EoP-Spoiler-Cast on Sunday June 24th 2018 at 9pm EST - Come Learn the END of the End of Ponies · 5:55am Jun 19th, 2018
Art by LazyBonesPony
There's been something I've been meaning to do for a while now.
Well...
There's been something else I've been meaning to do for a while now.
I made it evident a while back that The End of Ponies has finally become the dead elephant it was always meant to be. I presume the "CANCELLED" tag made this more than evident. Some marsupials never fully embraced this, and I can't blame them. I'm not particularly proud of the fact myself, especially after so many broken promises. But I've got Background Pony under my belt, one-hundred-and-forty-nine other literary atrocities to throw onion rings at, an ongoing epic to return to, and an unread abomination to continually ignore. It's time to move on. It's been time to move on.
Needless to say, the End of Ponies still deserves a decent... end... even if it's a half-baked one. Nietzsche knows I've blarghed more than enough about it's inception. I now invite y'all to be in attendance at its execution.
To that end...
Official EoP-Spoiler Podcast
This Sunday, June 24th, 9pm EST (6pm Pacific)
(Unless Exceeding Circumstances Forces an Apocalypse on our... Horsepocalypse)
What is this "spoiler-cast," precisely? Well, a few of my fellow lemurs and I are gonna be live-streaming a long-ass session of me boringly narrating an abridged outline of how the rest of End of Ponies was going to go. It's not a thin outline, my friend. This is the closest thing anyone's gonna get to a legit reading session of the unwritten portions of my first beloved failure. I greatly suspect it will take at least three hours to get through. Perhaps more... unless I'm able to avoid it. F'naaaa.
The partners-in-crime scheduled to join me for this online broadcast are Propmaster, renaissance brony extraordinaire. The dayum fuzzhead himself, Ponky. Prismic, voice actor and hardcore worshipper of all things EoP. And local author, artist, and musician PiercingSight, who was the first soul to be spoiled the unwritten plot of EoP waaaaaaay back in 2012 and from whose chat logs I've dredged the stuff that my mind couldn't conjure up for this fated synopsis.
Long story short, we will be revealing the true END OF PONIES live for those of you crazy enough to listen. It'll be like a super special extended Princess Robot episode, but with more rambling lemurhood. Again, it'll be this coming Sunday the 24th of June around 9pm EST. A blargh will go up with a link at the time of broadcast. And if you miss it--don't worry. I'll link the recorded vidya in a follow-up blargh along with a text-based synopsis of EoP's ending so that you can just read the spoilage with your eyeballs if you like.
Finally, we can all just bury this dayum hatchet and allow me to get back to other burning train wrecks.
See y'all on the other side of the flame.
-SS&E
Praise our lord Skirts, who will reveal the end of times of ponies
its about dame time
We've done our waiting! 7 years of it! On Ponychan!
But na, excited this is finally happening
i am extremely sad to see it end like this, despite knowing it was dead, but i sure as hell understand, and i am damn sure i won't miss this. thank you.
I was so sad when you actually cancelled it... It meant I had to stop harassing you about it.
Do I have to blame fourths for this?
yea it sucks that such an epic story does not to get to see its proper ending ..it is still one of the best of all time but at least we get to know what was going to happen and how it will end ....maybe skirts will give his blessing to some other author of god tier talent and they can take this and forge the last chapters from it..
6 years I've been waiting for this: closure...
Get hype!
Oh boy! This is going to be seriously amazing. I have been waiting to hear the end of this for a long time. While I more than likely will not be there to watch it live (with work and all) I will catch the recording of it later.
Right after she say it could be worse the ship blows up and a ice dragon attacks
My body is ready.
...Is this the part where I bring up I still haven't read anything out of EoP?
Will you just stop calling it that? This story is a great masterpiece and I have no idea what could possibly make you think it isn't. But it doesn't deserve those words.
No, they aren't and they won't become happier if you execute the story like this.
You still have time. I know everyone wants to see how it continues and ends, but people can wait. I'm sure no one would put pressure on you if you just finish your other works first and then return to "The End of Ponies", even if it's in a few years.
There is still stime.
You can always continue it later. The story doesn't go anywhere, there isn't a need for something so drastic as a cancellation.
Please overthink this.
Edit: Look at how this fic returned after six years of being inactive:
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/4521/wild-sky-yonder
It's one many, many people here cherish, but it has much less fans than "The End of Ponies" and it was even longer abandoned than "The End of Ponies", yet the author brought it back anyway.
