Errata on Lost Little Wolf, Fanfiction Friday Notes, and Other · 2:46pm Jul 3rd, 2017
Errata on Lost Little Wolf
For reason that will become clear much later in the story for Lost Little Wolf, I needed a "big bad" that wasn't just a recolor of an existing bad guy, wasn't an attempt at guessing the future of MLP, and was just clever and referential enough that it wouldn't seem like an ass-pull when I did the thing with the thing later on. (What? Oh, you thought I was gonna spoil this fic? HAH!) Given that we haven't even seen any Cervidae, like, at all in the series (though the fan-works on them are legion) and in the "Fall of Equestria" ...nonsense we have a perfect literary scapegoat. The Caribou Nation represents the exact antithesis to Equestria; A Totalitarian Patriarchy vs. an Egalitarian Monarchy Diarchy Triumvirate, a slave-based dirigisme economy vs. a capital-based social market economy, a philosophy of inborn (or inherent) superiority of males vs. a philosophy of gender equality. Much like the Haradrim in Lord of the Rings was used to be a nation of Very Very Bad People to align with Sauron against the alliance of Western Men, Elves, and Dwarves, the Caribou make for a very, very easy group of "not us" that we can pit against "the good guys."
Given that I'm effectively taking Changelings out as "bad guys" completely, I needed a nation of cannon fodder that the phrase, "kill 'em all and let God sort them out" would be something that wouldn't be a bad thing. Using any other group as the "bad guys" would create a moral ambiguity that may be a great tool for teaching how to deal with neighbors, using critical thinking skills in a crisis, etc., but doesn't really have a place in my story at this time. Creating a "unicorn master race" as some authors have done makes for great drama, but not so much great adventure epic. Having the pegasi militarize and attempt a coup would make for a great "Game of Thrones" style story, but that's not the story I'm trying to tell. Militant Earth and/or Crystal ponies in a sort of "slave uprising" setting would make for great reading...but I'm not trying to write that fic. Dragons do make for a great enemy, but they're canonically largely solitary creatures, so no go there. Griffons are established as being a broken people, so though there's an opportunity there, there's too much sympathy in the fan community to make them "master race" bad guys. Nightmare Moon, Sombra, and Discord are single-entity threats, and I need an army for [REDACTED] where [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] need to [REDACTED], so they're out for this purpose.
So Caribou it is! Expect some world building for a decent number of chapters before you actually see them "on screen" (so to speak).
Fanfiction Friday Notes
This is a gentle reminder that Lost Little Wolf will NOT be on this week's Fanfiction Friday poll, which means if you want to get LLW back in the voting roster, you'll need to elect another story for at least one FF poll. Here's the list of stories I'm working on so you can go read before the vote this Friday:
Double Trixie Trouble - The pony Trixie is selected as ambassador to the human world by Princess Twilight Sparkle, and she winds up in close cahoots with the student Trixie. This is an AU of the events following EQG: Friendship Games
Destiny with a Capital D (Unpublished) - (Non-horsefic) After the events of the Dragon Games, Ever After High's star student and Class President Apple White must come to terms with her Destined Prince not being Daring Charming like she'd planned on and hoped for since they were kids, but Daring's sister Darling Charming.
Fission - (Non-horsefic) Ranma Saotome and Usagi Tsukino have a magical accident that causes their destinies to bleed into the other's life.
Generations of Heroes - (Non-horsefic)Rock must take up the mantle of Megaman once again...whether humanity deserves a hero or not.
Destiny is Like Turtle Wax - (Non-horsefic) Ranma's newest P.E. teacher has a gender-bending secret of her own
The Wizard's Secretary (Unpublished) - (Non-horsefic) Alex is a husband and father in a dead end job delivering pizzas, until a late-night delivery introduces him to the world of magic. (Inspired heavily by The Dresden Files, though not necessarily in the same universe)
Statutory Consequences (Unpublished) - In a world where "newtype" mares exist (hermaphroditic or "futa" ponies) young Applebloom wants to return home with the greatest gift of her life, her daughter, who's a result of the greatest mistake of her life, mating with an adult pony (this is NOT a clopfic and there will be no sex scenes)
(Un-named MLP:FiM Human-in-Equestria fic) - This one was requested by a fan of my LLW work, so automatically gets a +1 to the votes. A space marine on a doomed troop transport launches himself into the void of space in a stasis pod, only to wake up on a planet with multiple sentient races with no means of contacting Earth.
