900 Followers! AMA And Some More Random Blather! · 10:04pm Apr 25th, 2016
900 followers! 
It's official. I've finally become too big for my own good.
Firstly: this blog post is mainly an opportunity to ask me a question. Any sort of question. Then I'll try to answer it as sarcastically as possible. I'll also be celebrating this milestone later tonight, so my answers should slowly become more and more blurry and slurred.
So ask away! 
Secondly: some more random blather.
I've had an odd amount of fun writing over the last few weeks. I've tried my hand at a lot of various stories to different amount of success. I've also realized a few things during that time.
1. Stories I write mainly for myself or for my hardcore fans tend to do the best.
"Celestia's Arch Enemy" was written basically because I was in a bad mood after another story of mine fell right on its face. "Anyone You Want Me To Be" was written right after that one and was written just for myself -- no one will read it, but that's fine. I like it enough. Obviously, I was wrong.
Then came "101 Discord Facts" just the other day. I wrote that one then hesitated posting. It was too weird and would probably flop. I even tried writing a second story to release at the same time, incase it did really bad. Obviously, I was wrong again.
"Pony Break" was for me and that one did well. "Old House" was for me and did fine enough for a dark/gore/horror story.
What does this mean, exactly? Keep writing whatever the hell I feel like and see what sticks. Having said that...
2. Stories not for myself sort of suck.
After the overblown Ember-love-fest-of-2016, I sort of became jealous of others' success. There were three "Ember Clop" stories in the feature box by the same author (that should've been one story) and due to this, my story "Undead Twilight" was left out of the box. (It got that little flame icon thing and was visible in the box with the mature filters off.)
So what do I do in response? Continue to write stories that I enjoy and try to ignore it? No. I ended up writing a very meta story about Ember being too popular. It's... okay, I guess. But not nearly my best. Same goes for that "Applejack Costume" story. Perhaps I thought anything with a SEX tag would get noticed.
So what does this all mean? I guess not to try jumping on bandwagons just because. This time of year becomes sort of annoying for me. The show's back on and every Sunday, you can always count on the latest episode to show up in the feature box no matter what.
Too bad I usually work Saturdays and can't watch the episode until later... 
3. No more story pitches!
I was thinking of including my giant list of stories I've been thinking of doing on this blog post, but decided against it. Literally every time I've mentioned a story on here, it's either done terribly or never saw the light of day. It seems my best stories come right out of the blue and attack the reader without warning. 
I might still make random blogs to brainstorm or PM or email others about ideas, but I doubt I'll list a ton of story ideas here.
Anywho, I think that's about it. Just making a blog post for number 900. That means there's only one last milestone left. How sad. 
So ask me a question if you want!
Are you going to write a story to celebrate this occasion? ~hug
I read it, actually. It's just one of those stories that it's really hard to say anything about.
You've also honestly been doing a lot of one-shots recently, except for Bad Dude, and those always kind of come and go in a flash. There's a reason there are some authors with like 150 one-shots here that nobody pays attention to. It's the kind of thing you pick up and then instantly forget about again, even if it's good. There are just too many of them.
Your stories are in a strange condition, I feel like you are holding back the cynicism and nihilistic point of view in your stories.
Personally I love your writing style and would prefer if you didn't hold anything back. I love black comedy and in my opinion comedy should mock our desperation, struggle and pain in order to make life more tolerable rather than make us forget our problems.
Are you going to write a story where you go full cynical and demonstrate brutal dark humor ?
What fic on the site do you feel has the worst 'deserves attention : gets attention' ratio? (as in, is very good but is very unknown)
What fic on the site do you feel is the opposite, as in it is not that good but everyone knows it?
3896171 What would be a good example of "full cynical and brutal dark humor"?
3896143 I sort of decided to focus on either "Bad Dude" or just one-shots at the moment. "Bad Dude" is huge enough that there's a lot of interesting things to do -- there's also enough of an audience still that has an interest with it.
I like multi-chapter stories, but (for myself, at least) they are very hit and miss. In the past, I've become too invested in a larger story, only for said story to crash and burn, even if I had several more ideas for it.
