Scaleless alterations and deleted scenes. pt. 2

So folk want to know what's gotten cut or altered during the course of 'Friendship is Scaleless' up to now. While no doubt this list is nowhere near complete as I'll no doubt continue to change things as time goes on, hopefully this gives some insight as to how my thought process and reaction to reader commentary works towards producing each chapter:

1. Originally there was going to be a chapter where Seath and Twilight have a session of 'Twilight Time' with the foals of Ponyville, teaching them about the intricacies in making the various magic rings from Dark Souls (which in turn is what the plot point Twilight mentions in Chapter 9 would've foreshadowed). Twilight would make one of the grain rings, using the traditional run-of-the-mill sorceries Seath taught her, while Seath would make one of the bite rings, via the more unpleasant and painful methods hinted at in the Dark Souls lore. They would then present the end results to the foals, demonstrating the abilities of each ring and asking them which they thought justified the means required to make them.

Basically this was meant as both an intimate little heart-to-heart so Seath could meet more of the MLP cast (because I am a complete sucker for those sorts of scenes) and also to showcase the foals' characters. For example, Diamond Tiara per her reformed status, would opt for the grain ring since she's now believes causing pain and suffering is not a justified cost for any sort of advantage. Scootaloo, by contrast, would draw upon her own experience as Fluttershy's daughter, stating that life has its good points and bad points, and that sometimes good can come of the bad, thus she'd believe the bite ring's ability to protect did justify the questionable means of creating it. At the end Twilight and Seath would discuss the foals' reactions and Seath would contemplate about how all of them at least seemed to be okay with what they'd witnessed, leading him to ponder why a bunch of ponies could accept him, warts and all, while almost no one in Lordran could.

Now as you can probably guess, this got 86ed because, well, it sounds really out of character for some of the MLP kids, not to mention their ultimate relevance to the story is still up for debate. In the end, much as I'd have loved to explore it more, I decided it'd just slow the pace down.

2. Seath's first nightmare was originally a lot longer and showcased the actual dialogue exchanged between him, Gwyn, the Witch of Izalith and Gravelord Nito in the Kiln. It'd have given a bit more character to each of the Lord Soul bearers and also hinted that their reasons for accepting Seath's help were tainted with malevolent intent towards him. This got the axe because it'd spoil the impact of Seath later learning the true reason why he was embraced by the gods of Lordran, and also because honestly I didn't want to make it sound like all of his war buddies were a bunch of backstabbing douchebags.

3. There'd have been more flashbacks detailing the Chosen Undead's developing friendship with Sif during her childhood and her time with Ciaran and Artorias. I wanted to basically show just how far she'd fallen, being a member of the nobility who's now been reduced to an undead husk rotting away in a ruined asylum cell, but again, it seemed like pointless filler.

4. As some folk managed to pre-emptively guessed, the Chosen Undead was also originally going to be the one who killed Twilight instead of Manus. Rather than Trixie being the one to witness her arrival in Equestria, Twilight would've been at her bonfire when the Chosen Undead appeared, having just had an argument with Seath (originally she wouldn't have taken his confession about his past as well as she eventually did). The Chosen Undead would've arrived, a short altercation would ensue, and she'd then slay Twilight, believing her to be just another enemy. This would've then lead to Seath turning up and basically break the Chosen Undead's spirit not through violence but just by telling her she'd murdered a living, innocent soul in cold blood, thereby proving she'd become as much of a monster as the soula she was hunting for her quest.

Essentially I wanted to explore what happens when the supposed hero of a story (as the Chosen Undead is meant to be in game) hits rock bottom, realizing they've crossed a line from which there is no going back. What do you do when you discover you've become so used to treating every living being as a threat you automatically attack everything on sight? How do you handle knowing those enemies can actually take the moral high ground against you because you've let yourself slip so far into a rut of violence?

Well, as reader feedback indicated, that was a bridge too far if I'd kept it in. They didn't treat the Chosen Undead's distrust of the Fair Lady well, so I figured going forward with my original plan would've meant that I'd never be able to get anyone to empathize with the Chosen Undead if she indeed ended up killing one of the MLP cast. As such I changed things around and also had to nix the fallout that would've happened afterwards:

5. Instead of attacking the Crystal Empire, Manus would've attacked Canterlot during Twilight's funeral (Celestia having moved Sombra's horn to the vault of her palace to keep a close eye on it). This would be the point where Seath had to reluctantly accept he can't keep running from his problems and that the past will pursue him no matter he goes. As Manus held his own against Celestia and Luna, the dragon would've sprung the Chosen Undead from where she was being held prisoner, giving her a pep talk about finding a means to atone for her sins as he was trying to do the same, and sending her to aid the ponies. He'd then have resurrected Twilight as an undead (thus hinting that he actually knew more about the Darksign curse than he'd let on) and ask her to help him likewise make up for all the bad he'd done. Twilight would initially be horrified, but then come to understand it was neccessary so she could help fight off Manus (the outcome of Manus escaping with Sombra's horn would've remained the same). From here on, Twilight and Seath would've gradually had to rebuild their relationship across their adventures in Lordran.

6. Fluttershy's section in Chapter 26 was originally a lot longer, mostly to detail how her makeshift family set up works with Scootaloo as her daughter, Tree Hugger as an honorary aunt, and Discord as an on/off honorary uncle/occasional father figure.

7. Fluttershy would've run into Witch Beatrice during her hunt for Sif in Chapter 33, who in turn would've fought the stone giants off while Fluttershy treated the wolf's injuries then sacrificed herself so the aforementioned two could escape. Ironically this got as far as the final draft before my muse decided to go with the alternate idea of Alvina showing a kinder side and granting Fluttershy safe passage for her role in saving Sif.

8. Chapter 34 would've originally contained a flashback detailing the Chosen Undead's battle with Smough and Ornstein, focusing mostly on how she mercilessly cut down Smough first as if to get revenge for some wrongdoing he'd enacted against her, before taking a moment to apologize to Ornstein for her brutality and then face him like a respectful warrior. This got nixed because it just echoed of being out of place, not to mention the Chosen Undead's hatred of Smough was already alluded to previously and didn't need to be revisited.

9. Finally the one I alluded to in my previous blog, the battle with Gwyndolin was originally going to end with him being present for the revelation of his murder of Gwynevere, after which Seath, Priscilla and Applejack would argue over who got to punish him...only for Fluttershy to then step in and stab him to death with Priscilla's Dagger, stating her own sin of abandoning Scootaloo at birth and how she could never forgive another soul who'd force a child to grow up without their mother. In hindsight while I might still stick to this as Fluttershy's 'berserk button', I'm actually torn on whether it'd be enough to drive her to kill someone. She strikes me as perhaps the one soul who might actually try to get through the whole ordeal without taking a single life...except that kind of limits what I can do with her from here on. We shall have to see...

Anyway, there's a taste of just how circumstance and you the readers have shaped the progress of my little crossover. No doubt as I keep at it there'll be more changes and adjustments so might do a part 3 somewhere down the line.