The End of Ponies - Spoilers, Story Reveal, and AMA · 12:40pm Jun 27th, 2018
Courtesy of Prismic
Hey, y'all.
We had a fucking Podcast:
The ^^^above^^^ vidya was a truly blissful experience, most especially thanks to Propmaster (who hosted), Ponky (who provided the fuzz), PiercingSight (who provided the buzz), and Prismic (who provided the BUHHHHHHHHHHHS). The podcast went over by only an extra hour and a half... but most everyone who listened didn't appear to mind too much. Which is a good thing. Cuz my throat sure did mind by the end of it all. Even still, I wouldn't trade the experience for anything.
The situation was made all the sexier by Prismic providing a butt load of pictures "live" during the podcast. You can look at the gallery here. Watching it while listening to the podcast makes for a magical experience.
Art by PonykillerX
But that's probably not what y'all are here for. I promised a text-based version of the spoilage for your own perusal. The problem is, even for an outline it's waaaaaaaaaaaay too big for a blargh post. So I'm just gonna link to the Google Drive link. So, without much further fappery:
Just click that link and read to your heart's content. It's the same thing I read while doing the podcast; I used it as my "guide." So you can more or less read along while listening to the broadcast and it'll be like we're performing... uhm... fusion.
And, if you wanna have it even more anorexic, here's a super-stupid-slimline-version of the outline:
Petra 2.0 (HHH Edition)
-Less kaizo
-Warden is more subdued
-Heavier focus on Vaughan/Razzar as a potential sister figure to Scootaloo
-Sibling themes with Warden/Scootaloo, Razzar/Raimony, Scootaloo/Razzar
-Devo's less wordy and annoying
-Haman is main antagonist
-Two Timelines instead of three: Past Scootaloo in ruins of Cloudsdale/Present Scootaloo in Petra
-Past Scootaloo savagely beaten / Saved by Devo / Grows wings back healthy to fly
-Scootaloo assists Vaughan/Razzar in various sabotage acts against Petra's enslavement
-When Razzar reveals intent to destroy all of Petra, Scootaloo conflicts with her
-Scootaloo is seemingly wounded and rendered flightless
-Scootaloo comes back to kick Razzar's ass with train battlePetra 3.0 (Amnesiac Edition)
-Still only two timelines, but with the past scenes interwoven through flashbacks
-Scootaloo finds Warden outside the Monkey'o'Dozen Den and takes him to Petra
-Haman's faction enslaves Warden / Scootaloo goes full ham on enslavers to free him
-Scootaloo shot—rendered both amnesiac and flightless
-Scootaloo is thrown into the slave prison full of goblins by Haman's group
-Scootaloo—in a fugue state—believes she is Rainbow Dash and that the Cataclysm never happened
-RED WINGS CROSSOVER
-Scootaloo instills hope and charisma with the prisoners / Haman prisons her and the rest
-Scootaloo is thrown to the ruins of Cloudsdale, discovers Rainbow's remains, awakes with a scream
-Scootaloo goes full Punisher on Haman's faction and frees the slavesRainbow Dash Arc
-Harmony arrives to screw up the first leg of Rainbow Dash's Wonderbolts tryouts
-Through clever means, Harmony makes herself Rainbow Dash's “wing partner” for training
-More Wonderbolts tryouts—impressing the judges
-Ghastly Gorge Race – Harmony would rather safe a random bystander than win the race
-Rainbow starts to warm up to Harmony
-Scene with “Half-wings” at the bar
-Skybreak Point
-Meeting goblins / learning about the pegasi' cruel treatment of goblins
-Arcane Zeppelins – Self-fulfilling property
-Gilda “punching” scene
-Harmony steals opportunity to use Observatory of Nebula / Rainbow Dash casually joins
-Airship escort trip to Zebrahara
-Harmony learns that Rainbow Dash is “homeless” in a pegasus way
-Sarosians attack, desperate for weather spells / Rainbow Dash and Harmony give chase then relent
-Rainbow Dash announces that she's planning to leave Ponyville to pursue her interests alone
-Return trip / Learning about cyclone / Redirecting cyclone
-Goblins are in the path of the cyclone / Cloudsdalians don't care / Harmony does
-Harmony plans to single-handedly save the goblins / Rainbow Dash helps
-Epic cloud kicking of cyclone / goblins saved
-Rainbow Dash punished by being refused registration into the Wonderbolts
-Rainbow Dash and Harmony visit the goblins / Devo and Rainbow Dash connect over container
-Final moment atop cloud at nightRarity Arc
-Spike and Scootaloo need to map the present night's sky to compare to the star chart from the past
-Spike has built a magical telescope, but it needs a special enchanted prism to function