If this author could do this, then you can do this with "The End of Ponies", a story far more people love and want to see getting continued.
4885401
Will this mean the ending/direction of Red Wings also coming out of the old vault of forgotten memories? Either way, while I'm happy for the closure to the lingering plots and journeys it will never satisfy that desire for the great unfinished symphony of a pink-eyed mare wandering her existential wasteland. It's also where I can reminisce about the very quickly aborted side story I was working on that detailed Scoot's/Harmony's visit with Brae-burn and the buffalo tribes that resulted in the headdress she has in her possession. Flirtatious writing was never my strongest area though, and it was good that no one got to actually witness that abominable disaster.
I admit to being curious how the story ends. Thought it is quite fitting that the podcast that will summarize the ending will be long, obtuse, and contain far more words than necessary...
I know this is WILDLY out of order but if you have this outline and a large number of people wanting to read it instead of seeing it put out of it's misery, why not give it to some other marsupial to write out in full with only approval required on your part, maybe in that 'EOP: part 2' way you previously said is the only way it's continuing.
It'll be good to have some closure there. Looking forward to it.
4885432
That would still be better than cancelling it. But, really, if someone continues it, then he is the one who should do it.
It doesn't matter to me if that happens this year or in 2033, I can wait for this to happen.
Only The Skirts can bring this story to its fantastic, epic conclusion.
Well, I hope your spoken storytelling is as purple as your text.
Sadly, I will not be able to read the story in time to catch the stream, so make sure you host that shit somewhere. >.>
While I will always be sad to have seen it die I am very, very grateful for this closure. Thank you skirts.
Man, it's probably already been said, but do make sure this gets uploaded somewhere for posterity!
Man, on the one hand, I'm down for some closure after all these years. On the other hand, I'm still not ready to give up
4885472
Yes, upload this to Youtube or something.
4885409
If someone no longer has a love or drive for writing it, its not gonna happen.
4885488
I think Princess Robot tends to be streamed on YouTube.
Calendared.
Skirts, i ask this out of pure selfishness, but you mean an end for EoP, not SSaE, right? Cause I am not ready for that end.
Oh, neat. Now I can finally read EoP.
So...how can one experience this? Where will the podcast be?
Mother Fucker! you scheduled your cast on of all days, my best friends 21st birthday. How am I going to decide between getting shitfaced with my best friend whom I've known since pre-school, and boringly sitting at my computer listening to you prattle on about a story I never read.
Thank you very much for recording the podcast. I really want to read this gargantuan fic, but I haven't gotten around to it yet do to other gargantuan fics, and gargantuan lists of smaller fics. But yours still fascinates me, and I appreciate that there won't be an expiration date on the abridged ending.
Coincidently, I had Caleb Hyles covering Home playing while I was reading all this.
4885418
I think Red Wings is probably done. If I did want to pick it up, I'd want to re-write the entire thing, honestly, and I don't think I can really be bothered to do that. I've got more recent projects with more interest, my focus needs to lie there. I'd love to discuss Red Wings during the podcast, though, and maybe give some insight into the stuff Skirts and I were going to do with it as we crossed the stories over.
4885517
I disagree. And fake idealism like this disturbs me. A story of such proportions should never be cancelled, no matter the amount of effort it takes to pick it up again and continue it.
Darn, I won't be around that day but I would love to know what was going to happen. I hope someone will record and upload the podcast for those of us who couldn't make it
4885409
No offence mate but end of ponies has been a dead corpse for while at this point, people were just waiting for it to finally get buried.
People have moved on and think its best you did too
4885705
I don't know if you have noticed or not, but fanfiction is for fun. Skirts has no obligation to any of us. Hell, this is better news than far many more fics that just end with silence and the author either never talking about it again or straight up leaving the site. I have more than a handful of fics in my bookshelves and across other sites that are dead because the author got up and left with no warning.
You aren't his customer, and he isn't paid for this. He's only paid by fun, and if there's no fun, there's no words, end of story.
4885705
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/52/Brown_Leghorn_rooster_in_Australia.jpg/199px-Brown_Leghorn_rooster_in_Australia.jpg
Finally, after almost seven years, I can finally get my closure. I've reread the finished (but tossed) draft of the Petra Arc several times while waiting for its final version to be released one day and I was so disappointed when the cancelled tag was slapped on the story. I've been waiting for this for so long. I can't wait. I'll definitely be there.
