Happy FIM-iverary! / A Reflection on All My Stories · 6:34pm Mar 24th, 2018
Hello, brothers and sisters. I am Madness and welcome to my kingdom,
Today is a special day because, as you can see, on this day, one year ago, I joined this site. It has been an unforgettable year for me for several reasons. There's been a lot of ups and a lot of downs, but I want to focus on the ups. I want to focus on all the fun I've had and all the wonderful people I've met. To everyone who has followed me and been my friend, thank you. I truly appreciate it. And I thought, what better way to celebrate than to look back on all the stories I've made here and give my thoughts on them. Should be fun! So, let's get started.
SAVING THE SIREN
I've talked a lot about this story, so I won't be here too long. Good thing, because this is by far the longest story I've written. 
So, umm, as I said before, I had been writing Frozen fics before joining the site. In fact, on the very day I joined and made the first chapter of STS, I had just finished the last Frozen fic I had made. I actually still have it in Google Docs, but I don't plan to release it cuz... it's not very good. Granted, it's not that bad, but still. Anyway, STS was my interpretation of what happened with the Dazzlings after the Battle of the Bands and I wanted it to be half lighthearted comedy and half dark drama.
I tried to make the Dazzlings into an abuse case, with Adagio as the abuser. Like, Sonata and Aria do what she says because she's conditioned them to do so. And when Sonata stands up to her, she does what an abuser would normally do; if words don't work, use violence. Yeah, I made Adagio a total psychopath. What's interesting is that I was fully expecting some backlash for portraying Adagio like this, but she's probably the most praised part of the story. Like, for some people, she was the best part.
I think most of the fic's problems come from my poor handling of Sonata and her end of the story which is supposed to be the main part. I got some good stuff; Twilight's chess talk for example; but I feel, on the whole, I just didn't do it well enough. I honestly don't know how it got a following as big as it got. Then again, I've read signifigantly worse fics with signifigantly higher ratings. Sooo, yeah. Next fic.
THE TRUTH BEHIND PINKAMENA
I made this fic the day after I made the second chapter of STS and I had such hopes for it. Like, I was thinking 'this is gonna be the fic that gets me on the map!' To my credit, I did have a good set up. I was fascinated by the split-personality theory of Pinkamena regarding her being a separate being to Pinkie. Looking back, it was never really a good theory to begin with, but it was worth a shot. So, the story is basically... Pinkamena is talking directly to you. Like, you are having a conversation with her and the whole story is what she's saying just like in Pony POV. The idea is that Pinkamena explains her existence; that she was a defense mechanism for Pinkie when Pinkie couldn't handle her depression. And Pinkamena herself is a being made of negativity and the story, like her, is really cynical.
I had something good here, but I'm afraid I just wasn't experienced enough to see it to it's full potential. The problem with this fic is I didn't go deep enough. I was trying to get into this really dark place. Honestly, looking back, I should have not gone the Pony POV route and not used any of this exposition. What I should of done was do it in a sort of David Lynch style; tell it all visually and make it absolutely insane. Be interpretive and go all out. Granted, I don't think I could pull that off even now let alone back then.
You know what? Maybe I should do that sometime in the future or at least something like that. I think there's something very fascinating about those things. I'd have to hone my writing skills though. A lot.
DOES IT MATTER?
I... don't know why. I guess I really enjoyed writing The Truth Behind Pinkamena and, as I recall, didn't like the cynicalness of it. Looking back, I don't think it was cynical enough. So, I made this fic where Pinkie is in a dream and has to escape Cupcake (that's the nickname I gave Cupcakes!Pinkie). Alright, that sounds good.... except I made it a sequel to The Truth. Pinkamena is there and she explains everything, Pinkie shows her some love, Pinkamena locks up Cupcake and gets a cutie mark for being Pinkie's... mental guardian I guess? It's really stupid.
It would have been so much better if I had just made this a cat-and-mouse chase with Pinkie and Cupcake. And it's a dream, so I had a lot of free range here. It wouldn't have been anything fantastic, but it would definitely be better than what we got here.
Huh... there seems to be a pattern of me having a great idea, but going about it all wrong. 
DERPY'S PARENTS COME TO VISIT
And what do you know it, just a day after I wrote that dumb fic, I wrote my first legit good fic! 
Whenever someone asks me what fic from myself I would recommend, this is the one I go with. It's definitely one of my proudest works.