-Scootaloo needs to go back in time and get Rarity to enchant the prism, which will take months
-Spike conjures up a special, longer-lasting flame
-Scootaloo befriends Brucie more
-Scootaloo enlists Brucie's help in reaching the Valley of Jewels
-Helljump into war between Mountain Ogres and Fire Ogres
-Scootaloo discovers zeppelin with Rarity's and Sweetie Belle's remains
-Messages from the past / attack from the ogres / wild leap into the path to avoid death
-Sniper bullet messes up Scootaloo's Entropan cohesion / her avatar doesn't have a voice box
-Rarity assumes Harmony is chauffeur, names her “Anastasia,” and enlists her help in traveling abroad
-Harmony plays along, transporting Rarity to various philanthropist ventures throughout Equestria
-Meeting with Fancy Pants / plans to attract fundraisers locally during Summer Sun Celebration
-Harmony interjects / suggests building zeppelin for event / zeppelin requires enchanted prism
-Fancy Pants agrees / Rarity relents / Harmony works on zeppelin in between driving Rarity around
-mysterious calamitous events plague Harmony and Rarity
-1) Ditzy at post office / 2) mine collapse and assassin / 3) chariot sabotage and past Harmony
-Melancholic Rarity has mysterious meeting at Trottingham mansion
-4) Rarity collapses—poisoned—during kitchen fire / Ditzy and Zecora arrive suddenly to help
-After Zecora heals Rarity, Harmony “flies back” to the present
-Scootaloo grabs Rarity's remains and hoofs it hardcore back to Ponyville / asks Spike for more flame
-Harmony goes back in time to start of Rarity arc and everything repeats / Harmony remains stealthed
-Rarity has paid Sarosian assassins to kill her / Harmony 2.0 saves her each time
-Harmony listens in on Trottingham meeting / learns about super ebil grandparents
-Harmony 2.0 sets it up for Ditzy and Zecora to save Rarity
-Harmony 2.0 confronts Rarity and speaks to her after everything / truth revealed
-Rarity helps Harmony build the zeppelin as a therapeutic act
-Flight in zeppelin / Harmony gives Rarity messages of hope
-Mayor Mare and whole town come together to save Rarity's financial situations
-With the prism stowed somewhere, Harmony returns to the future / gifts to Spike and BrucieGriffon Mount / Prism Arc
-Starts in media ras with interwoven flashbacks
-To map present day stars, Scootaloo must climb to highest point of Equestria above clouds
-Her destination is Griffon Mount / it is full of Shelobish spiders from Tartarus
-Sneaking quest through the upper heights of spider lair with Celestia's mirror
-Moment atop mountain top with revelation of the location of Onyx Eclipse
-The Onyx Eclipse struck Canterlot just days after Summer Sun CelebrationTwilight Sparkle Act One
-Original plan has this arc possessing an alternative plot: second person through young Scoots' eyes
-Spike has Twilight Sparkle's ashes in a vial around his neck; he's been keeping it this whole time
-Harmony goes back in time to inform Twilight what she's learned under the guise of a Canterlot clerk
-Harmony materializes in front of Twilight and Cheerilee
-Mane 5 and others show up, practically tackling Harmony / this calms Cheerilee and WoWs Twilight
-Twilight has a “science camp” for young foals but she agrees to help Harmony study
-Revelation of Chronicles of Harmony book that Twilight is working on
-Twilight obsesses over grilling Harmony on friendship lessons in light of what she's accomplished
-Series of flashbacks—courtesy of the research Scootaloo and Twilight do into the past
-Epona and Consus and The Plains of Harmony
-The Foundation of Equestria
-The births of Entropa, Nebula, Elektra, Gultophine, and Celestia
-The discovery of Discord
-The Onyx Eclipse and the tragedy of Consus
-The Exodus of Epona
-The Chaos Wars
-The “Birth” of Princess Luna / Binding to the Moon-and-remains-of-Consus
-The Solar Civil War
-The Siege of Whinniepeg / mention of “Sarosian Tome”
-Twilight and Harmony learn that there's a special ancient book held by the Lunar Imperialists
-This “Sarosian Tome” might have further explanations of the Onyx Eclipse
-Meanwhile, young Scootaloo and the CMC experience a teleportation accident
-With memories catching up to her, Harmony helps the Ponyvilleans find the Crusaders
-Heartfelt moment between “mysterious clerk” and young Scootaloo
-Harmony learns that Sarosian Tome is being held in Manehattan / promises to return
-Scootaloo goes back to the future and tells Spike that she needs to explore ruins of Manehattan
-Spike—sicker than before—confesses that he is in fact in the process of dyingTwilight Sparkle Arc Part One (alternative version)
-Field trip to Fillydelphia?/Manehattan?
