Jan
23rd
2018
Ask Wintermist Questions · 5:09pm Jan 23rd, 2018
Hey everyone, thought I'd give an update on what I'm up to, and open the floor for some questions (if anyone has any).
So, currently I'm working on a sequel to A Night on the Leash. This one isn't commissioned, but I was enjoying the circumstances built up in the commissioned stories, so I'm doing a successor story based on Luna. I settled into working on this one around the turn of the year, after fiddling with some little non-pony projects. FiMC:C is still very much on the cards for continuation, though, and I'm looking forward to getting back to it.
I'll be checking in on this thread this evening and tomorrow evening to see if there are any questions people are interested to ask!
Aside from the obvious sources, What inspired FiMC in the first place?
And how does it fell having one of the most popular mind-controlling pony stories here at Fimfiction?
Here’s my question. How are you this awesome?
About how much time do you spend writing, on average?
If you had to pick your favorite scene from things you've written, what would it be?
Having so many characters in one story, how do you decide who interacts with who during certain scenes?
>> Does Applejack gets Brainwashed intend to be continued?
Your "no plot" stories actually have plot, even though a little less expanded in comparison to FiMC(:C) which is massively welcome!
>> What would you change if you had to change something in FiMC (Original)?
Your writing is pretty incredible. Seriously.
>> Would you consider doing a non-clop multi-chapter story?
Who's currently Twilight's favourite pony in fimc?
What is Twilight's favourite accessory to use in sex?
Favourite outfit for Twilight?
Do you imagine that ponies of Twilight's harem would break off in the (far) future to start a family of their own?
Will we get more backstory on that ancient evil whose magic helped create the charm?
What is Twilight's top 3 of ponies outside of her harem that she wants to fuck the most right now?
4780127 Hey Erebus! Well, FiMC originally came from the picture that I used for the story art, and also my personal avatar. It's a picture of Applejack and Rarity, tied up with Twilight adding the ropes, and I wondered how that scenario could possibly have come about. The expressions of the two were a little awkward, too, which I worked into the final scene. It was a quiet Christmas, and I had plenty of time to myself, so I started writing out the story I was dreaming up just for fun. It was originally going to go to the mind control story archive, but that doesn't take fanfic - oops - so I looked for somewhere else to host it, and it ended up here.
As the story continued, it developed a momentum of its own. Scenes occurred to me - scenes that couldn't happen for ages - and it kept motivating me to write towards them. Those moments of surprise or satisfaction in a plan unfolding were really fun for me. I also really found all the interest in my writing motivating! It's been so satisfying so play out a story on a long scale.
As for the popularity of the result - well, I'm flattered! It really makes me happier as a person and a writer to see others taking interest, and enjoying my work.
4780148 Aw, you.
It's wonderful to have fans that really enjoy every chapter! As for my writing, I think it's heavily influenced by all the books I read as I grew up - I was a very indoors child, and I read obsessively. I do also think that roleplaying for years in the old Yahoo chatrooms, then World of Warcraft and other MMOs, has helped improve my ability to write. When I began posting here, Setokaiva offered to proofread for me around chapter ten, and that put the final polish on my grasp of punctuation and grammar, I'm very grateful for that.
4780152 Let's see. I write every single day, without exception, including when I'm on holiday, or when I get sick. I have to reach 500 words. That does help a lot in pushing me over writer's block, because you have to write something, though I have smaller things I can just toss five hundred words into now and then when I'm tired and stuck on the main thing I'm working on. As for how long it takes, that's highly variable, though.
On a good day, when I'm in the zone, I can do my day's writing in about an hour. On a really good day, I can bang it out in half an hour, usually when there's plenty of dialogue - that flows really naturally, for me. Some days, though, it can take hours. It's not uncommon, on a difficult day, for it to take two, three hours, and for me to be up at half one, two in the morning going 'I want to go to sleeeeeep!'. But the thing is, even when I painstakingly chip out five hundred words of what I consider to be total tripe, I often come back the next day and find it's actually perfectly usable, perhaps with minor tweaks to improve flow. On average, overall, I'd guess two hours a day.
As for the favourite scene, oof, that's hard. I really enjoyed Luna telling Twilight that it was Celestia that had brainwashed her. I loved the reveal of Twilight's letter to herself, as she moved into Under New Management. The reveal of there being no one at Vinyl's dance except Twilight was delicious, the comedy bickering between Twilight and Trixie is always hilarious, and to pick my favourite sex scene would take me all day. But if I had to pick one scene, overall, it'd be the final battle between Twilight and Celestia, as you see two Chessmasters using all their guile and preparations against each other. I'm very happy with how that came out.