One-shots are safer in that respect. If they do good, then that's it. If they do bad, then that's just it. I wouldn't mind trying some shorter novella stories (10 - 20k), but would have to have the outline completed before I began. Basically to make sure I actually finished it. I have a couple of ideas that size right now.
Actually, some of the biggest authors on this site have over a hundred different stories. Some one-shots, some longer. Some of the biggest authors are also only known for only a single continuous work. At the moment, I'm trying my hand at a whole bunch of genres... to various success.
I just really don't want to get a nickname here: "That 2nd person dude", or "That pony butt guy".
3896117 Highly doubtful.
3896229 Rick and morty is the best example. That show achieves that without much graphical content, destroys happy ignorant people like Jerry, mocks everything, in each show it demonstrates the meaningless of human life and that we dont matter.
In one episode Rick and Morty bury their own boddies, in other one rick mathematically proves to his grandchildren that both of them are useless, attention hungery, little shits.
3896213 Sadly, I don't read enough stories on this site to have much of an opinion -- especially for stories with low views. I look at the feature box and popular list just like everyone.
"Secrets of a Royal Guard" and that entire series is pretty good. It's still pretty popular, I guess. Considering the main character's an OC. Hmm. So maybe that's not the greatest example.
Stories that don't deserve the love they get? You trying to get people to hate me?
"Princess Celestia is in your bed". Thousands of likes and views. Thought this must be great! Read it and waited for something good to happen. Nope. Celestia just sits in your bed and tells you not to worry. Then you join her on the bed. Breathtaking. What makes it worse is that I did a "side sequel" to that story for a contest, and when it was reviewed they said my story suffered from lack of plot. Even if mine had a whole pony/Earth conquering conspiracy to it.
"Bride of Discord" was a story that got me into fan fiction. But looking back, it's basically fluff and scenes lifted directly from Disney movies. The absurd popularity of it over youtube doesn't help either. That, and I'm horrifically jealous of its success. I did like the sequel, though.
The sequel to "Hard Reset". Loved the first one (besides the random Twilight lesbian plot). Couldn't get into the second.
3896267 Oh, wow.
That really sounds like my cup of Tim Hortons. I'm still not sure if that's my real sense of humor, though. Mine seems to be either goofy or dark or a combination of both. I don't think I'm intelligent enough to deconstruct life as we know it through comedy.
3896229
LordBrony, right? Yeah, that guy has a bit of a fixation.
And honestly, you've already kind of got a bit of a reputation as "the guy with all the grimdark twists." Hell, you even play to it at times. Is that really such a big deal?
I guess something that kind of doesn't strike me as too healthy about that attitude is that, while writing for your audience is a commendable thing and definitely something that too many writers here tend to lose sight of at times, you should also be writing for yourself. You shouldn't just write what you think will be successful, you should also write what you enjoy and what you think is a story that needs telling. Only writing to other people's expectations is ultimately a recipe for frustrating both yourself and your readers. If you only churn it out for the effect then you won't enjoy it - and soon your readers won't, either.
That's not really in anyone's interest.
3896278 The idea of systemical, philosphical and socialogical deconstruction of ponies happy, utopian and carefree society of ponies would be a great concept but it requires not to be to deep and it also requires to be funny, clever and sacrastic which is very hard to simulate.
Like this one.
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3896288 Well, as I said in the blog post, the stories I wrote mostly for myself ended up doing the best than the ones I felt I was doing for other reasons. Honestly, I've been writing more for myself than anyone lately. If I feel like writing something weird or dark or funny or human, then I do it. Some people like it and some don't.
The worst things I used to do was continue stuff for no reason, other than I thought people would read it. Those two "Unmotivated" sequels. All that extra "Twilight Clones" crap. Don't hate the stuff, but it's definitely not my best. That's why I'm sticking to shorter pieces that won't eat up all of my time.
And, no, it's not bad being the "grimdark twist dude".
Still better than being "That shitty mc-fuck-face that can't write! Why is he still here? Oh, gawd! He makes me so mad just by existing! Can you believe this is my nickname for him? I fucking hate him that much, I tell you what!"
On a side note: wouldn't it be insane if Pen Stroke's secret account was Bendy?
3896309
Was this show made for kids or adults?
Here's my question for you:
Do you like waffles?