There was this fanon thing that Dinky and Sparkler are Derpy's kids. The Dinky thing I could get, but I didn't quite buy it. And Sparkler raised a whole bunch of questions. So, I made this fic as my own answer to it. I feel like this is some of my best writing; I made good use of cartoon logic while still getting across the drama and seriousness of it all. It gets into the theme of a child being forced to raise their younger siblings which, looking back, is pretty dark. I feel like I portrayed the characters very well and gave it a good message.
Once again, I was thinking 'this is gonna be the fic that makes me famous!' That didn't happen, but what did happen was even better. This fic lead me to meeting one of my dearest friends and for that, i will always treasure this story.
I don't know why I haven't made more Derpy fics...
THE DRAGON QUEEN
I don't really have much to say here. This girl, Nightshade, was a HUGE fan of my work as half-arsed as my stories were. Her praise literally had me crying at times. I wanted to do something for her and I figured 'hey, she loves my stories; why not make a story for her?' I knew she loved dragons so I worked with that. This was the first and so far only time I had used Second Person Perspective writing, and I had tried to go the route of Flightless Fury and be very descriptive with every sensation. It worked incredibly well there, but I don't know about here.
But she enjoyed it, so it did it's job.
THE TALE OF THE KING OF MADNESS VS. THE BOOGEYMAN, FEATURING THE POETIC TALENTS OF THE WANDERING BARD
...Yes. Yes, indeed. Again, not much to say here. My friend, The Wandering Bard, was feeling down so I made her a story. I actually made this within an hour and it's incredibly... odd. Like, you'd think I was high on something. And I don't know if it was like that in a good way or not.
But again, she enjoyed it, so it did it's job. Fun fact: I made both these gift stories on the same day. Yeah, I was popping out stories fairly rapidly back then. Oh, what wonderful days those were...
HELPING A SISTER OUT
Do you think of cute things to help yourself fall asleep? I do! This fluff fic was just something in my head and I decided to write it out. Once again, there's not much to say. It's essentially just Rainbow and Fluttershy being cute. People seemed to like it pretty well though.
STARLIGHT AND TRIXIE'S PUNISHMENT
All Bottled Up absolutely pissed me off. Pissed me off so bad, that I made a fic dedicated to their punishment. Pissed me off so bad, that I was like 'screw it, I'll go do it myself' and had my old avatar handle it. I think it's pretty funny just what their punishment is because... Well, they treat it like it's something terrible, but it's really just them doing the Ponylicious thing on camera... and all of Equestria seeing it. It was actually a bit more mean-spirited originally, but a commenter suggested toning it down to make it funnier, which I did. And as luck would have it, this was not the first time I would do something like this.
STORY OF A MONSTER
Again, this is a case of me getting WAAAY over my head. This story, like The Truth, is a first person story; but this time, it's about Discord. My idea in and of itself was pretty solid: four chapters detail four times in Discord's life. The first chapter is about him failing to find friendship and falling into despair before deciding to be evil. I got that idea from to things Discord had mentioned in the show: in Keep Calm and Flutter On, Discord said that he never had a friend before Fluttershy and in Make New Friends but Keep Discord, he mentioned that he has lived for eons. Even if he's exaggerating, he's definitely been around for a very long time and he never had any companionship until Fluttershy? Yeah, I think I get why he turned evil; anyone could go insane from that. And with his personality, I imagined that he was like Pinkie Pie back then, except he failed at his 'job'.
The second chapter would describe his reign which... Really, I couldn't do it justice back then. If you're gonna make a story about Discord's reign, you have to go all out and make it as insane as it would be. The third chapter would be his inner thoughts while being a stone statue and I thinkt hat was best part. I really tried to show Discord at his lowest here and show how the imprisonment gets to him. Nothing spectacular, but I did better there than the rest of the story. And the fourth would be him with Fluttershy as he reflects on everything that had lead to this point from his return onwards.
Again, I did not have the skills at the time to pull something like this off and I highly doubt I have those skills now. Once again, I have a good setup, but ti's something I had to go balls deep into and instead only put the tip in there. 
THE DARKEST HOUR: RETURN OF SOMBRA
You won't be able to find this story because, truth be told, I deleted it. Why? Because even the me back then realized that I had no idea what I was doing. I had these big plans for this epic story about Sombra's student bringing him back to life and the Dark Horse Lord waging war on Equestria. But after two or three chapters I realized how hopelessly over my head I was getting and had to take it down. This is indeed the story where my future fics, Reign of Sombra and Return of Sombra, originate from. I had decided to wait until I have a solid premise and motivation to see it through.