Who is your favourite pony to write as dom? Who is your favourite pony to write as sub?
Do you have particular race-specific headcanons in your stories? Like, earth ponies have more stamina, or dragons have innate magical resistance, changelings feed off lust as well, stuff like that.
Do you agree that Gleaming Shield is hot and should be fucked into a blubbering mess?
What is the most fun for you to write in sex scenes?
4780153 You've actually hit on one of the biggest challenges I face, now, especially in Consequences. There are many ponies in Twilight's life, both brainwashed and not, and I want to spend time with all of them. Including several that she hasn't taken control of, but goodness wouldn't I love to let her.
The important thing is remembering that these ponies aren't just waiting in cupboards when Twilight isn't using them; they have goals and desires of their own. So I have some secondary documents to keep plot notes in, some with what the other characters think and want, and so on. When it comes to writing individual scenes/chapters, it's guided by who needs to be there (for plot reasons), who deserves more air-time, and who has an urgent emotional need that has to be resolved, like Trixie. I try to keep it all balanced, but it's spinning a lot of plates.
this might sound a bit dumb, but where/how exactly do you get your ideas for your stories
4780174
Huh. Wasn't actually expecting a response. But yeah, that'd about do it. You're also very good at getting ideas out from your head and onto either literal or metaphorical paper. A quality I'll freely admit that I envy.
4780155 I do love the raw physicality of Applejack gets Brainwashed. The forceful overpowering, the use of sheer muscular strength, is something that has a very different feel from most of my hypno-writing, where it's more subtle and creeping, and mostly happens in the head. I'd love to go on with it; the only reason I haven't is that there's always so many stories vying for my attention, so I've been working more on the story-based ones.
As for the amount of plot, well. I guess I call it no-plot because the set up is a fairly obvious device to get straight into the smut as quick and hard as possible, but a sex scene without a framing device to give grounding and motivation to the choices and emotions would feel really shallow. I very nearly didn't post the Quick Flashes simply because they're so brazenly smut without any setup. I do wonder how people fit whole stories into a couple of thousand words (or less!) since I can barely write my characters getting out of bed in that time.
Hm. What would I change about the original FiMC... that's a tough one. There are little niggles here and there, but patching them wouldn't be all that satisfying. Rather than something small, let's instead go with a different branch entirely - there's the ghost of a story lingering where at the end of chapter 15, Twilight wasn't mind-wiped, and instead programmed to be a fully aware slave that ends up helping a thoroughly corrupted Celestia take control of many of the characters as Celestia's second in command/brainwasher in chief. I never really intended to go down that path, but it'd certainly be interesting to go back and explore it all over again from that very different angle.
As for non-clop multi-chapter... hm. It's possible. It'd be harder, admittedly, since sensual expression is a very powerful emotional force, and it allows you to build a lot of movement and motivation around it. I did intend for FiMC to serve as writing practice to improve my grasp of long-form story telling, for the day when I go back to my big, half-finished stories that need to be torn down and written from the ground up again. I think if I was going to go at a proper, non-clop story of decent length, it probably wouldn't be in the ponyverse though.
Did you always intend on using Friendship is Mind Control to explore the arguably arbitrary value of liberty? The first seven chapters seemed to really emphasize its clop, and clear themes were not established until like chapter 8 iirc. Was this a conscious change in direction?
Hiiiiii Dbz! In with the tough questions at once, I see.
My favourite outfit on Twilight. Um. Well, this was pretty good:
4780186 More Dbz!
4780191 That's a tough one. Sometimes, parts of the stories grow out of the past events; something I did plan then logically leads to consequences I hadn't thought about. Sometimes, story development comes from the emotions and drives of the ponies in question - when you think from the point of view of the characters, new ideas and events suggest themselves. A bit of it is simply laying out all of the events that you've thought of so far in a big chronological list, and seeing what you need to do to fill in the gaps. And finally, there's the wildcards, the ideas that just flash into your mind while you're idly walking or showering, and if you like them enough, can pull the entire story into a new shape around them.
4780194 Of course you get a response! This is the ask me questions thread, after all
4780219
... That's a fair point.
