Finding Home's first anniversary =D · 11:56am Oct 4th, 2016
Yesterday marked the first anniversary of Finding Home, but somebunny was too busy getting vacation stuff together to post anything about it 
So in celebration I've got… nothing. I've got nothing. Thankfully, Pasu-Chan stepped in with this wonderful drawing 
Aw what the hell, I'll bore y'all by rambling about the story as well. Check out both under the cut (or just the drawing, I’m quite ignorable here but that drawing is totes adorbs)
I came up with the idea for Finding Home before Inner Strength. Actually, I came up with this idea for a trilogy of stories and planned them out in reverse order. Basically, I had come up with the idea for a TwiShySet story with the working title The Fragile, after the Nine Inch Nails album that inspired it. Realized it would need another story to set it all up, so I planned out a prequel story with the working title The Downward Spiral, which is the album NIN did before The Fragile (although the album didn't inspire the story at all). Then realized that would also need a story before it for set up, and so began mapping out Pretty Hate Machine, which again is an earlier NIN album that had no actual influence on the story (at that time). That story became Finding Home, which at that point was going to be the first story in the trilogy (naïve that I was).
When planning out the story, some of Pretty Hate Machine worked into the story, mainly in two ways. One was the general theme of socially unacceptable love (although love more equals sex on the album, but I was hardly going for an accurate adaption). The other was the first scene that I specifically had mapped out in my head: Fluttershy finding Sunset drunk after the kiss with Twilight. At that point, drunk Sunset was supposed to directly flirt with Fluttershy, inspired by the song The Only Time (opening lyrics: I'm drunk, and right now I'm so in love with you. And I don't want to think too much about what we should or shouldn't do). That obviously got changed when I planned out more of the story. It seemed amusing enough at the time, but really I wanted Sunset to be nothing but respectful of Twi and Shy's relationship (barring the single moment of weakness).
Another way the story differed from its original plan was the entire third act. The whole Spike thing wasn't going to happen. Twilight Velvet and Night Light were still going to disapprove, but one night while trying to figure out how to make Act III more interesting I was like, ‘what if they took Spike?’ then immediately told myself, ‘no, it is far too evil, even for me’ then I decided, ‘that is exactly why I must.’ It worked super well because I had coincidentally worked in several places with Spike as a prominent role, and even made a point of having him be close with all three of them. Unfortunately, some things got lost in the transition. I’ll never be happy with Sunset’s magical cure of her alcoholism (she was initially supposed to be shown struggling with it more, but the Spike arc just took over all the screen time), Twilight’s jealousy once again got downplayed (I always really wanted it to be a big part of her pre-marriage love life, but I’ve blown every chance to do it right by now), and they were supposed to have more regular poly problems – figuring out how work as a triad relationship, figuring out how to add someone new to something that was already so close and intimate, Fluttershy was supposed to have second thoughts when she realized Twilight was in love with Sunset (meanwhile she always liked seeing the two of them be affectionate with each other), Twilight was supposed to have issues seeing Fluttershy being affectionate with Sunset (meanwhile she was thrilled to learn Fluttershy was developing feelings for Sunset), etc. So much stuff I wanted to explore fell to the side that I honestly still kind of regret it, but whatevs. I doubt I’ll ever be perfectly happy with anything I write.
Something else I’m unhappy with is Amber. I probably shouldn’t point this out (lol it’s probably better if no one ever realizes) but Amber is actually pointless to the story. She was supposed to play into Twilight’s jealousy early on as a way of foreshadowing her problems she would experience with polyamory, but that got cut so it wound up being a rehash of Inner Strength (and neither time did I really do a good job handling Twilight’s insecurity towards Amber).Obviously, she’s integral to the Amber-Luna subplot, but remove that and the rest of the story is one hundred percent unchanged. Luna manages to be part of her own subplot with Amber while also being an important part of the main relationship story. Amber was the catalyst for Sunset returning to Ponyville, but that could have been anything really. She allowed Twilight to voice her concerns about the wedding, but that could have been handled with Cadance (and maybe even should have been, in retrospect). All in all, I kinda feel like I threw her in the story just to have my OC there somewhere 
Random trivia:
The name came about because Dessert had finished the cover art and was like “What’s it called so I can add a name to the picture?” and I was like ‘...fuck, a name, I need one of those.’ So I googled a bunch of quotes to try and be inspired by one. I knew I wanted ‘home’ to be a major theme, and at one point I was googling ‘quotes about finding home’ and not finding anything good when I just looked into the search bar and was like ‘Why not that?’ Then I was like, ‘no way in hell, that’s too damn cheesy.’ Then I searched more, gave up, and went with that anyway. I actually really like the name now (unlike the name Inner Strength, which I’ll always loathe entirely).