Other
I'm at the point in my writing... ah, we'll call it a "career" ...where I am ready to dip my toe into the waters of attempting to get a published original work out the door. At the moment, my main idea is still in the "hammering out some ideas" phase, though I have a few lines written. (No matter how fully fleshed-out you think your idea is, you'll be SHOCKED to learn how much it isn't when you actually start committing it to text) Once I start work on it, it'll be a Patreon backed project (for those interested in backing me on Patreon now, here's the link) and I'm aiming for one chapter per month, with a goal to have it complete by the time two years is up. (For those of you not so quick at head math, that's 24 chapters, give or take) As for final published versions, once the whole digital version is complete, I'll be self-publishing on Amazon and iTunes (and wherever else possible) and then I'll start a Kickstarter (or similar) for doing a self-published print run.
What's the story? Well, you have to understand I'm a huge fan of the Magical Girl sub-genre. While I'm not blind to the inherent problems (being targeted at tween-teenaged girls means the production values are gonna suck, it tends to be driven by toy sales, etc.) I think it's one of the best girl-empowering sub-genres in existence. HOWEVER, the story always seems to end sometime around the time the girls graduate, if not before then. Sure, the series usually ends when the "big bad" is defeated, but Sailor Moon (yes, Usagi is my soul-sister) proved that there's great opportunity to tell stories after the main story arc is finished.
So what if a new big bad surfaces (or resurfaces) not within months of the last big bad, or even years? How about a couple decades? Girl(s) have moved on, gotten degrees, married, held (and lost) jobs, made friends outside of their MG squad...
...had kids...
"So what," I got to thinking, "Would be the kind of story you'd tell if a former magical "girl" was now a grown woman with kids?"
That's right, I'm writing a novel about a Magical Mom.
And I'm not stopping there! As a member of the LGBT community, I'm very aware that women can "come out" as lesbian or bisexual later in life, even after having kids, so I got to thinking, "What if this Magical Warrior also had to juggle a dating life in addition to kids and a job?"
So keep an eye out for more information in the coming weeks for "The Everyday Life of a Magical Mom" (working title).
Okay, that original idea sounds excellent, and I want updates. :D
Yeah, the Caribou are good as unambiguous bad guys (possible small rebellious factions notwithstanding). And aligning changelings as vehemently against them (which only makes sense, seeing as their ruler is a female) automatically places them firmly as the good guys, or at least positive characters.
Hmm... I think I'll vote for human in Equestria story.
Wow I can't believe you would judge every Caribou based on the species as a whole.
I See where you stand.
JK whatever you want I'm going to read it unless the story really starts to suck.
I would have gone with rabbits, because everyone knows rabbits cause all the trouble... especially the "esquilax" it would be good for a few laughs given the size differential and you could portray the ponies as a 'sympathetic' villain or master race. While not entirely justifying the actions of the rabbits it could cause sillyness to ensue as assorted jackelopes, wolptingers, and even angel bunny would have to take sides.
also the cervine deer caribu have been portrayed in the comics as an elven race that lives in the everfree forest.
4596172
Were they? Huh, missed that mention. As it stands, the comics are considered to be "soft-canon," and can be embraced or ignored as needed. 'sides, mention "caribou" in the FiMFiction community and there's precisely one meme that comes to mind, so I'm using that one.
4596774
It would still be interesting if Angel Bunny was revealed to be an esquilax, just imagine the implications of him being Fluttershy's "eraserhead" baby ...http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2l6u2d
4598055
OK, yes, I can see some antics there. Probably won't do anything like a full "eraserhead," but you've given me some ideas I've put a pin in.