ROAD RAGE
A story about Limestone on the road with a road rage problem. This is a premise that would take effort to screw up. That said, I can't believe this story is one of my most successful. Granted, I do think I put a lot of good, funny moments in here and I even tweeked the ending to make is even funnier. There's a reason I love Limestone and I really love writing her. She's like a walking time bomb! The premise was very simple and all it really took was joke timing and working the chemistry between Limestone, Maud, and Marble. That said, I think this could have been much funnier.
I've also noted that it's around this time that my writing really started improving.
GODZILLA VS. KING GHIDORAH...... IN EQUESTRIA
I made this fic for my buddy, Temni. No reason, just wanted to make him something for being a good friend to me. Since he's such a big Godzilla fan, I figured 'hey, why not have Godzilla and Ghidoran fight each other in Equestria?' With his suggestion, I had it play like a WWE match with Discord and Pinkie Pie calling it. This gave me a great opportunity to poke fun at the silly stuff Godzilla has given us, such as Ghidorah's odd movements and Godzilla's ridiculous abilities; made even funnier by Pinkie and Discord calling attention to it.
I had so much fun with this fic. My favorite parts were how even Pinkie Pie and Discord are absolutely baffled by some of the stuff Godzilla does; especially the ending, when Big G flies off like he did in Godzilla vs. Hedorah and the two are stunned speechless. Despite it not being that successful, it's definitely one of my favorites that I've made. Me and Temni both enjoyed it, so that's that.
PINKIE ASKS RAINBOW DASH A WEIRD QUESTION
I wasn't expecting this story to be so successful. I mean, with a title like that, I knew it was eye catching and people would be curious, but ti still surprised me. The story is incredibly simple; it's just the girls hanging out and Pinkie gets the idea to ask Rainbow, well, a weird question. I mean, when you have long conversations with someone, you end up talking about the oddest of things and not know how you end up talking about it. I guess that was the appeal of this story; it comes a very real and relatable place. I think, to a lesser extent, that had a hand in Road Rage's success as well.
The inspiration for this fic is rather weird. I was watching BHD videos and in one, he ends up talking about how he might be willing to dry sex with Birdman for 13 million dollars (it makes sense in context... sort of) and my mind put together this story. It's much more G rated, but that was the inspiration. And to my luck, it worked.
RANDOM DISCUSSIONS
Since I had a lot of fun with the above fic and since it was such a success, I decided to make a sequel that is this anthology about the girls discussing random things. I decided to make it an interactive fic where I take suggestions from people and see if I can do something with them. I only got three chapters so far though. In truth, the fic ended up being to starting point for a very long and ugly fiasco that I'd rather not get into. I guess that put me off of it. Hopefully, I'll get back to it soon.
FALLEN STAR
This was... interesting. In the time after the release of A Royal Problem, Daybreaker ruled the fandom. And I decided to jump on the train right quick and wrote a fic about Daybreaker taking over the world. This was me once again trying to be... I don't even know. I was going for something grimdark and not explicit. I wanted to make it mysterious and just filled with a haunting atmosphere. I tried to tell the story through the perspective of an average mare who ends up, I guess, chosen to live through this hellish apocalypse Daybreaker had created. Oh, and this is another attempt from me to write a first-person narrative. Better than my previous efforts, but it still needs work.
Oh, and the title is based on the nickname that me and Temni come up with for Daybreaker. And on a note that I'm just a tiny bit salty about, I actually started writing the fic right after seeing the episode and if I had finished it that day, I would have had the story out before the other Daybreaker stories that came flooding in and getting featured... Though I'll be honest, the fics that did are signifigantly better. 
All the same, I'd like to think I did a decent enough job on this fic for what it was. Again, I did not go deep enough to let it live up to it's potential. But I did get a comment that it's imagery brought to mind the Book of Revelation and that makes me happy enough.
THE PINKIE GAMES
If I told you I could make a lighthearted story based on Saw, would you believe me? Some definitely wouldn't. I was talking with a friend when he mentioned having this idea for a MLP/Saw crossover and this is what sprung to mind. It's not what he had in mind, but he gave me the thumbs up to use the idea and what I got is a fic that I'm quite proud of and embarrassed that I haven't released a chapter in over half a year.
The story is about Pinkie drugging her friends and putting them into this Saw-like game where they have to deal with prank traps which are basically non-harmful death traps with a spin taken on them based on classic pranks. Pinkie is so sure that this is a good idea that she is blind to the fact that the others are not okay with this. I had to be creative with these traps and I had to completely redo Applejack's part. Everyone's favorite part so far has been Rarity's chapter for obvious reason; that lass has got sass!