-Shining Armor, Chrysalis, Changelings, WTF?
-Changeling zappage throws Harmony into Entropan flux
-Assassin Creed Animus shit with ancestors of Twilight Sparkle
-”Flashbacks” are seen in real time through Harmony's time-displaced eyes
-Harmony—with Spike's help from the future—returns to Twilight's time and kicks Chrysalis' ass
-RED WINGS CROSSOVER?Tartarus Arc(???)
-Wasteland adventure arc that precedes Manehattan trip
-Scootaloo and a bunch of former goblin slaves infiltrate depths of post-Cataclysm Tartarus
-Raiding sepulcher of Starswirl the Bearded for special horns to unlock vault in Manehattan
-Establishing the goblins as supporting roles for eventual fic climaxManehattan Arc One
-Spike is dying and Scootaloo now finds her quest limited by time
-Manehattan is full of harpies and entering the city will be difficult on her own
-Scootaloo goes to MODD and asks Pitt for assistance in finding willing mercenaries
-Gilliam and the dirigible dogs are alive and Pitt has sold Scootaloo out
-With the repaired Dogs' Bollocks hovering outside, the dogs and monkeys bind Scootaloo
-Scootaloo fights back / epic bar fight with the tavern careening off the mountain
-The MODD crashes to splinters at the bottom of the mountain / Scootaloo stages daring escape
-After losing the Dog's Bollocks, Scootaloo has nobody else to turn to—nobody but Gilda
-Gilda offers Gilda Princess Celestia's journal as payment for passage into Manehattan
-Stowe scoffs at Scootaloo but Gilda is sincerely worried
-Trip to Manehattan via the Talon / development of Stowe as a spiteful antagonist
-The Golden Gang drop Scootaloo off at Manehattan
-Scootaloo sneaks her way through sunken city, avoiding harpy flocks
-Scootaloo enters archives and finds Sarosian tome
-Harpies wander near / Scootaloo is found / flight to dead end / hiding tome
-Scootaloo grabs random pony's remains and uses jar of Spike's flame to go back in time to...Trixie Arc
-Harmony materializes in Trixie's dressing room in Canterlot
-Trixie wants Harmony GONE / Harmony can't risk returning to the present if there are harpies around
-Harmony sticks to Trixie like glue, even if it means invading her on-stage act
-Harmony improves the act / Trixie gets warm reception / Trixie warms up to Harmony
-Show after show, Trixie and Harmony take Canerlot by storm
-Trixie reveals her Sarosian genes / photosensitivity / lack of cutie mark / admiration for Luna
-Harmony shares all the lessons of friendship she's learned from time travel
-Moment with miniature rainbow signal
-Harmony enjoys laid-back mirth of living among Equestrian culture in Canterlot
-Trixie and Harmony are booked for a high profile performance in Opera House
-Octavia encounter and Harmony's moment of supreme tranquility
-Summoned to balcony seat – hory shiet Princess Celestia(!)