4885705
Yeah, about that...
4885817
And you still fail to convince me. "The End of Ponies" isn't just any story. If you have such a good story that is loved by so many, you should continue it no matter what. If not for you, then for your fans and followers.
And this isn't about getting paid or not either. Money should always be the smallest motivator to continue a story. People being happy when a story gets continued, or rather, not making people sad when it suddenly gets abandoned, this is that counts. Money is just paper and metal.
Besides, I doubt the issue here is that it isn't fun for him anymore. From all the blog entries I read about the story lately, he seems to have lost the belief that it is a good story.
It's not a matter of lost fun or lost motivation, it's a matter of lost confidence. And this, above all things, should always get cured.
4885853
It is just any story, for many stories have gone the same way. Hell, this isn't the first fic he stopped writing. Google a fic called "These Black Eyes". Its fans made an entire forum just for that fic. Its been dead for years because he couldn't keep the enthusiasm going, and well, there's this horse show that caught his eye. If he did what you wanted him to do, End of Ponies would perhaps have never been born as he drove "These Black Eyes" to the ground.
Quoting some friends who have far better writing experience than I do:
aka, ever read/watched a sequel that sucked? This is what you are advocating. Skirts forcing himself to finish EoP will result in a tired bland mess because if he can't enjoy what he writes, how likely is it that everyone else is going to enjoy it either?
4885869
I still think you're wrong about that. And the rest of your comment is just fearmongering. Writing styles can be analyzed, your own too, and for a skilled author like him, it wouldn't be hard to write new chapters of it as he always did. Still no legit reason to cancel it.
Writing quality is not dependent on motivation. It is dependent on skill, practice and the discipline to continue and do your best, even if you sometimes have to force yourself to write.
And to such a good story like "The End of Ponies", you owe a continuation. Letting a story of such a magnitude die would be wrong.
4885871
Coming from someone who has followed EoP since initial releases on Ponychan, recorded forty chapters worth of audiobook for it, literally owned the website "endofponies.com" for years, and one of the few people who knows and is now about to discuss the true ending, I think it's fair to say I'm a pretty big fan of this story. And I disagree with you strongly. Don't confuse the desire to get that ending you want in the way you want with actually being the best/right route for anyone, or as being something that anyone is owed. That ship has long since sailed. I know it's disappointing to see a story that was so epic go out that way, and I was too for the longest time. But it's not the end of the world (ironically), and acknowledging that it's dead is actually a good and healthy thing.
It may not be in the way you want, but when the ending was shared with me, I found it extremely satisfying simply to have that door finally closed, and thankful that Skirts was willing to share even that much. I'm even more thankful now that he's willing to give it this final proper goodbye by sharing it with everyone, so it can finally be laid to rest and we can all move forward from here. He didn't owe it to anyone though.
I'm glad you enjoyed it so much. But please, don't sour it with things like what people are "owed", or using words like "practice", "discipline", "skill". You may not realize it, but that comes across as pretty condescending and insulting to someone who has written millions upon millions of horsewords, for free, and writes darn near every day. Breathe in, tune in on Sunday, enjoy the long awaited closure, breath out, and move forward in peace.
4885968
Coming from another author who already went through both mental and physical pain to get a promised story or story chapters out and made it a vow for himself to never cancel a story and to finish every story that was started, regardless of how long it takes:
A story, provided it's written well, is something that holds value. To the author, to the fans of it, to everyone who ever laid eye on it and enjoyed it.
If an author decides to cancel a story, this is a very extreme step and it is the most unnecessary step to respond to things such as writer's block, lost motivation or, as it seems to be the case in Skirts' case here, the feeling that the story isn't good enough to continue it.
An author, is not just a person who tells stories. An author is someone who brightens the day of others with their stories and gives them something to love. Unless a story an author has written is unpublished and was never shown to anyone, this is something that you simply can't take away without hurting the readers and fans of it. And you also can't do it without hurting the story itself. A story is meant to be finished, every story is.
Now there are of course differences. If a story is only read by 10 or 20 people, it will create less pain if it gets cancelled than a story that is read by several thousand people would at cancellation. The same goes for stories that are bad; much less people will be affected if it gets cancelled and the story itself would benefit from a better rewrite.