A FLASH OF LIGHTNING
I'm not really sure what to say about this one. I was like 'Hmm... Lightning Dust was a sociopath. Rainbow crushed her dreams. Rainbow knows that she's got some serious issues... What if Rainbow subconsciously afraid that Lightning Dust would retaliate?' So, I worked with the idea that Rainbow Dash was afraid because... Well, she saw how callous and self-centered Lightning was. What more is she capable of? If she can nearly get five ponies (who have saved the world multiple times I might add) killed and shrug it off like it's nothing; even getting mad at Rainbow for being mad; whose to say she wouldn't stoop to outright killing in regards to someone who crushed her dreams?
So, I went the route I did in Does It Matter? where the character is dreaming. I handle it much better here though. One thing I think worked very well was the fake out that it's a dream halfway through the story. You think that Lightning has just cruelly murdered Scootaloo in front of Rainbow when Luna shows up and relieves us...... You know, I just now realized that this is the only time I've ever had Luna in one of my stories. Oh, well. She's overrated anyway (puts up shields and barricades). The story then goes to Rainbow grabbing Scootaloo and talking with Fluttershy. And I think that's what really made this fic special. I love the relationship Rainbow has with both Scootaloo and Fluttershy and I love how, behind that wall of ego is a very fragile person. I like how I worked that into the story.
This fic did get a little bit of controversy in regards to some of LD's fans. But at that point, I had already had my experiences with people who refuse to see the flaws of their waifus, so I decided to not bother with talking with them. However, that doesn't even compare to what went down with one of my favorites. We'll be getting to that very soon. 
STARLIGHT'S HELLFIRE
Surprisingly, this is the most polarizing fic I've ever made judging from the like-to-dislike ratio even though there wasn't so much as a negative comment or anything. I got the idea from Johnathon Young's Hellfire video. I basically just imagined it with Spotlight Stealer and this is what we got. I had fun not just with the song parody, but also in trying to convey the visuals. I could see them clearly in my head and I challenged myself to try and put it down in a way that was descriptive and not hinder the fic's flow because I was also trying to make the fic feel fast paced. I was also trying to properly convey Starlight's emotions as well as she loses it and decides to forsake her dream for the sake of revenge. So, a lot was going on here and I think I did a pretty good job with it.
Still not sure why so many dislikes... 
A CHAT AMONG DEVILS
I think it's quite clear by now that a lot of my fic are... spur of the moment. I get an idea and I run with it. And I felt like writing a fic about Tirek and Sombra fighting. This was interesting to do because pretty much the entire first chapter is an action scene. Action scenes are not easy to write because you have to detail the action while keeping a fast paced feel. I pulled it off pretty well and the rest was dialogue which is something I liek to think I'm pretty good at. I also did my best to have them utilize their many abilities and give them an even match.
I like to look at this fic as a good example of how much I've grown as an author. I mean, look at some of my older stories and then look at this. It's good to see that I am indeed improving and maturing.
TRIXIE GETS TAUGHT A LESSON
Oh man, do I love this one! To Change a Changeling is Trixie's worst act yet and that's saying a lot! And she didn't get punished or even called out for it! So, I was like 'screw what everyone thinks' and made a comedic torture porn where Trixie finally gets what she deserves. And at the hands of my beloved Limestone which is even better.
This fic got both a lot of love and a lot of hate. As the like-to-dislike ratio shows, there was surprisingly much mroe love than hate, but the haters let themselves be known. There are so many dislikes in the comment section to the point that it's truly ridiculous. I legit got 3 dislikes on a comment I made where literally all I did was thank a friend for liking the fic. Really, people? But in all honesty, the heat this fic got was hilarious to me. I don't know why, but seeing these Trixie heads get so mad was very amusing to me.
I've actually been contemplating making a bonus chapter about Starlight needing to care for an immobile Trixie to torture GlimSpam as well. Yeah... Yeah, I think I'll do that. (insert evil smile here)
PONY VS. POKEMON
I... I don't know. I just wanted to make a fic about Suri being captured by a crazy Pokemon-obsessed pony and being forced to face Pokemon, getting totally wrecked in the process. Umm... Yeah. That, uhh, that was a thing. It was pretty fun taking advantage of Pokemon's abilities and using it for slapstick, but the sequel will take better advantage of it.
This was that last fic I had made for, like, four months and the last I made in 2017. During that time, I had been dealing with... a lot of things. A lot of crap was going down and I lost the will to write. It wasn't until I started working with a friend that I got the spirit back in me.