4780160
Personally, I'm quite happy that it's not entirely spelled out, since that leaves us room to imagine. In my own imagination, it was some unspeakably ancient shambling titan bestriding the world of Equestria, the very sight of which automatically bent the mind of every creature that beheld it towards worshipping and serving it – without the lovecraftian horror even noticing or caring. Then slowly, over the course of eons, gradual but inevitable shifts in the nature of the world and its magic eased this giant out of reality until it was just a legend, then a nightmare, and then forgotten entirely, as if it had never existed in the first place. Its only remnant being the principles of its innate magic that are forever part of the very fundament of equestrian magic, only waiting to be unearthed and used to power a certain charm by Celestia, untold ages later.
What are your thoughts on the show as it's developed over the past 7 years?
Do you see yourself writing MLP-based stories for a long while to come?
Considering Fimfiction wasn't your first choice when deciding to put Friendship is Mind Control online did you ever think it would become home to such a large amount of your work?
4780215
That dom/sub questions wasn't necessarily for in the fimc universe. I mean overall :p
4780225
I think it was some ancient evil that used to rule the land long before Equestria was founded. It eventually got overthrow, or died naturally, leaving behind relics, or particularly strong essences of its power, like what Celestia used to create the charm
4780206 At the very start, I was writing clop for the sake of clop, I'll freely admit. But even so, if you look at the early chapters, you can see the hints of the later themes - to tackle mind control, even for smut, you have to delve into the emotions and beliefs of the protagonist. In the case of someone like Twilight, that means dealing with the guilt of erasing the agency of others, and the question over what determines their real identity. It was almost inescapable that the story would get more complex, simply as the consequences of Twilight's actions spiralled further and further out of her control. That said, once I'd gotten past the initial three chapters or so, which were written purely out of idle entertainment for myself, I never intended to make things easy or simple for Twilight. The twist with Luna's arrival and the crashing of the plot train through the wall was coming from very early on, even if I had to be patient before I could get to it.
If the series is defined by anything (other than pornographic delight in sapphic ponies), it's an exploration of what happens when a self-identified good person gains the power to change those around them, and finds that the act of that changing is pleasurable. Twilight's struggle for her self-image isn't just born from Celestia's fracturing of her memories; it comes from the chasm between her beliefs about herself, and her increasingly corrupt actions.
4780225 That's a pretty intense image. I like it, a lot.
Has discussion in the comments ever caused you to change a future event of your stories?
What is your 'and they lived happily ever after' end goal vision? For example, mane six ascended to alicorn and Twilight together with Celestia.
How many wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
Will Will Smith smith Will Smith?
How would Twilight go about it if she ever wanted to lock away the charm for further use, even for herself? What would cause such a thing?
In Twilight's current state of mind, does she long to go back to the days of charming ponies without a care?
Twilight taking harem members to a sex shop when?
Does being a princess of love directly translate to Cadance's business in the bedroom? Is she more kinky/open than normal people? Is she hornier? Inquiring minds would like to know
Popping off to watch the most recent episode of Star Trek: Discovery, then I'll come back and answer some more while I do my evening writing
4780225
Mmm, more chaos please. Nyarlathotep commands it.
Are you still watching the show? What's your favorite episode, either way?
What's your favorite story on this site?
What's your favorite story, period?
4780242
Isn't the conflict between that desire and her knowledge that it's morally wrong essentially Twilight's central struggle? External threats distract from it, sure, but underneath it all, that's constantly going on.
I find that unlikely, since Twilight is so self-conscious and embarrassed in situations that she doesn't fully control. If she still felt free to just charm whomever she wanted, she might enthrall the owner of such an establishment and plan an elaborate event, where she takes her harem there — but going to a shop where the shopkeeper is not under her control and might ask inconvenient questions, or remember them later, or where other customers might walk in? I can't see her doing that.
Later, when she has better come to grips with the power of her position, she might get the idea of arranging a visit outside normal business hours and trust in her status to keep the proprietor discreet, but at the moment, I don't think that would occur to her. At the current stage it seems far more likely that her slaves take her shopping like that, much to her embarrassment.
Personally, I love the conceit of Cadance also being the Princess of Lust, who is far, far kinkier and hornier than other ponies.
I get the impression that in Wintermist's continuity Cadance is significantly older than regular ponies and has seen a lot more – especially concerning ponies' love lives – than the average mare. We know that she and Shining Armour have at the very least played some D/s flavoured games (in both directions), and all the revelations during the coronation did not shock but merely intrigue her. At most she seemed surprised by the fact that it's Twilight doing this, and later she worried about the apparent speed, thoroughness, and depth with which Twilight delved into the lifestyle.