45.media.tumblr.com/7acb19f873920b9532ff815927089168/tumblr_o603lmUu8N1thsrlto1_1280.gif
Just kidding. My actual question was:
I've noticed that you have King Sombra as your icon. Does that mean that Sombra's your most favorite MLP villain? If so or if not, what do you like about him the most?
3896336 adults, I am surprised that you don't know it. It is considered best animated series at the moment.
3896326
Well, so long as you keep that in mind. It doesn't sound like it sometimes. You seem spend a lot of time worrying about how much people are going to like this or that or whatever lately.
Pen Stroke is one of those completely overrated guys, if you ask me. I thought Past Sins was horrible and I can never quite figure out why people love it so much. I genuinely like Bendy, though. I mean, not really for the stories, I don't really read those, but as a person, he seems like a decent guy. He knows he writes crap, but he doesn't care, because it's just for the fun of it anyway. Fun to talk to.
3896351 I haven't read anything by Pen Stroke, I just know he's the biggest around.
It's weird with Bendy. I've only skimmed a few of his stories and they are all sort of the same, but that's what sort of makes Bendy as a person all the better. He has fun with his clop and doesn't give a shit what anyone thinks. He knows clopping to ponies is weird enough, so he goes the extra mile with it.
He is probably the only clop author on this site that I respect. For odd reasons.
3896342 The last animated series I watched was "Bojack Horseman" (good) and "F is for Family" (meh).
3896338 Yes, King Sombra is my favorite villain. In my first story on this site, I basically used him as my own personal villain because he had next to no character of his own. So that meant I could write him however I wanted and not be called out on it.
After that, I used him again for some comedies and have come to love the crazy bastard. As people have told me in "Unmotivated", he can somehow be cute, adorable, annoying, funny, terrible, and disgusting all at once!
1. If you had 10 crystal pony slaves to do your bidding:
a) How would you stable and feed them?
b) How would you select which of them to groom on a daily basis?
c) What would your strategy be for organizing their time?
2. Chrysalis, or Chrysalis disguised as Celestia?
3. Favorite villain? Why? (Doesn't have to be MLP-related)
4. What percentage of Nightmare Moon's caloric intake was pony meat? Overall energy equivalent? (Your answer must be in British Thermal Units).
3896383
And I can't for the life of me imagine why. You're really not missing much.
I think Bendy is funny because I can't honestly read his stuff and even properly think porn. Like, it just really isn't. The stuff is more of a joke on horrible fetishy clop stories than anything. I mean, what else can you call a story about a Godzilla-sized hermaphrodize Celestia literally fucking the Conversion Bureau shield to death? It sure as hell isn't seriously meant to turn on anyone. Dude basically writes nothing but trollfics. Like anonpencil, but not as gross.
3896342 3896383 I concur with flufflyunicorns on this one. Go watch Rick and Morty. Right now it’s in a hiatus until the end of this year, so there’s plenty of time to catch up with the two seasons so far.
What's your favorite shape?
3896351
I read the summary of "Past Sins" and didn't find it that interesting, but I did try out the Moonshine series ("Drop of Moonshine" and "A Mug of Hard Cider") and liked those two.
3896484 Triangle. Because they're very a-cute.
3896444 Any other animated show suggestions?
Gravity Falls I heard is pretty good.
3896417
Speak for yourself. Almost as hot as President Lincoln in Space porn. Hard to find. Harder to resist.
3896415 1. Hole them up in a cheap apartment close to my condo. Two of them get grooming each day. There will a chore wheel set in place. Tasks will change daily. Each of them will be called, "Hey, you!" Depending on how loud I say their names, they will understand who I am speaking with.
2. Chrysalis as Celestia. Stupid yet cute for some reason.
3. Three of my favorite villains also won best supporting actor oscars three years in a row:
1. The Joker, "The Dark Knight"
2. Anton Chigurh, "No Country For Old Men"
3. Col. Hans Landa, "Inglourious Basterds"
They all portrayed different ways of being evil. Either because they simply wanted to. Or it was a part of their code. Or because of duties to their home land.
4. Why are your questions so hard to answer? Where are the "Do you like cats or dogs better?" questions?
3896213
If there's one overrated story I can think of, it would be Would It Matter If I Was?
Ooh! Ooh! I have a question: What was your inspiration to write a sequel to Bad Dude, even though you've had other stories that have done way better?
