Scars fade. Or heal. Whichever. · 9:56pm Apr 13th, 2018
As of today, Scars of the Quill is finished and up and online for everyone to read. Five months of dedicated work, plus a tiny bit last year (Sour Sweet's first two scenes), and it all led up to today.
I've mentioned this before, but I've had the rough idea for this story in my mind for years. A number of things happened as time went on to cause it to take on its current, finalized form, though there were parts of it that I always planned on having be part of the story - Quiver teaming with the Crusaders, Diamond Tiara's reform, her adventure in the Everfree Forest, and the disclosure on Quiver Quill's backstory. Getting to those points, however, changed over time, and things came along that ended up helping to improve the story. The show did me a big favor when it gave me Spoiled Rich, as she was the perfect thing to help bridge the gaps between Diamond's story and Quiver's.
Another thought that sprang into my mind came along when Friendship Games introduced us to Sour Sweet. Now, a lot of people were convinced that her mood swings throughout the film were due to some sort of mental illness. That's not impossible, but it just seemed cheap and uninspired to me, so I thought of an alternative. Crystal Prep comes across as a very high-pressure environment, thanks mostly to Abacus Cinch, and everyone reacts differently to stress - some thrive on it, some bottle up what it does to them, and some lash out. I myself tend to fall somewhere between the last two categories, as life has shown me time and again. No mental instability required, just a lot of pressure and frustration. That the Dance Magic special came along and reinforced my interpretation helped immensely.
That said, the big difference between the human version of Sour Sweet and the pony version depicted here is that the former never saw that her actions, her lashing out in anger, could have consequences, nor did she ever accept that fact. Pony!Sour in the Quiververse may not have gone to Crystal Prep and dealt with Abacus Cinch, but she did have to deal with an overbearing Stepford Smiler stage mom, which couldn't have been good for her. Similarly, so far as we know, the human world's Sour Sweet never saw just what sort of damage anger and rage can do when it's undeserved. It's led to some very unpleasant ideas about how things could be for Quiver in the human world...at least for my stuff. I'm not gonna presume there's a version of Quiver Quill running around in canon - I'm not that arrogant.
In any case, I've already elaborated upon how the wealthy aren't better than the poor simply because they're wealthy, and on the real life inspiration behind Quiver's life story. I'm genuinely, honestly surprised that I didn't receive a mass of downvotes over the revelations regarding Regal Grace, which means that I'm either not a big enough blip on people's radars, or I actually managed to write things in a way that didn't automatically piss people off. Which just reinforces my decision to cut some stuff from Quiver's backstory - I'd initially considered adding a bit where he'd been even more of a victim at the hooves of Primrose Thorn, and due to her actions had gotten into a situation where he'd count as a victim of physical assault, and never be able to report it due to fearing that he'd either not be believed, or that he'd be punished further. A third party would've been involved, a character by the name of High Note - he may yet still end up in the storyline, but we'll see how things go.
Another thing that changed was the ending. I hadn't initially intended to have Sunrunner show up at Quiver's doorstep, only establish that the two knew one another. Their actual reunion would've taken place in a story that I decided to cancel months before I started work on this, hints of which were included here - namely, Quiver receiving an invitation to his class reunion. Reliving old times isn't something one wants to do when everyone treated you like dirt, and Quiver is neither being forced to come back, nor is he the sort to shove his success in the faces of those who scorned him (assuming he'd been successful or that they'd acknowledge it). He's capable of being petty, but anger comes easier to him than being a smug jerk ever will.
Anyway, as I've probably said before, this story forms the first part in what I call the "Reunion Trilogy". I'm cautiously optimistic that the remaining two parts, Scars of the Sun and Many Happy Reunions, will be up and online before the end of this year. I've already written the first scene for the latter of those two stories, while I hope to start serious work upon the former before the end of this month. Fingers crossed that it's out in June.
Thank you! I'm glad that someone else feels that way. I really hate that whole fanon for Sour Sweet. It is cheap, and it plays into some unfortunate implications about mental illness, at least in my opinion. (Let me also say that your idea for Sour's mom has really taken root in my own headcanon. I have my own ideas for the other members of the Shadow Five, but Sour's Stepford-Smiler of a mother has really planted itself firmly in my opinion of why Sour is the way she is.)
Anyway, good job again with the story. I think it came out really great, and I look forward to seeing what more may come from the Quiververse. ^_^
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Woo! I've helped to establish headcanons! Sour isn't the only one that I've developed some ideas on, mind, just the first that I've been able to implement any of my headcanons for, and I'm looking forward to doing more with her immediate family as the story goes on. I even have some rough plans concerning her absent father, and why he left her and her mother. But those are stories for another day.
Glad that you enjoyed it. With any luck, the next one will turn out just as well.
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Of course. And count that I will be interested to see what will come of those ideas and stories
I've actually compiled a little list of headcanon material for the Shadow Five. I've been thinking of doing a blog post involving it, first so I can have more pony content there and not just movie reviews XD and second, because I've got a story with the Shadowbolts in the pipe, so there's that too.
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Feel free to share it whenever. I've built up some of my own, and it'd be interesting to see how your ideas compare to mine.
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Cool. I definitely would love some feedback, or discussion about such things ^_^