I believe that in the show, Cadance is supposed to be Shining Armour's age and aging normally, judging from her teenage appearance, back when she foalsat Twilight. The comics and chapter books are not technically canonical within the show, but they seem to have started from the assumption that this was established in the show, so I'm counting that as circumstantial evidence. Of course, that is probably because she was never supposed to be an Alicorn in Lauren Faust's original plan, and whichever executive decided that Alicorns should be commonplace didn't give a fig about the problems that causes within the universe's lore.
4780227 Well, the show has done some good things, and some bad things. Overall I've enjoyed it a lot, and I really care about the characters. Many of the end of season plotlines have been delightfully epic and fearsome for a cartoon intended to sell tiny toy ponies to little girls, and I can't admire that enough.
If I was to pull out a couple of low points, though, I'd say that they've cheapened alicorns far too much. There were other ways to build stories than to have Celestia defeated multiple times without ceremony. Upgrading Twilight I was ambiguous about, and I definitely didn't care for the introduction of a naturally born baby Alicorn. My headcanon is that it should be something special and unique, earthbound demigods, and it's being handed out too easily. Not sure about Starlight. I've had ups and downs with her character. Overall, I'm glad it's still going.
As for how I'll continue writing in the future, I'm not sure! I planned to stop when I finished FiMC, and we all know how that went. So currently I'm planning to get as far as the end of FiMC:C and then stop, but given my track record of getting distracted and making more ponywords, I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't end there. Especially when I have another two concepts for continuation lingering at the back of my mind, one involving the EqG universe, and the other a prequel with Luna and Celestia in the pre-NMM days.
I really didn't expect to end up writing so much for this site! I'm glad I did, though. The setting is warm, the characters are charming and flawed without being bad people, and I've been really delighted and humbled by all the attention my writing has enjoyed.
4780229 Yep, I answered for all. Twilight really is my favourite domme, she's complicated in a way I enjoy. I must admit I'm enjoying Lotus too, though. She's very sweet.
4780242
4780283
But is Cadance kinky/easily horny though? :p
Okay, now I've thought of a question of my own:
So far, we've seen the submissive Flutterpet and the aggressively dominant Flutterbitch – So how about Twilight temporarily removing Flutters' crippling social anxieties and inhibitions to free the ravenously sexual and seductive Sluttershy?
I've had another one of my patented plotbunnies along those lines brewing at the back of my mind for weeks, but it hasn't coalesced into a short outline like the others yet, mostly because Fluttershy insisted on having actual dialogue, rather than just a high-level synopsis of the idea.
(Sorry!)
4780272 I watched the show up to the beginning of the seventh season, then it kind of got away from me. It's hard to pick a favourite - Every Little Thing She Does is certainly the most relevant to my interests - but... hm. Maybe the Canterlot Wedding two-parter. I enjoyed the songs, I enjoyed the all-out warfare, and I liked Chrysalis, too.
Favourite story on the site... I really enjoyed Sunset's Little Secret for its depiction of consensual BDSM, I had that at the back of my mind when I began designing the Lotus/Aloe/Celestia story. The Terrifying Prospect of Swans in Love is a really nice piece about Twilight and Celestia overcoming their boundaries with each other. And of course, Universal Acceptance is a close cousin of my FiMC, and I enjoyed it very much. Overall, though, I think I'd have to award it to Twilight Sparkle and the Planet of the Pantsless Pony People.
Favourite story ever... um. I actually like Iain M. Bank's Culture novels an awful lot. Look to Windward is really, really good, as is Excession. If we're talking fanfic, though, I'd go with Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.
4780273
This. Even when she was at her most morally abandoned, she never lost her internal tension that was trying to restrain her.
The description of Twilight as unwilling to expose herself is bang on the money, too. Otherwise she'd have had the Princesses pierced by now. As for Cadance, as I said below, I've sort of retconned her to be a bit older than perhaps the show means to imply; I want her to be around for a good long while before Twilight comes along. The emergence of a new Alicorn should be a once-a-millenia-if-that event, not a clicking turnstile.
4780284 She's kinky, sure. She's not imbued with constant maddening lust or anything, she's just in good physical shape and in touch with her sex drive.
4780285 All I'll say is, that gives me an idea.
4780293
I agree 163%!