-Harmony breaks down / tries to spill the beans on the Cataclysm / loses cohesion...Manehattan Arc Two
-Scootaloo is whisked back to the present—surprise(!) the harpies are still there
-Clumsy escape / Scootaloo grabs book and flies out of building / harpies pursue
-Breakout into open air of Manehattan / Scootaloo gets scar
-Golden Gang intervene / ripping harpies apart / Gilda throws Scootaloo onto Talon and they GO
-Stowe, angry over lost time, gets in Scootaloo's face / Gilda shows her her place
-Scootaloo returns to Spike / they plan a magical bullshiet way for her to learn contents of tome
-Accelerated time bubble + retention spell / Scootaloo is shot back to Twilight in the pastTwilight Sparkle Arc Two
-Harmony materializes in Golden Oaks library, scribbling notes EVERYWHERE
-Harmony collapses / wakes up much later to Princess Celestia / emotional moment
-Twilight Sparkle is studying notes transcribed from the tome / Luna and Celestia weigh in
-Narrative shifts to Mane 6 as a whole as Harmony switches anchors over time
-Twilight Sparkle reveals the “Harmony Spell” - Rainbow Signal
-Slice of Life scenes reveal that most of the fic's cast are converging for Summer Sun festivities
-Twilight Sparkle shines magical light on Harmony and proves she's Scootaloo
-Scootaloo breaks down in front of Twilight but can't reveal the full truthScootaloo vs the Dirigible Dogs
-Scootaloo returns to a horrible scene in the present
-Gilda and the Golden Gang have turned on Scootaloo
-After interrogating and torturing Brucie, the Golden Gang bring dirigible dogs and Pitt to Ponyville
-Spike is injured and chained / Scootaloo and Brucie are bound / Ponyville is wrecked
-Scootaloo tries to reach out to Gilda, but it's too late / Gilliam's crew and Golden Gang take Spike
-Pitt and his pals take Brucie and Scootaloo to Spike's garden to be murdered
-Resistance / Scuffle / Epic Reverse Time Fight / Pitt dies
-Brucie dies
-Scootaloo alone in ruins of Ponyville
-Discovery of Celestia's Journal in Harmony / Gilda relays coordinates to Dog's Bollocks
-Scootaloo rebuilds zeppelin and chases after Dog's Bollocks
-Spike has been interrogated / eye ripped out / Stowe and Gilliam want his green flame
-Scootaloo stages crazy raid of Dog's Bollocks / epic fight scene with Macguyver scooter
-With Gilda's last-second help, Scootaloo and Spike stage escape
-Spike flames Gilda, Scootaloo, and zeppelin to Canterlot (“where it all began”)Twilight Sparkle Arc Three
-Spike is dying / Scootaloo's running out of resources / Gilliam's crew know where she is
-Spike, Scootaloo, and Gilda have to hold out in Canterlot as a storm is coming
-Spike conjures enough just enough breaths for going back to the past
-Harmony revisits Twilight Sparkle / learns that the Onyx Eclipse is unavoidable
-Luna and Celestia decide to keep Equestrians in the dark about their fate
-Twilight distraught
-Rainbow Dash shows feelings for Harmony / Harmony tells her to look after Scootaloo
-Bittersweet dinner with Harmony and the Mane 6 / Rainbow Dash proposes toast
-Chekov's gun for the “Harmony spell” via Rainbow Dash
-As the group parts way, Harmony visits her past self slumber partying at Golden Oaks
-Harmony doesn't remember this past encounter / she returns to the future, angry
-Scootaloo confronts Spike about the fact that his “time immutability” mandate is BULLSHIT
-Spike insists that the past can't be changed / Scootaloo refuses this
-Using flame, Harmony goes back to Twilight Sparkle and comes up with last-second plan
-Twilight and Harmony use arcane vaults to shield Luna and Celestia at Canterlot
-Whoops, young Spike's there / Onyx Eclipse strikes / Something goes wrong / Harmony returns
-Scootaloo uses flame on Trixie's ashes
-Harmony carries Trixie speedily towards Canterlot to outrace Onyx Eclipse
-Various scenes of the Mane Six dying to the Cataclysm
-Harmony's zapped back to the present, distraught that she “caused the Cataclysm”
-Spike provides flashback to time of Onyx Eclipse striking / young Spike killed Twilight
-Scootaloo sympathetic / Spike determined / the plan is now to murder young Spike in the cribClimax
-Spike is so weak that—at this point—he can only conjure up one last breath
-Spike insists that they must send Scootaloo back in time to murder Spike in the crib
-Scootaloo and Gilda have to hold out against Gilda and Stowe and give Spike time
-Scootaloo and Gilda set up traps and explosives all across the ramparts of Canterlot
