Re-Read of Book 4, Corruption

Not even sure what to say about this one. I am awash with emotions and blazing ideas in my brain that I had long-since forgotten. I used to talk about how Book 2 was probably my favorite of the fic, but wow, Book 4 is very dear to me. I think I may like it better.

So, the vast mythos of Luna and Nightmare Moon are fleshed out with my own head canon. This is truly where the fic takes a hard turn away from the show's canon and carves out its own path, in my opinion. I knew going into this that I had to do a few things. First, I had to explain the dark nightmare magic in the dream worlds, I had to explain Luna's connection to the changelings, and I had to tell a tale of Celestia and Ismara first meeting.

My initial ideas for the flashbacks were actually much more grand, but not as good I don't think. I actually recently found a note file and timeline I had been making that had some of these half-cooked ideas. At first, I had planned the changelings to be a force outside of Canterlot of ponies who were following this shadowy, evil leader (Ismara) and would eventually try and kill Celestia. That would make Celestia declare war on them. I was going to have Celestia, in a world just after Luna's banishment, be a warlike leader who mercilessly ordered her army to seek out and kill changelings to cleanse them from the land. This would be in response to their attempt to kill her, as well as their corruption of Luna. That period of time would then be purged from the history books later after Celestia matures more and regrets it all. That idea was scrapped, though, obviously. I decided to make it a changeling origin story, too, so instead of changelings existing for a while beforehand, they are coming into existence at the same time, all under the control of Ismara who wants to take over and replace Celestia or Luna, whoever survives after she pits them against one another.

So, moving along...

We get to know Linnai and Mulcibar as characters for the first time in here. I feel like my writing for Linnai is very much like Starlight Glimmer. I can imagine Starlight saying a lot of Linnai's lines, especially when she was bad, or new to being good. She almost feels like a bit of a mix of Starlight and Trixie, which ended up being a popular ship, so hey... neat!

Speaking of ships, this book lays the foundations of MulciShy or FlutterBar, or whatever you want to call it. I remember being so nervous about that, and when readers gave it a positive reaction, I was super relieved!

I had to tell the story of the Shards of Luna and them being inside the CMC. I felt like it was a fairly unique take on the old cliche "New Elements of Harmony" thing. Love, Patience, and Determination.

The shades in this chapter: I wanted to make them as horrific as possible, so they were kind of a mix of a lot of things, including faceless specters and the lickers from Resident Evil, with a dash of slime monsters thrown in for good measure.

Chrysalis finally finds out about what's going on inside the dream world, and she's pissed. I knew I had to do this because I felt like the overall tension of the story was kind of dwindling. I ramped it up last book by having Mulcibar and Linnai enter, and then in this book I gave the enemy a very real face (Ismara) and made Chrysalis find out about things.

I started delving into the "loveless changelings" concept, and had Mulcibar experience love. This is what the whole damn fic is all based around, too. The changelings can't feel love, but must feed on it. The concept of "conquering" love can mean to be able to feel it again, or to no longer need it to live, or even just to have a farm of ponies giving it to you constantly. Whatever the meaning is, I'm going to remain purposely evasive about the EXACT meaning, but this is a part of it for sure.

And of course, by the end of the book, we have Linnai and Mulcibar standing defiantly against their queen. Linnai waffles a bit, but comes through in the end because of her love for her brother. (Even if she doesn't know a thing about love just yet.)

The name of the book, corruption, has a double meaning. Luna is corrupted by Nightmare Moon, but at the same time, Mulcibar and Linnai are both corrupted by love by the end of the book. For them, it really is a type of corruption. It spoils them and makes them have to be different.

Now to move on to Crash Down, a book that I'd been planning for ages. I knew I wanted Dash's dream to over over the top and have a lot of wild and crazy things happen. It would be like living inside an action movie, or something similar. I had this concept in my head of Dash failing and falling into depression, too, which is where the name "Crash Down" came from. It's double meaning again, because Dash would crash down, but lightning also crashes down from the heavens in a flashy spectacle.

We'll see how fast i can blazt through that!