TEL'S ANNIVERSARY - Character Lore · 1:58am Feb 20th, 2018
It was Enchanted Library's third-anniversary last week, and I didn't really want to do anything for it, but I ultimately decided I ought to share with you guys some CHARACTER BACKGROUND LORE you'd probably never see anywhere than in the EL discord server where I once spoke voraciously about THE GOOD PROFESSOR AWE and North Ridge (the stallion from the prologue and the dialogue snippets)
BUT BEFORE THAT, I will at least post the little thing I wrote in the Discord server
Hi everybody!
I'LL PROBS DO A MUSHY BLOGPOST LATER, but ~~yesterday~~ today marks Enchanted Library's third anniversary.
IT'S BEEN A LONG ROAD, FILLED WITH UPS AND DOWNS.
Three years ago, when I posted chapter 1, I was still a college student in Mexico City convinced that journalism was the way to go. Now, I'm living in Los Angeles, I'm reading scripts all the time, I am a fully-independent adult, and I'm surrounded by a loving and wonderful community that started all because a friend and I got really drunk that one time.
As many of you know, I was very depressed in 2016. I saw no point to my life, and indeed, when I was basically all but dead in an accident, the subsequent months were a period of time where I saw no purpose to my existence, EXCEPT.
Except to update a silly story about a fashion horse and her ghost bookhorse.
Because it was, quite literally, the only light and purpose I saw to go on.
Whatever skills I have honed in these past three years are due almost entirely to EL. It has forced me to examine my writing, to be critical and compassionate towards it, and to realize the extents of what I can do. It was the coping mechanism through which I dealt with a very toxic relationship.
It's silly to think a story can so radically change a person's life, but it has. I am who I am almost entirely because of this fic and the ramifications it has had on my life, and though there are times where it has been hard--brutally hard, in fact, where cancelling it and TEK have seemed like the nicer option--I can't truly sit here and say that the cons outweigh the pros.
For those of you who've been in this journey with me since February 2015, thank you and I hope the journey has been worth it. For those who've come afterwards, thank you too and I hope you are happy you found your way into this little story of Rarity defeating pain and guilt against all odds.
Let's hope that both Twilight and I can continue on that path.
AND NOW FOR CHARACTER STUFF
Monodramatic-02/07/2018
mostly bc I'm so excited for North Ridge
I love North Ridge
he's so happy and pure and wants to help his new friend be reunited with her girlfriend
I should quit EL and write the story of North Ridge's adventures in the undiscovered west
with his zebra wife
selective-yellow-02/07/2018
A zebra wife!!
Monodramatic-02/07/2018
she was shorter than him
but had a nasty temper and she was badass as all hell
and could beat him up if he was being dumb
and he was madly in love
they had a manticore friend called Tangerine who was taught how to speak by a griffin
Tangerine isn't his real name but he got it bc he was trying to be fierce once
and told a rival that the blood of his enemies tasted like tangerines
and North thought that was so awful, so cheesy and edgy, he called him Tangerine
and it stuck
Frost Flower, North's wife, died of illness actually
she was poisoned during one of their adventures
she fought bravely
and north was relentless in trying to save her
but he couldn't
Captain Croissandwich-02/07/2018
:<
Monodramatic-02/07/2018
Tangerine and another friend were there with North when she died
when she was dying, in her last hours, she joked that she wished she hadn't lived up to her name
a flower that was ice cold, turned harsh by the undiscovered west
Monodramatic-02/07/2018
and then she hesitated and said
well, that wasn't true
North had melted her a bit, softened her heart
the jerk
and he laughed
tears in his eyes, said he'd never been happier to be called a jerk!
Tangerine carried her body out of the cottage when the time had come, big tears falling from his eyes and onto her cold body
she wanted to rest eternally in the wilds of the forest where she grew up
and so she did
Tangerine was devastated
and even more so when North announced he was returning to Equestria
Monodramatic-02/07/2018
after 32 years
but what about our adventures? Tangerine asked
and North, his age having caught up, smiled and replied
that there is no adventure without his Frost Flower
Monodramatic-02/07/2018
it took fifteen days for North to reach Equestria
a young griffin helped him
took him all the way to the border
said he could take them to the nearest town too
but North refused
he wanted to walk!
Monodramatic-02/07/2018
to explore Equestria as he once did the undiscovered west!
still have some life left in me, boy, he said
so he trekked and trekked
and thought of Frost
and missed her
missed her so much it was hard to breathe
and he reached the town near Luna Bay
Moon Shine
and he wandered in
wanting to find one last adventure
and found his adventure indeed
in the shape of a desolate mare at the corner of a bar
who missed her princess so much, she could not breathe
NoWulf the Undecided-02/07/2018
I love him
God I love him
Mono can we write a multi-volume fantasy epic with drama emotions and grand slow burning romances
Novel, RariTwi Shrink-02/07/2018
"In the shape of a desolate mare at the corner of a bar"
Now if that's not a tag line... phew
Monodramatic-02/07/2018
I love north ridge so much i do I kinda wanna write this now
I love him as much as I love THE GOOD PROFESSOR
the good professor with a promising career
and a girlfriend he adored
a life full of promise thrown away
the fated day he entered a restricted area of Canterlot Castle
and saw something he shouldn't have
pinkie found something once
as she explored his house during one of her visits
an engagement ring
she did not ask
perhaps the one time
in her life
she did not inquire
NoWulf the Undecided-02/07/2018
:<
Monodramatic-02/07/2018
she hated him before that
hated him for constantly denying what she thought
but after that
she hated him a little less
JockeTF-02/07/2018
:'(
Novel, RariTwi Shrink-02/07/2018
Mono: Gifted at the art of making you love the characters... and then letting the monsters loose.