-During downtime, Scootaloo writes final journal entry, sobbing her eyes out
-Scootaloo leaves journal in throneroom with Spike / Gilda announces company
-After Scootaloo flies into action, Spike spits tiny patch of flame on journal and a scroll
-Big battle with Gilliam, Stowe, Golden Gang, and Dirigible Dogs
-Harmony sacrificed to destroy Gilliam and Dog's Bollocks
-Gilda kills off Golden Gang except for Stowe who owns her
-Spike summons Scootaloo / Scootaloo sent back in time with Spike's last flame breath
-Harmony looms over filly Twilight Sparkle and infant Spike in Canterlot home
-Harmony can't bring herself to murder Spike and she's zapped back in time
-Delirious Spike wastes away / Scootaloo plays part of “Twilight Sparkle” and comforts Spike
-Spike dies
-Stowe wastes Gilda / prepares to fire rocket at throneroom
-Scootaloo carves into Spike's remains and rips out fire gland
-Throneroom collapses / Scootaloo flies out with flame gland and remains of Twilight
-Last moments of Gilda / Stowe attacks
-Stowe rips Scootaloo's wings off / Scootaloo shrinks into a filly from flame
-Scootaloo exposes flame to Stowe, destroying her
-Scootaloo makes suicide dive off Canterlot mountain for Twilight's remains / rips flame gland apart
-Harmony is thrown back in time / vision of Entropa / Harmony pleads with her
-Entropa intervenes / Harmony “fused” to her anchor, Twilight Sparkle at time of Onyx Eclipse
-Harmony convinces Twilight Sparkle to fire the “Harmony Spell”
-Harmony sends rainbow signal high into the sky / Harmony is the signal / Harmony dies
-Chapter One – This time Rainbow Dash sees the signal – Flies EAST (lulz)
-Mane Five see the signal, remember Rainbow's toast, rush towards Canterlot
-Rainbow Dash catches up with the Mane Five and helps rush them towards Canterlot
-Mane Five—with friendship and Elements of Harmony—give Twilight the focus she needs
-Twilight repels the Onyx Eclipse
-Equestria is saved from the Cataclysm
-Scootaloo's journal materializes via young Spike's breath
-Rarity reads Spike's message and various heartfelt entries / Mane Six learn that Scootaloo's an orphan
-All of Ponyville—led by Rainbow Dash—intervenes on young Scootaloo's behalfEpilogue
-Skybreak Point
-Twilight's letter to Princess Celestia
-Memorial to Cloudsdale, future Scootaloo, future Spike
-Spike learning to fly with dragon wings / Trixie and dragon apprentice
-Rainbow Dash shares feelings with older Scootaloo
-Description of Scootaloo's cutie mark / infinity symbol hourglass with rainbow sand
And for those of you feeling super bored and nerdy, here's a transcription of a file called TLPnotes.txt that was last modified in September of 2011:
Brevity Immeasureably
Runes
H'jem - "open"
H'jnor - "close"
W'nyhhm - "lock"
Y'hnyrr - "release"
H'rhnum - "burst"
W'lynmh - "gas"
M'wynhrm - "expel"===CHAPTER ONE===
FLASHBACK
-Scootaloo is placed into arcane vault by Rainbow Dash for safety
-Scootaloo witnesses the destruction of Cloudsdale from within vault
-brief snapshot of ecliptical explosionFUTURE
-Harmony's eyes twitch
-Harmony in zeppelin
-Harmony touches zeppelin down besides ruins of Canterlot
-Harmony navigates ruins of Canterlot; infiltrates royal quarters; picks up one or two artifacts
-Harmony narrows in on prey
-Battle with the Phoenix
-Phoenix turns to ashes; Harmony bottles it as it rezzes / "Welcome to my life"-Harmony arrives at rendezvous coordinates in zeppelin / fires flare / Dirigible Dog Ship appears
-Harmony boards Dog Ship / Dogs gossip about her
-Harmony gives dogs the bottled Phoenix / Dogs double cross her
-Harmony stages dashing escape / reveals Pegasus wings and flies to zeppelin / disenchants rune seal of the Phoenix bottle by remote
-Dog ship goes down in flames===CHAPTER TWO===
FUTURE
-Series of past and present scenes of Harmony exploring various landscapes via zeppelin and hooves
-Playing Octavia's music in the background
-Journal entry intertwining scenes-Harmony meets with flying squirrel airship / trades goods / buys more firestones
-Harmony uses firestones to fix rainbow light rig / monologue on rainbows and hope / firing up the rainbow light into the Twilight
FLASHBACK
-variation/continuation of destruction-of-cloudsdale memoryFUTURE
-Harmony wakes to noisy signal
-takes off from rainbow light rig area in time to avoid creatures of the night
-flying off into the Twilight
-final Journal Entry===CHAPTER THREE===
FUTURE
-Harmony arrives at mountain bar/rest stop for pilots
-"Monkey o Dozen Den" (M.O.D.D.)