3896553
What an obtuse pun
What's your favorite Monty Python gag?
3896553
Someone's got to keep you on your toes ...
3896596 1. What is your fav color from Holy Grail.
2. Self defense with fruit.
That might be all I've seen besides the other films...
3896588 Sarcasm, I hope?
Bad Dude is the sequel to my biggest story. By a lot.
Any sort of question? Mwahahahaaa! {Ahem}, I mean, okay...
1. Who would win in a staring contest between Uatu the Watcher and Heimdall ?
2. If the best things in life are free, but there's no such thing as a free lunch, and the only two things that money can't buy, are true love and home-grown tomatoes, should I resort to cannibalism if my significant other dies?
3. If you enjoy wasting time, is that time really wasted?
4. Is it true cannibals don't eat clowns because they taste funny?
5. Why does your nose run and your feet smell?
6. Why do we park on the driveway and drive on the parkway?
7. If olive oil is made from olives, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, what is baby oil made from?
8. What should you call a male ladybird beetle?
9. Why is it called a building, when it is already built?
10. Can you get cornered in a round room?
11. You're floating in space, suspended inside a perfect sphere that is mirrored on the inside. You have a flashlight, you turn it on. What do you see?
Congrats my friend on 900 followers!
You work really hard and deserve some applause. Just keep staying true to yourself and following your own path. 
Looking forward to what you come up with next!
3896633
Is that a question? I don't understand the question.
I would recommend you write more darkfics. Don't get me wrong, your comedies are also great, but there are tons of good comedy authors on Fimfic and scant few who excel at the macabre. You are one of those few.
I also think you'd totally love Rick and Morty. It's probably the best dark comedy show I've ever seen.
3896553
This is gonna take a while to write…
Steven Universe (I’ll try to keep this non-spoilery), though its schedule is notoriously erratic, with new episodes occasionally coming from ‘Stevenbombs’, i.e. five new episodes on five consecutive weekdays. Sometimes we do get weekly, ordinarily-scheduled episodes.
Doesn’t make it any less of an amazing show though. To provide some background, Gems (space-colonising society!), which are very human-like humanoids but are actually just physical projections from their gemstones (which are formed on some part of their body), can summon weapons from their gemstone, and have unique abilities to boot.
It’s mainly a slice-of-life type of show, and focuses on the lives of Steven (the main character), a Gem-human hybrid, and the Crystal Gems, a small group of Gems whose role is to protect Earth. However, in many episodes we do get some nice world-building and backstory regarding the Crystal Gems and Gem society in general (some of which are borderline scary), like the history of the Crystal Gems (who originally rebelled against the colonising Gem society to protect Earth from being mined to oblivion), and the austerity of the caste system in Gem society. Though there’s many theories being made for the plethora of stuff that are yet to be revealed, and the symbolism of various aspects of Steven Universe.
As for Gravity Falls, although I haven’t watched the show, but I’ve heard nothing but good things about it, so I reckon you should check that out too.
Finally, there’s Over the Garden Wall, which is a ten-episode series, with each episode being ten minutes long like Steven Universe. It’s about two boys (and later on a frog and a talking bluebird) who are stranded in a mysterious forest, and trek their way through it to try and find their way home, with each episode focussing on some eccentric place they find along the way. Sorta like a dark fairytale, with the dark part coming near the end (I won’t reveal any more than that).
—
As a sidenote, I’d like to mention DerpyNews and YayPonies, which is how I get MLP:FiM and Steven Universe (albeit illegally) here in NZ.
3896633 Oh, yeah, you're right. My bad. It was a stupid question anyways, you should be able to write what you want.
3896553 You haven't seen Gravity Falls? It's the best show EVER!
How did you get over the hump of first becoming a writer?
The hump of "Oh god why is this so bad"? I have enough taste to recognize what is good, but I don't have the skill to write well yet... I only see my own works as full of flaws I don't know how to fix.
3896710 Steven Universe has quite the crazy fans... from what I hear.
Not that MLP doesn't.
3896671 Oh, god. Was there a website with these questions on it?
Please have mercy.