Monodramatic-02/07/2018
and he never rejected her
unlike the others
he always listened
and he had no friends
and she wondered if he was lonely without the one he loved
and so she resolved to be his friend
and she was
even if he'd rather die than admit to it
he bought her cookies
yet swore they were for him
one time
she didnt ask him
but she asked
if he'd ever loved someone
he said he had
she asked him if he still loved her
he did not reply
and she asked no more
but she did say
that she was his friend
and he did not reply again
NoWulf the Undecided-02/07/2018
Monooooooo
Monoooooo
Monodramatic-02/07/2018
but later that night when she left
he stopped her and thanked her
and said no more
Monodramatic-02/07/2018
luna knows, you know
Monodramatic-02/07/2018
she discovered it after he'd allowed her into her dreams
it was sad, she thought
she attended their wedding in his dreams
and for that the thanked her too
this being whose existence he'd denied for so long
thanked her for giving him in dreams the one thing he regretted not having in life
Rarity knows as well
it was a strange moment for him, to go into Raritys shop in hollow shades
she'd been there a few months
to go there to complain about this or that
and find her, empty bottles of alcohol littered beside her, devastated
and whispering that she missed Twilight,
it burned her heart as much as the alcohol burned her throat
he sat with her
and told her a name
Summer Wind
she was his assistant in Canterlot
smart as a whip, and lovely as summer itself
NoWulf the Undecided-02/07/2018
whines sadly and does big teary eyes
Monodramatic-02/07/2018
she left him when he got too caught up in his conspiracy theory
Monodramatic-02/07/2018
she lives in Trottingham now
he thinks she's wedded now
probably has the filly and colt she always dreamed of having,
I'm sorry, Rarity said
I'm sorry too, he replied
wow that is a lot of information i ddnt expect
happy late aniversary i guess? 
Merry late anniversmas
Aw, what a beautiful story :)
And you’re a very talented lady
Also, discord group?
Mono, why do you do this to me? Why.....
Now I want to see you write these stories! And if you don't, I will!
Once, I said to myself myself, "TEL hasn't updated for a while, you know. You should probably take it off the shelf."
And I replied, "Yes, I should. I'll do it right after Rarity glides off into the setting sun with her Princess."
"That probably isn't going to hap-"
"Right after she glides off with her Princess!"
"Are you ev-"
"RIGHT AFTER!"
I don't talk to myself very much anymore.
4801003
I'd say it's when you answer yourself that it gets to be a problem, but I think we've gone beyond that lol.
I eagerly await your next chapter. It is very compelling story telling, and I wish my own stuff was half as good.
4801041
Naw, not even then.
It's when you get into arguments with yourself and lose that you might have a problem.
This story has touch so many and changed them for the better. I can tell you right now I have never been interested in love until I read this story. It makes me feel a happiness inside I have never felt before in my entire life. This story (and many other of your works) gives me hope that I will one day be the Twilight to my Rarity if I should so find her. Maybe she’s locked up in a Boutique somewhere, hm?
I cannot say how much this story has inspired me and lifted my spirits when I was low or simple gave me something to read and feel like an actual teenage girl that giggles. giggles. That never happens. You and your stories are truly something special.
Happy belated storyversary! It's a lovely, spirit-lifting piece of work, and it merits celebration like this. More background stuff on Awe and North Ridge is always nice as well.
Is there any public link to the Discord server, out of interest?
4801163
There isn't a public link, but I can def shoot you a link thru PM if you'd like!
4800978
yep!
I have a discord server for EL-related shenanigans! It's invite-only, but I give links to whoever personally asks me for one o:
Welp.
I weepings now.
Happy anniversary Mono.
4801191
Thank you, that'd be much appreciated.
-after reading several paragraphs of heartwrenching character backstory-
Mono. Stop Mono. Mono.
Mo-Noooo!
I'm late to the party, but I still want to say happy anniversary! I can't believe it's been 3 years since TEL started!! Time flies when having fun I suppose!
Love all that additional character depth, it's one of my favorite things in literature anyway so this is quite the treat! I don't know if you're planning on somehow slipping this character information into EK later on or if this is going to remain bonus material, but it'd be cool if it was the former. Buuuut if it was the latter and you happen to make physical books out of EL and EK, it's be awesome if there was a bonus mini book of all the little extras like this or other things like cut chapters, character art and cool stuff like that. :)