having no enemies against which to hone their skills, whereas Equestria does but it didn't help any.
That's really the one thing still bugging me. Celestia and Luna making up was very good, you even handled Blueblood in a complex manner (something I would have never expected, and kudos to you for that!), but the NLR is so much ahead in every field, it loses some emotional impact.
Like I noted in the comments, magic is the field I would have suggested. It would have lended itself very well to the overall themes, what with traditional magics being all stuffy and old-fashioned and the Unicorn nobility being so proud of their sorcerous lineages. It would have worked well considering the canon series too. Twilight is impressed by a time machine being prepared, right? The Canterlot Archives contain time spells.
However, it is and was your story, and it's finished! Just some thoughts, I guess.