"The End of Ponies", is neither of those. It is a story that is brilliant and that affects many people if it gets cancelled.
I am of the philosophy that no story ever, regardless its quality and its fan following, should ever get cancelled. Because cancellation is a drastic step that can get avoided in 99% of the cases that might make an author abandoning a story for a longer time and because every story has value, regardless of how many read it or if the author still needs to learn a lot about writing.
But in the case of a story like "The End of Ponies", a cancellation is of a much more severe and grave impact than the cancellation of a story with a tiny following would be.
I would never see it as an okay thing to cancel any story, but there are stories that are better than others and there are stories that have become more than simply stories. There are stories that have become miracles, by their sheer writing quality, by the immersion they create and by the effect they have on readers because of all of these things. Stories that became special that way.
And "The End of Ponies" is such a special story. In the case of a story like this, the author should always consider ALL options to continue a story and to avoid cancellation.
I am not saying that Skirts doesn't care about his readers or his stories, regardless of how much you try to paint me like this for the sake of having an argument against my point.
But in the case of "The End of Ponies", although abandoned for five years now, Skirts has lots of solutions left to continue this story at a future date.
He has come very far with this story, he has the end of it planned, he has enough notes to write everything he needs to reach this end and he has everything that he has written for it so far to read it again and to get back into the spirit of the story for the refresher he will need after all these years.
And, most importantly, he is a masterful author who has the the talent, the skill, the practice and the experience to pull off the task of continuing even a story of that magnitude that "The End of Ponies" has after years of not writing a single word for it.
What keeps Skirts from doing that is the feeling that, after all these years, it would be pointless to continue it, that too much time has passed to do that.
But a good story, and especially such a good one as "The End of Ponies", is timeless. There is no right or wrong time to continue a story like this. It is always possible to continue a story like this, be it after five years or after ten years.
In Skirts' case here with "The End of Ponies", it would be best if he goes back, reads all of it from the start, focuses on what he has accomplished with it and relieves the time during which he has written everything of it, before he gets back to his notes for future chapters and starts continuing it.
Whether he does that now or only after he finished his "Austraeoh" series, if this has higher priority for him, does not matter.
Regardless of how low your motivation to continue a certain story is as an author, it is always possible to kick yourself in the flank and to rekindle that old spirit that drove you forward to write chapter after chapter of that story in the past.
And especially for a skilled and passionate author like Skirts, who has probably written more than any other author in the entire fandom, this is something that is possible.
Discipline to continue and finish what you started is the most important tool of an author and this is something Skirts can do, even if he doesn't believe in that right now, and for "The End of Ponies", it is something that should be done, because this story is one of the special ones the likes of which you don't encounter often.
There are always many better ways than cancelling any story, but for "The End of Ponies", a story that is of such a quality and that has accomplished so much, cancelling it would be one of the wrongest things one can do.
Skirts should continue this story, whenever that may happen. "The End of Ponies" isn't supposed to die. It is one of these special stories that deserve a proper end and a grand finale.
End of Ponies was what got me into this silly fandom in the first place and while it may be cancelled, it still holds a special place in my heart. Despite how much you talk negatively of it, I still regard it as a fantastic story, easily one of the best on this site. I look forward to some sort of closure after all these years, even if its not all I wanted.
4886075
That's a lovely personal philosophy. But, like a headcanon, it's just that: personal. Being upset with someone else for not living up to it is, at best, ridiculous.
4886075
You're an incredibly selfish person. I just want to float that out there.
You talk a whole lot about how skirts has the ability to continue the story, and how he owes it to you to continue the story. You talk about how he could finish the story with some more discipline. Or how he could finish the story with more time. Or how he could finish the story with an attitude adjustment. All of this and more, simply because he apparently owes it to you.
You spend so damn long worrying about if he can finish the story.
I can't help but notice you don't seem to care one bit about if he wants to.
You're selfish. You don't care about the author, or what he wants, or his own happiness. All you care about is what you want, and what makes you happy. You even said as much yourself! You said that it's your own philosophy that no story should get cancelled, and in true selfish form you want everyone else to follow your philosophy.
Well, Skirts isn't your slave. And my philosophy is that he should do whatever he wants to do, because he's a free lemur allowed to make free choices. Whatever he chooses to do with his stories is what's going to happen, and you'd do well to learn that they belong to him. Not you.
4886143
👏👏🙏
#preachit
4886143
dam roasted that guy