Post-Update Blog For Sun and Hearth Chapter 8 (To Everypony's Advantage) · 12:33am Mar 22nd, 2017
If you missed it, Respect and Respectability is out. It’s a stand alone story about the same versions of the founders of Equestria that appear in Sun and Hearth. If you haven’t jumped into Sun and Hearth yet, it’s a fine place to start, and if you wanted more of the founders in Sun and Hearth, this is the story for you!
Now, onto the post-update blog for Sun and Hearth Chapter 8 - “To Everypony’s Advantage.” Spoilers below the cut!
Ending Credits Music:
Random Trivia:
I don’t usually do pop culture references in pony fics. Discord is an exception.
I have whined more to my prereaders about writing Discord in this fic than all the other subjects of my whining combined. (It’s worth noting that I have lovely and talented prereaders, currently Themaskedferret, BlazzingInferno, and bats, who have the patience of saints. I am a whiny author, I’m constantly messaging someone to explain why, exactly, I hate writing whatever I happen to be writing, or asking them if I’m allowed to do something. I am well aware that there is nothing they can do in these situations, but it helps me. I should also shout out to Jake R and Merc the Jerk, who aren’t even prereading this fic but still get the whining.)
Oh yeah, regarding the aforementioned prereaders… I should have credited them much, much earlier. See, I would normally put something in the fic description, but this fic is so long and I don’t expect everyone to make it for the long haul (though I’ll be happy if they do!) and I thought I might have to add some to replace the fallen. So I thought I’d wait until the end and credit everyone. But then I realized the end is a long ways off, and my prereaders probably noticed I didn’t credit them and hate me for it. So I thought about doing something like this. But then Journcy started proofreading for me a few chapters in, and I had a few more (GhostOfHeraclitus and Jake R) who preread certain chapters but not the whole thing, and once again the probability of someone getting busy came up and I had no idea how to credit everyone properly for the parts they’ve done so far and the parts they might do and… yeah. I kind of overthought myself into doing nothing. I apologize to and thank bats, Ferret, and BlazzingInferno for all the work they’ve done so far, and Journcy, Ghost, and Jake for the parts they’ve contributed to.
Um, back to the fic. So as I’ve mentioned to a number of my prereaders, Star Swirl and Clover as an old couple is the straight Dumbledore/McGonagall ship I never knew I needed.
Also, GDocs doesn’t recognize the word “geas.” It obviously hasn’t played enough tabletop role playing games.
World Building:
I think I’m gonna skip this one this time. Next chapter is a big one for world building, and I just wrote a whole other story in the setting.
Feel free to ask if there’s something you were wondering.
Questions to answer:
What’s your gift preference: dishtowels or entirely new and possibly environmentally unstable species of bird?
So, if you were the significant other of a powerful magic user, and you were dying, what would your instructions on necromancy be? (It’s kind of like a living will, but for the dead, I guess.)
For the record, you are not whiny in the least and I'm simply happy to get to help make this story as polished as it can be regardless of credit. n_n
Always happy to help!
Were it an episode of MLP, I would expect and hope for the bird rabbit. Were I receiving the gift, almost certainly the dishtowels.
As far as necromancy goes, it would depend on the power level of the magic. I'd probably be okay with coming back as a wraith or a lich, but anything more basic than that would probably be a no.
You don't whine, you let your prereaders in on your decision-making process
I hadn't even noticed the whole credit thing, and yeah that gets complicated on a project of this sheer magnitude… but I would've stepped up to the plate either way; I feel privileged to get to help polish this masterpiece
I'll take the dish towels, thank you. I have to live in this ecology.
As for necromancy, if you absolutely must call back my dread shade from beyond the mortal coil, give me a re-kill switch so I don't eventually go mad from jealousy of and insatiable hunger for life. That would be what most arcane scholars would dub "bad."
The Tooki-Tooki bird, and not dying in the first place.
I'll take the bird. Because birds are just very adorable demons and who wouldn't want a particularly adorable pet demon totally unique to their area? Besides, how many of Discord's morally questionable things he's given life to have really caused that much harm. (Don't think too much about how the season 4 opener is entirely his fault because of morally questionable things he's given life to.)
As far as necromancy, I say go for it as long as you can hook me up with something that has some level of physical sensation and thought left. Basically if we're talking like lich or dark champion level yeah sure why not. Don't just use my soul to power a zombie out of my corpse though. And no ghosts. Someone brings me back as a ghost and I swear I'm going to make really loud "awooo" noises over them every single time they try to speak for all eternity or until I've pissed them off enough to get exorcised. Although if they need to make a few zombies here or there as dry runs for me, I guess I'll understand.
From an ecological perspective the dish towels, from my curiosity perspective the burd or biunny or whatever, so long as you can make reasonably certain that it would not explode, or totally annihilate the local wildlife/ balance of nature.
As for necromancy...I think I would be lying if I said absolutely not, but I would want a number of protective rules put in place, such as making certain that I am brought back as myself (no brainless zombie hordes thank you very much), make sure that my significant other was working the spells or rituals with a clear mind, making certain that I will not need to feed on the flesh or blood or anything else that is legally frowned upon to survive, similarly no feeding on emotions like a windigo or siren. And finally, that my significant other is fully aware that it might not work, the price may be too high, and they are 100 percent certain they want this.