Sombra's Revenge: Author's Notes

Warning! Spoilers!!! Do not read unless you have read BOTH endings of Sombra's Revenge, or do not care to do so!!!

Well then, that certainly was a journey, wasn't it? Firstly I would like to thank all of you who read the story for making this a reality. When I first posted the story, I thought for sure that it would be downvoted into oblivion due to its weird writing style and story telling. But the overwhelming positive feedback that I've received from you all has been incredible and I couldn't be happier with how things ended. It means the world to me. So thank you to everyone who read the story, every single one of you that commented and shared your feedback/thoughts, to my editors and pre-readers. Thank you so much.

Now, then. I'm sure you all are rather curious about certain aspects of the story. Or maybe not. Perhaps I'm just writing this for myself. Anyways, I always enjoy seeing an author's thoughts on their own stories, and so for any of you out there who are like me, I'm posting this for you.

Origins

Two years ago I was in the mood to do some writing, but I simply had no ideas. I wanted to take a break from my other story Tending the Tree (shameless plug) and so in order to brainstorm ideas, I wrote down the name of every single tag and character on a sheet of paper, and started picking groups of three at random, and then coming up with a basic story idea which I wrote down in a notebook. I'll admit, many of these ideas were very... special but one which caught my interest in particular were the three I chose: Spike, King Sombra, Dark. I believe I wrote down 'Sombra returns. Haunts Spike. Darkness and torture super evil. Romanticism? Frankenstein.' or something along those lines and then began work the following night on the story you all know.

Creation
Every single chapter you've read thus far has been imagined and then reimagined dozens of times with the exception of the third nightmare scene involving the doctor, and the scene following this which involved Spike going crazy and running into town. Those I knew I wanted to do from the very beginning. Everything else, however, has been written on a pair of two whiteboards over and over again and then deviated from those plans almost immediately. It's a fun process, and my favorite part is the influence from all of you which has also shaped my writing. One of you brought up Luna, whom I had completely forgotten about, and most of you at one point gave at least a brief opinion on how it might end. Every comment you have written I have thoroughly analyzed, and many have made it through into the story itself if you do some digging.

Ending
My greatest issue from the beginning was how to end the story? How to beat an unbeatable threat? I could have Luna swoop in and simply blast Sombra into a million pieces, or have Spike find the 'friendship' within his soul, but both of those seemed over done and more like the ending of an after school special. Many of you had commented on how you enjoyed seeing Spike tortured and wondered yourselves if there was anything that could be done. But I'm also a sucker for happy endings. So then: what to do? Well, to be honest, last week it hit me: two endings. One where Spike was doomed, one where he was saved, so that, hopefully everyone is happy. I felt however, killing Spike was far too easy of a solution. And at many points, that was what he had wanted. Thus, the final horrible thing which he experienced was killing his best friend, Twilight Sparkle. In regards to what happened to Luna, whether Celestia beats Sombra, or if the psychiatrist ever gets paid; that's up to you. I've played my part.

I really worry about the Light Epilogue and Ending, I'll be honest. At times they were a little sappy, and I worried that it might dilute the story, but I think I wrote around it and gave it the best possible conclusion possible. Of course if you don't like it, you can just think of a different ending for yourself. I realize my endings probably didn't please everyone. The Dark Ending could have been longer, but it needed to be short to show the true shocking nature of what Spike had just done.

Symbolism and References
As some of you probably noticed there was a ton of symbolism throughout the whole story, and I'll address a few of them here and then later on in the comments:

Four Elements: Each torture scene involving Spike involved one of four main elements in order to symbolize the way he was tortured on every level imaginable: emotional, physical, mental, and metaphysical. Water in the drowning scene, Wind in the scene where Spike is cut apart by the glass, Fire in the scene where 'fire' coursed through his veins because of the mad doctor, and finally Earth as he was buried alive. All of this was planned from the beginning and I'm very pleased with the way it was executed.

Silence: This is an interesting one. At times, it involved death with the antithesis in the prologue involving the 'loud' happiness of the ponies which blinds Sombra, but is then silenced by his roar. Throughout the story, I feel silence is best symbolized as the powerful influence / presence of Sombra.

In regards to references, these mainly took place in the final chapters and for the most part in The Dark Ending. There were some biblical allusions with references to the Valley of Death and then immediately following it something from Jobs 10:15 I believe. The Dark Ending of course ends with a poem of my own creation partly intertwined with the song A Boy and A Girl by Eric Whitacre and lyrics by Octavio Paz. It's a brilliant song and he is an amazing composer and I recommend you check him out. The lines which I borrowed are as follows:

Stretched out
Stretched out underground
A boy
And a Girl
Saying nothing. Never kissing.
Giving Silence. For Silence.
(Hums)

I obviously changed a few lines but I encourage that you all check it out. Now then! I'm afraid I must hurry off, but I will be happy to answer any questions which you have in the comments later on and I will also add further detail in them when I have the time. I'm interested to know what you all thought about the story, and these post-notes in general. I hope that you found them informative and interesting and thank you once again for taking the time to read my story.