Reflection/Behind-the-Scenes/Q&A

Whew! It sure took a while, but The Infestation of Canterlot High School is, at long last, finished, and I am free! FREE! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!

In all seriousness, this fic has been a whole lot of fun to write (well, most of the time), and I’m so glad I took it on. To celebrate its ending, and as a special thanks to those of you that stuck with it until the end, I’m doing this reflection/behind the scenes/Q&A thing. Not much, I know, but some of you might appreciate it, and that’s really all the motivation I need.

If you don’t care about my blabbering but want to chuck a question at me, skip down to the comments section, which is where the Q&A will be happening.

1: Why I Started Writing TIoCHS, and My Thoughts on The Final Result

This whole thing started around eight months ago, when I was browsing through fimfiction and realized that I hadn’t seen any changelings-in-Equestria-Girls-verse stories. From there, my imagination stole the idea out of my fingertips and took off at a dead sprint, and before you know it I’m knee-deep in the outline.

The Infestation of Canterlot High School is by no means my first story, or first fic. However, it was a lot of firsts for me:

My first pony fic
My first long fic (I think my previous record was 20,000 words, roughly)
My first fic with an update schedule (probably not going to do that again, honestly. It’s nice to know that I can stick to one, but it’s a whole lot of stress)

My thoughts on how it turned out? It was alright. It’s not my best writing, that’s for sure, as I got burned out in several places, but I don’t think it’s necessarily bad. The amount of likes/views was basically exactly what I expected; good, but not anything to write home about. I agree pretty wholeheartedly with the numbers there; asking the average fimfiction-goer to read a hundred-thousand-word fic with only slightly above average writing and a fairly basic plot is a bit much. Good thing, then, that I wasn’t doing this to become famous.

Before writing this blog, I went back and reread the prologue and the first chapter. Man, have I come a long way since then! And, ultimately, that was the point of this project. Sure, I wanted to write a good story and entertain a few people, and that was my main goal while writing it, but the reason I began the outline at all was to see if I could dedicate myself to a project this big and see it through, because I knew that if I did, I would grow immensely as a writer. And I did! So, mission accomplished, I guess.

2: Deleted Scenes, Alternate Plot Directions, and More

As I have mentioned a couple times previously, this fic was fully outlined before the first chapters were even written. That outline was a good fifty pages of thick paragraphs, took me two months to finish, and, naturally, went through a good few changes.

The most drastic of said changes were in Part 1 and the very beginning of Part 2 Part 1. (By the time Part 2 Part 2 came along, all the major plot points had been hammered out, so it barely changed at all.)

Fun Fact: The human version of Bon Bon/Sweetie Drops wasn’t even in the first script. Sounds kinda strange when my name’s literally ‘Bonster’ and my profile picture is of the pony her, but it’s the truth! Originally, the role she played in Part 1 would be covered by the good ol’ Flim and Flam brothers, and, no, I’m not kidding. Agent Chrysalis was still there, and functioned as their boss; the early scenes of Bon Bon and Chrysalis talking over their communicators were originally Flim and Flam reporting to Chrysalis; in the chapters Hide and Seek 1 and 2, they were there in the school, investigating like Bon Bon was in the final version; there was even a scene where they kidnapped Fluttershy, and she was so polite about it that they didn’t know how to properly interrogate her.

The transition into Part 2 killed them, though. They simply had no motivation to stick around once they found out what was going on. Chrysalis might have been paying them big bucks, but that wouldn’t be worth more than their lives. Sweetie Drops, however, fit the role like a glove, and even if I had some trouble writing her in the beginning, the story wouldn’t be complete without her.

The changes to the beginning of Part 2 Part 1 were many, and I’m not sure I remember them all. I hit writer's block really hard around chapter 17 or so, and ended up deleting and rewriting the outlines for about four chapters. A lot was lost in translation.

I know that originally, the CMC were in Discord’s group of refugee ponies. Then I realized they served no purpose other than providing Feels™, and since I knew my writing probably wouldn’t deliver on that front in the first place, I cut them. The story was better for it.

I also had some strange idea going on where Sunset gathered the unicorns and did some tricky bullshit to teleport literally every single pony out of ponyville into the caves with the intention of storming the Castle of Friendship with them. But that was part of the doomed timeline that led into my block, so it was scrapped. Which was probably for the best, because I wouldn’t know what to do with that many characters anyhow. It’s much better to add singular characters that serve an actual purpose, like Starlight Glimmer; and thus, the new timeline was born.

3: What Now?

In short, a good, long break from update schedules. Will there be more fics from this account in the future? Maybe, but probably not soon. I have many more ideas for fics for other fandoms than for My Little Pony, and so it’s unlikely I’ll have another fic posted on here until those are long gone, which would take a good long while.

I may, however do some editing on this site. My stories aren’t amazing, but, compared to a good lot of other writers on this website, my grammar’s pretty dern good. If you need an editor, then feel free to contact me, I guess.

4: Q&A

Not that I expect many, if any, questions, but, hey, why not? It doesn’t necessarily have to be about the fic or anything. Just go for it! I’ll answer in a reply comment.

Thanks so much for reading my crap!

Bonster out.