It's BAAACK! · 12:44am Nov 18th, 2016
THERE ARE SPOILERS BELOW FOR LAST BRONY GETS HIS WISH.
It has been three years.
That's like… 1095 days (ish), 156 weeks, or 37 moons for you Lunar Republic people. Now, you might be thinking: 'You bastard, Red. How could you forget all about the bestest fic ever!? For three whole years!?'
Well I am here to tell you, yes you, that I haven't forgotten it at all. On the contrary, it has been in the back of my mind, nagging at me for the past THREE YEARS. Have you ever left something important unfinished uncontinued for 3 years? It SUCKS. For all that time I've been thinking about it, thinking I'm such a bastard for not working on it. I still think about it, because it's not finished.
Why did it take so long? Pft. Idk, pick your choice of typical writers' excuses: real life, work, writer's block, the economy, a tiny leprechaun who lives in my boot. What it really comes down to is that I didn't like anything I wrote for it. I didn't like any of the ideas. It seems like a simple plot point to push. But how I handled the party and the transition to the second half, and the second half itself, geez, I hated literally anything I came up with. I mean, don't forget that the story has a sort of a tone and a style to it… regardless of how poorly I actually execute those, I still have to try.
To be perfectly honest, I'm not 100% happy with this chapter. But then again, I don't think I would ever be 100% happy with anything more I write for this story. In the beginning, the words flowed so easily, now I find myself second-guessing every nuance about it. I like this chapter, and I suppose that has to be enough.
Now I know, I'm probably not taking the story entirely in the direction you might've expected / wanted. But rest assured, despite how many revisions this chapter has had, and despite any improvising in previous chapters, this is actually where I wanted to take the story from the very beginning.
The library's bathroom, if one even exists, is something that we've never seen in show canon. I like to think, as Dane put it, that a bathroom would've been an afterthought, the library being probably old enough that indoor plumbing wasn't a 'thing' when it was carved out of the tree. So I place the bathroom at the landing atop the stairs, between the 1st and 2nd floors. If you pay attention, you'll notice that the stairs are wide open in the 1st floor, but stop at a landing and turn. Viewing from the second floor, the stairwell is a narrow passage, not open to the 1st floor.
I still run on the notion that they use squat toilets. I like the idea that such an old bathroom would not have a shower, only a bathtub. I'm sure showers exist there, but just as, say, in the 1920's or so in America, they were just starting to make an appearance in typical homes.
The bottle of sleeping pills are on the table for whatever reasons you like. Maybe Twilight anticipated sleeplessness because of her recent psychological trauma. To me, they are a reminder of the earliest version of this chapter, which had Twilight actually suicidal, and Dane struggling to stop her. Yeah that version got really weird, really fast, like even weirder than just that. There was magic involved, and like, friendship rainbows and… yeah, I rewrote that for a good reason.
“She had studied the universe all her life, but had overlooked its clearest message: For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.”
― Carl Sagan, Contact
Oh look, a quote from a famous author to make it look like I'm a legitimate literary person. Honestly I haven't read many books in my life, and Contact was not one of them. But I did stumble across the quote on PaintSplotch's page. This was way after I'd already formulated the idea that Twilight is mentally (and physically) shaken by the idea of the multiverse being so big. But the quote just seems to mesh so well with that idea, that I had to mention it here!
I imagine that several of you, my loyal readers, might not feel the same way. Perhaps the whole topic would be easily shrugged off by Twilight. But I don't share that opinion. I think Twilight is not exactly a philosopher, but she is a scientist, and I think that… understanding, really, really understanding, one's miniscule place in not just our universe, but in the entirety of all the infinite diversions of our universe… is scary as fuck. I mean, I comprehend the concept myself, I like to think that I have my head wrapped around it. But in all honesty, if I was actually witnessing an alternate universe's version of myself with a moustache, I think I would lose it. I really do. I think witnessing something like that would break me. And if you don't feel that way, that's fine. Plus not too much of the story will focus on that.
The moustache thing was another very old concept of mine. Dane telling the story of his own mental breakdown as a sort of fairy tale was a fairly new idea. But he was always going to share it with Twilight. Dane's mental breakdown was actually mentioned in a previous chapter, I forget which, because it was a million years ago.
Here's hoping the next update will be less than three years from now!
WOO! Out of the blue, here comes a new chapter! YAY!
... I'm gonna have to reread the whole thing, as I am sure I've forgotten half of it. Which is sort of exciting!
4307028 Ah, well that is precisely why I have recaps on every new chapter. This one I did roughly summarize the entire story, since it's been so long. But re-reading is still awesome.
4307104
Oh my god... did my insistent messaging actually work? I can't believe that a story I've been following for years suddenly went from hiatus to continued...
4307199 You and a couple other people. tbh, it works.
Money is a good motivation tool perhaps we need to pay the author to encourage new chapters.
-You, probably.
But seriously though it's good to see you writing again and strangely I needed no recap.
4307234 I like money.
4307771 dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/37540750/_ponies/starlight%20triggered.gif
lol jk that was actually a REALLY good burn!
4308346 I got more for delayed releases. The one I like throwing at dead fics the most is
mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/rsz/mlfw10401_medium.jpg
I've thrown it on a few fics I REALLY want to update.
I don't really have a leg to stand on for stuff not updating myself. I think all my stuff is either completed or hiatus right now. So I know where you're coming from on wanting to update the story.
I once stuck around for eighteen years while someone was finishing the first chapter of their story. (In webcomic form, but still. Eighteen. Years.)
I can wait a little longer for the next chapter of this one, but please don't take another three years.
4308606 I'll try
4309630 Don't worry about it that much. The story being finished sometime before I'm dead will be fine. (And for the record I'm in reasonably good health other than getting slightly too much salt.)
So, sometime before 2070, yeah?
Oooo yay more crotchety old dude fiction! Can't believe I waited 3 years to read a new chapter lol.
4309857 Hue.
4318049 Neither can I. lul
Huh. When I read the chapter I did assume that those pill were actually setting us up for this especially with the way Twilight acts during those chapters and that Dane talking to her then instead of putting it off it may have prevented it. I... don't know if I should be glad I was right.
I am, however, glad to see that the story has returned from an (apparent) long hiatus and that there will hopefully be more to this great story.
4321120 I suppose that's a great way of looking at it. I honestly hadn't even thought of that. Dane was downstairs having a blast, then he noticed Twilight missing, yeah, if he'd have waited any longer, that might've happened.