Inner Strength has hints towards polyamory and TwiShySet in it. Concerning Fluttershy, Pinkie tells Twilight that you can love more than one pony but Twilight just shrugs it off as a weird Pinkie thing. Sunset was always written as having a huge crush on Twi, with her going from complaining about her horrible date to telling Twilight that she felt better just from talking to her, and later she tells Fluttershy how Twilight was the best thing that ever happened to her. And the ending of the last actual chapter: “As they leaned on each other watching the sun set, Fluttershy knew she was right where she wanted to be.”
The word ‘home’ is used somewhere in every chapter of Finding Home. There’s no real purpose behind this. I noticed a few chapters in that I had used the word in each chapter, then I started doing it on purpose. The last chapter in each act has the word ‘home’ in the title (Homecoming, Houses and Homes, and Home)
There are hints towards a story arc in Sunshyne's past throughout most of my stories, a fair amount of which are in Finding Home. So far three people have figured it out (out of people who have come forward with guesses). It's a pretty major part of why they got together so fast and broke apart so roughly. It's also kinda dark af.
Anyway, I’m supposed to be asleep so I think I’ll be done rambling for now. Cookies for anyone who actually read this entire thing.
Well first lemme tell you congrats to reach this point
I understand how you feel about Amber and the points that didn't go according to how you imagined them, however its something that happens often and still you came up with worthy substitutes
and regarding Amber I think that even if her role was minor she still gave a good contribution to the plot 
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Thanks
Yeah, that was sort of something I learned while writing Finding Home. I could work in everything I want into a story, if I'm okay with telling a single story forever. So I do kinda regret the missed chances, but I'm not exactly torn up over it
Lol if she can't manage to be important in In Pieces, then I've just failed her completely. She's literally the main character
And also you could consider making some side stories in the future when you'll be done with the ones you got in program already ;)
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Hopefully I'll be done in like five or six years, and by that point I'll probably be done with the series completely.
Lol after I'm done
I mean... I have like twelve novel length stories planned
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Oh
Twelve...I didn't think they that many.
O.o twelve stories! Some bun is motivated, well I can only encourage you
Happy anniversary! And many happy returns!
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Somewhere around there, anyway ^^' The scary part? I haven't planned all the way to the end, so it could be more
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Thank you
4239845 Oh man O.O
Always like reading behind-the-scenes things like this. It's strangely fun to see the processes that people go through when they're planning these things out. And congrats on the anniversary!
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Yeah, I figure that when the end comes you'll either drop from exhaustion (satisfied, perhaps, but still exhausted) or realize that you had another idea you wanted to write about but forgot to add in and just straight up rage quit. Or, with luck, everything will go exactly as planned and wrap up nicely with no unnecessary stress or complications. But you already know my opinion on trusting the universe to let that happen.
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If I somehow manage to finish everything I want to write about at the end of all this, then it's more than the universe allowing such things. Quite simply, it would be enough to make me take up religion
Personally, I think the exhaustion and rage quit are both going to happen. Essentially, it'll be a moment of 'fuck it, I'm done and there is no more!' Only time will tell if I stick to that
So do I get cookies then? - The Shipshelf
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Of course, I'm an honest bun
Chocolate chip peanut butter please?
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It's peanut butter as far as I know
Lol I couldn't find anything more specific4244189 It's beautiful