OF ROCKS AND ROCS
After working with my friend, I finally got myself to do a writing exercise by writing a short story. One with Limestone and Marble and a roc. What's really funny is I was originally gonna use a pterodactyl before I remembered the rocs were a thing and would fit into Equestria lore (there's apparently gonna be one here in Season 8). I loved that I got the chance to write Limestone and Marble again, this time focusing on their relationship. And my favorite part (and it seems everyone's favorite part) was the punchline at the end. That's actually why I didn't use any story tags cuz I was sure that any that fit would give away the punchline at the ending.
PINKIE PIE IS REPLACED BY THE BABADOOK
This is probably the strangest story I've written yet which is saying something. This is the first and so far only replacement story I've made, which I had been wanting to do for a while and intend to do more in the future. This was actually done as a challenge me and a friend of mine were having where we gave each other prompts that we had to do in 24 hours. To write this fic, I watched The Babadook for the first time and went over how I could make the story work with Pinkie replaced by the demonic personification of grief. After some thought, I made it work and did so in a way that made it unique to the replacement subgenre in that it ended up not being a comedy, but a legit thriller. And somehow, I made it work. People were surprised by how scary it was.
I really tried to work with the psychological aspect and how the Babadook communicates through a book while playing mind games. It was really interesting and I'm proud with how it turned out.
RARITY AND THE CHUPACABRA
This is the only other story that was made through the writing challenge me and my friend had made. This time, I had decided to go with a cute approach with Chupa being a shy soul who just wants Rarity to make him a suit for the Monster Prom. I was able to squeeze in plenty of moments in there that I really like such as when Sweetie Belle charged in armed for battle. The fic really reminds you of how often Ponyville deals with this kind of stuff to the point they're just like 'Okay' and move on.
Unfortunately, my roll ended after that and... some other stuff happened. I once again lost my will to write, but I was determined to write something before my FIM-iversary. And as it got closer, I was beginning to doubt. Until yesterday.
"WHERE ARE THEY?!?!"
I've been obsessed with the Dazzlings lately. And there are so many fics I want to do with them starring. I knew if there was gonna be any writing before today, it was gonna be about our favorite siren trio. And what do you know it, just yesterday, I got the spark i needed to make this baby!
The idea for this actually comes from watching Nostalgia Critic's review of Norm of the North; specifically the Bill joke. The way Critic just goes into a panic because he can't find Bill always cracks me up and I thought 'Wait... Sonata would be perfect for something like that!' So, I made a story about Sonata not knowing where Adagio and Aria are and losing her crap over it. I also got some inspiration from one of thegreatcat14's Dazzlings comics where Sonata gets lost in a store.
I was originally going for a straight up comedy, but, while it's still funny, it's also got some sad moments; particularly when Sonata breaks down crying over the thought of her sisters abandoning her. Heck, my favorite part isn't any of the jokes, but when Sonata admits she thought they had abandoned her and Adagio and Aria are like 'Why would we ever do that?' with genuine confusion. Not only would they never do that, but they very thought of it is alien to them. I feel like that's a subtle yet very heartwarming moment. And this story has actually gotten more reception than any fic I've made since Trixie Gets Taught a Lesson, so I'm a happy boy right now.
Wow, that took, like, six hours to type... Anyway, once again, thank you all so much for helping for the support. It's been a heck of a year, but you guys have helped me though it and I'm so very grateful for that. Here's to another insane year. There's gonna be a lot of anger, but there's also gonna be a lot of love. And if the former is overwhelming, just remember the later.
Aaaand that's all for now. God bless you, bye bye. 
To much text for me so i will just say
HAPPY 1 YEAR!!!!⭐️🎉🎂
4824125
Fair enough. Thank you!
Nice blog, also Happy 1 Year anniversary dude. On the day of the season 8 premiere to how about that?
4824152
Yeah, how about that? Thanks, buddy,
Awesome! Happy Anniversary King!
The thought process behind these stories was very interesting, especially your latest fic, "WHERE ARE THEY?!?!" Awesome reference to the Nostalgia Critic!
Looking forward to many more of your work!
4824178
It was fun looking back on all these stories, even if it took half the day. Hopefully, my next projects will be born sooner than later.
Thank you, my friend.
Wow, only a year? I've been on FimFiction longer :O
Impressive number of stories for a year, I've posted like six and then removed half of them...
4824506
Yep.
Happy FIMiversary, King! Glad to have you here!
4824931
Thank you. Glad to be here!