3896783 From Tumblr, you mean?
3896767 The want to tell a story more for yourself than others, basically. My first story was purely for myself. After that, I learned what worked and what didn't to the general public, but always keeping it my type of story. It takes time. But you figure it out.
Which one of Sombra's lines is your favorite?
Are you going to write anything starring Starlight?
I find the lack of Starlight Glimmer on this site disturbing
Are you going to write more Twicord? Not my home sweet home is one of my favorite stories.
That is one of the best stories containing Discord and a romance tag, aside from Magical Mystery Oops.
Have you ever thought of writing a story that takes place in the EQG universe, or any other universe with humanized ponies? Not my home sweet home and some other stories I read on this site show that the concept of ponies living in the modern world can be quite interesting, however, most of this stories don't have Discord in it, let alone starring Discord and Sunset as the main characters, which I think will be quite interesting.
Will there ever be a human in Equestria story?
And if it's not as good as Sombra the Highly Unmotivated, could you not?
3896269
''Bride of Discord'' was the story that got me into fan fiction too
but now that I think of it, it wasn't really that good, DisneyFanatic2364 has written something better ever since, like ''Precious Blood'', but somehow it is ''Bride of Discord'' that got very popular, c'est la vie.
That Twilight being a lesbian part in ''Hard Reset'' really disturbs me either. It is the major reason why I can't really love that story
Perhaps you can take some time to read Magical Mystery Oops and Chaotic Neutral
They are both very good fic imo
3897175 I do have "Magical Mystery Oops" on my read it later list. I'm just very slow at reading things...
3897167 I generally don't like HIE stories because of how many of them are on this site. Also, because of the randomness of their success. One with get 16 dislikes and 2 likes and another will be featured with 2000 likes, even if their plot is basically the same.
"Unmotivated" wasn't supposed to be a HIE until it became one. So... you never know. If I think of something really, really different then I might give it a chance. You never know!
3897161 I doubt I'd do any EQG stories. You're kinda stuck in a highschool and with teenagers, so you can't get all that dark. Also, I've only seen the first movie. And it was "fine."
I actually enjoy throwing ponies into the regular world -- perhaps years later when everyone's become used to it. "Home Sweet Home", "Unmotivated", and "Popular Ember" are sort of like that. No one makes a big deal about ponies, dragons, or dragonequus hanging around. It's sort of like a big mixed city.
If I could think of something else, I would. I'd have to watch the Glimmer episodes again. She didn't seem all that interesting the first time around. Although she will be popping in "Bad Dude" pretty soon.
3896892 From "Unmotivated": "I'm your friend. I'm your pal. I'm your bro, Steve. I'm your Som-bro."
I know King Sombra has been your favorite villain historically, but lately it seems like you're writing more Discord than Sombra, so I wonder if that is still the case. What I find interesting is you tend to write a lighter-hearted, comedic Sombra, but a much darker, scarier Discord than most, to the point where I wonder who is the more the "villain" of the two of them. What's your opinion on this?
3898135 That's an interesting thought that I hadn't realized before. Sombra the lighthearted and Discord the terrible. Some of that might have to do with subverting expectations. Readers expect Sombra to be all terrible and evil and I take it upon myself to try the opposite of that. (Besides "Strings" and "Dinner with the King".) Readers also enjoy the "toothless" version of Discord that's all laughs and fun, but don't realize how awesome a dark character he could be.
As for writing more Discord lately, it might all be because I've exhausted all my Sombra ideas. Sombra you always need to bring back from the dead before you can begin. Discord's just THERE right from the getgo.
Who "can" be the more villainous? Discord, clearly. Sombra would be happy with his Empire and slaves. Discord could control the world and become bored and accidentally burn it down. Then he'd recreate it and start anew. Discord's terrifying, man!
3898209
What do you mean "could?" Look around Equestria, at all the vaguely terrifying and ridiculous monsters and geography. This is probably Discord's fourth or fifth playthrough.
3898223 Skyrim should have a cheatcode called "DISCORD MODE". It's basically all the cheats on at once.
3898268 I dunno, the one before it in the series gave Discord his own demiplane in a DLC, I'd say he's gotten quite enough out of Bethesda.
3896783 Some I had heard over the years, but #1 is mine and #11 is from a rather famous sci-fi author, whom I know through another famous sci-fi author who is in my WoW guild.