The occasional issues of writing

This blog post is mostly just commentary, and a shortcut for those that already read Rising Effort Chapter 4.

To sum it up, I am largely a Discovery Writer. Every now and then, I intend to have something in a chapter and it slips my mind, but most of the time it isn't a big deal as it's just color to a scene or an interesting line I came up with.

This time, I forgot to include something in the recent chapter and can't just let it slide because it's part of a side arc running concurrently to the main plot. It's also highly annoying because this obviously draws a lot more direct attention to it than I'd intended.

Still, it's hardly spoiling anything, and is just one step of many along the way to the stuff behind the curtain, so it's not too bad. RD's got a past. So does AJ and others, but it's all stuff for later reveals.

For those that already read the chapter, it's just a few paragraphs I slipped into the start of the meeting between Soarin and Spitfire. Nothing else changed, so readers can read it below in this blog and not have to go looking for it. It won't even matter to someone reading the chapter for the first time, so this is just a simple courtesy for the few that would have otherwise not even known.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Colonel Spitfire passed over the drink before settling back on the couch in her Wonderbolts Academy office, the late evening briefing with Lieutenant Colonel Soarin now over. Briefings were much easier when they both knew what parts they could summarize after working together for so long in the Wonderbolts.

Soarin took a sip of the aged whiskey before speaking. “Never expected I’d end up being Dash’s trainer, though I suppose none of us expected she’d get her training away from the home base, either. Heard any new info about the blank spot?”

“Nope,” Spitfire replied. “Been years since then, but we still have no idea where she disappeared to for those seven months. She was pretty driven before she left, but when she came back… it was like she had a fire in her like I’ve rarely seen in a pony. Can’t figure out why she suddenly took off to Ponyville shortly after she got back, either. I mean, I know her dad died at the weather factory while she was gone, but she was a total cloud-born. I was half convinced she’d never touch the ground on purpose her whole life.”

“Maybe I’ll be able to just ask her at some point. Whatever she did, it must have been some pretty amazing training to come back like she did,” Soarin added.

He pondered how the Wonderbolts had been watching Rainbow Dash most of her life after her first Sonic Rainboom when she was a filly. They’d kept a good distance, not wanting to influence her life as they observed her development as a highly gifted flyer in hopes she’d join them when she grew up. Yet, in all the time since the blank spot happened, they never figured out where she went for those seven months when she was fourteen.

One day, she had simply vanished. Seven months went by and she was suddenly in Cloudsdale again. She had rushed about for a short time, then abruptly moving to Ponyville to live with her friend Fluttershy. She’d trained like a madmare almost the day after she moved, and joined the town’s weather team a couple months later for work. Even began learning the Swift Wing fighting style.

Whatever happened, it turned a potential future Wonderbolt into a probable one. Soarin thought it could have been a secret training excursion, but he couldn’t shake the feeling it may have been something else. That it had such an impact on Dash because it was something rough. He knew ponies didn’t often transform like she had on purpose, but he’d seen it happen more than once.

Putting hanging questions out of his mind, Soarin glanced at Spitfire with a knowing grin. “Well, either way, don’t wear your pipes out yelling at all the new recruits while I’m gone, Spits.”

“Luckily, I get to switch out with Fleet and the others to keep them on edge. With all of Team One and half the rest of the Bolts already slated for only a few more shows spread out for the next year, we’ll have trainers to spare at first as we figure out how fast we can bring in more. We sure are gonna put a lot of them through their paces,” Spitfire mused. “Sure you can handle Dash though? She’s a lot like me when I was younger.”