If I were to put the problems with the show into a single phrase, I'd have to choose "shortsightedly squandered potential". The reason why the show originally exploded like it did was the sheer potential that was so visibly inherent in the world that Lauren Faust and her co-developers dreamed up — but when it came time to realise said potential by fleshing it out in the actual show, the results were decidedly hit-and-miss. Much too often, the lore hints at amazing possibilities and really smart potential storylines, only for that potential to be squashed by a carelessly established piece of canon that was hastily written to serve the plot of the current episode without a single thought spared for its effect on future stories and the world's lore as a whole.
Making Alicorns ten-a-penny and cheapening their powers and role in the world is just one symptom of this problem.
All that is not to say that some authors aren't thoughtful, considerate of the overall lore, and thinking of the future of the series — but that's entirely their own effort; it's not a mindset that is fostered or even encouraged by the corporate culture, and sometimes actively undermined by marketing dictates.
How does Trixie feel about Luna? Is she grateful for the abduction because it led to finding affection with Twilight? Is she jealous because of how much Twilight cares for Luna? Angry for indirectly causing Trixie's enslavement?
Any fetish or scene that you wish you could write, but that the story doesn't support at the moment, or at all?
Will Twilight ever sub? And why would she do so?
Any tentacle beasts or magical creations designed to fuck on the program? Maybe a succubus or two :p
Say Twilight comes to Starlight's village and sees what she's doing. How would she try to resolve it? turn her over to the authorities? mind control her to forget things? magic of friendship?
4780338
I think the first thing Twilight hears about Starlight Glimmer will be her army of mind-blanked slaves marching across Equestria to conquer it — after all, what could be more equal than a population of ponies that all had their personalities, thoughts, and desires removed in favour of an identical set of scripted orders by their supreme leader?
Yes, she is.
4780338 As far as Trixie and Luna goes, I'm not going to answer that one. Nor the one about Twilight and Starlight. There's a few things I'd like to write, but haven't found a way to bring it yet, but again, I'm not going to lay that out either. Spoilers!
As for Twilight subbing, it may or may not happen. She does remember, with a shiver of trepidation, how good it felt to be controlled and used at Celestia's manipulation, particularly the time with Vinyl. She thinks a lot, all the time, and she understands the appeal of being able to turn off for a while and not have to make all the decisions. It's plausible. It's unlikely to come from any of her enthralled slaves, though.
No plans for tentacle beasts or fuck monsters. They've got no internal self, so they don't interest me much, and they don't fit with the aesthetic of the universe that I'm working on.
Do you think Twilight would ever get all her
slavesfriends to all take like a week or so off and then proceed to keep them completely under the charm for the duration of that break as her own mindless harem?4780364
One of Twilight's core motivations is her insecurity. The Charm has given her a way to silence that scared, nervous part of herself by assuming the mantle of complete dominance and exerting a level of total control over other ponies (and thereby the situation as a whole) that is impossible in real life. But she is also aware that an equally viable strategy is to do the exact opposite, to fully abandon herself to the control and responsibility of another. She has gotten a taste of that, and she knows that it would work for her—even though she might wish that Celestia had never shown her this.
4780364
Twilight misguidedly casts a come-to-life spell (cf. S01E11) on Fluttershy's Big Bag O'Dicks™. What follows is a no-holes-barred onslaught of living sex toys attempting to sheathe themselves in every available orifice, causing Twilight's entire harem to run around wildly in panic — with the exception of Pinkie, who joyfully dives right into the animated throng of dongs, and Fluttershy, who surreptitiously lifts her tail and presents her rear, while trying not to be obvious about it. Twilight is caught up in the panic and is ineffectually attempting to zap individual rubber implements, as they chase her friends around, until an ambitious butt plug attempts to seat itself in her flared nostril, at which point she snaps and casts a blanket dispel. All the phalli drop lifelessly to the floor, to the vocal and silent disappointment of Pinkie and Fluttershy respectively.
4780283
I'm glad to hear that, because people's talk about the Zecora ship in Fimfiction's Discord was what compelled me to read this story in the first place!
4780276
Looks like you'll be writing for a while then. Consequences doesn't look to be wrapping up soon, keep those plates spinning!
I agree with Starbeard in that I'm keen to see you write more involving Fluttershy. Eager to read more of how you'd shape her voice and thoughts.
Thanks for answering mine and everyone's questions, always enjoy it when you do things like this
Good morning everyone!
4780379 Absolutely. Having the entire harem mindless for a week is the sort of thing that she'd do at least once, and thoroughly enjoy the self-indulgence of it all.