-Gossips and rumors about Harmony and the Dirigible Dogs
-Getting Contract about the Green Flame in ruins of Ponyville
-Run in with Gilda-Harmony returns to Ponyville
-Haunting exploration
-Run in with Hippograph Pirateers after Harmony's bounty
-Fight and flight
-Purple dragon steps in and wipes out Hippographs / chases Harmony
-Harmony is chased into a corner / helpless as dragon's green flame envelopes herPAST
-Harmony is at Ponyland School recess, by a lake / she's overwhelmed by the beauty and innocenceFUTURE
-Harmony returns to the future in hysterics
-Dragon refers to her as "Scootaloo"
-Scootaloo recognizes dragon as "Spike"
Tearful Reunion===CHAPTER FOUR===
FUTURE
-Spike brings Scootaloo to lair beneath Twilight Sparkle's old home
-Explanation of time travel and the green flame
-Spike propositions Scootaloo into visiting the past to get a better idea what led to the Cataclysm / he insists caution and subtlety / Scootaloo pretends to play along
-Spike tells Scootaloo to close her eyes / sprinkles ashes on her / she learns in horror that it's Cherilee's ashes / Spike sends her back in time with breath of green fire before she can protestPAST
-Scootaloo appears at schoolyard / she realizes that her appearance is anything but her natural body / she has a bizarre cutie mark with the 'infinity' symbol
-Scootaloo presents herself to Cherilee and an entire classroom
-Scootaloo throws hesitance to the wind and all but screams in Cherilee's face that the 'world is going to end' and that 'she needs to see Celestia now'
-The entire classroom is frightened, including Cherilee / local guardsmen are called / Scootaloo is wrestled down
-Scootaloo is thrown into jail / suddenly she's whisked away via tongues of flameFUTURE
-Scootaloo appears in the present before an unamused Spike
-Spike admits to having brought her back early / he gets Scootaloo to confess that she went back on her promise to be subtle
-Spike agrees to let her go into the past again, if this time she promises for real to take into consideration the feelings and sensibilities of the past ponies and play things safer
-Scootaloo agrees
-Spike sends her on a quest to fetch the ashes signaled to her by an enchanted dragon tooth-Scootaloo follows the signals of the tooth
-She arrives at the ruins of Sweet Apple Acres / Discovers the remains of the Apple family / finds and collects the ashes of Apple Jack
-She stops briefly to observe the ruins of the CMC ClubhouseFLASHBACK
-Scootaloo and Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell
-It's inferred that Scootaloo has no family to return home toFUTURE
-Scootaloo returns to Spike
-Spike sprinkles Scootaloo with Apple Jack's ashes and sends her to the past===CHAPTER FIVE===
PAST
-Scootaloo at Sweet Apple Acres / adopts the name of 'Harmony' / uses the suggestiveness of her cutie mark to adopt the persona of a Royal Inspector for Her Highness Princess Celestia
-"Harmony" helps an initially disdainful Apple Jack with apple bucking
-Harmony accidentally falls out of range of Apple Jack's enchantmentFUTURE
-Scootaloo arrives in the present, breathless
-Spike chides her on going out of bounds / gives her more flame and encourages her to try againPAST
-Apple Jack warms up to Harmony and accepts her help the next day
-Harmony not-so-stealthily finds a spot outside Sweet Apple Acres to sleepFLASHBACK
-Young Scootaloo struggles under homeless conditionsPAST
-Apple Jack wakes Harmony / Harmony makes an excuse about being at the farm bright and early to resume apple bucking
-Apple Jack and Harmony work even harder than the previous day
-Per Harmony's 'royal advice', the two make good time in harvesting apples
-Apple Jack warms up to Harmony and invites her to stay overnight in the 'guest room'
-Warm, toasty, but bittersweet scenes of Harmony observing Apple Jack's family
-Stargazing?
-Harmony asks Apple Jack what one must do to get an appointment with Princess Celestia / Apple Jack can't help Harmony, but mentions that there's an upcoming Gala that Fluttershy is scheduled to provide musical accompaniment toFUTURE
-Scootaloo abruptly returns to the present / depressed at surroundings / tells Spike that her next bet is Fluttershy===CHAPTER SIX===
FUTURE
-Spike shares with Scootaloo jars with his green flame contained / explains to her how to use them-Scootaloo ventures into the ruins of the EverFree Forest
-(fight with monsters?)
-Recovering Fluttershy's ashesPAST
-Harmony not so graciously lands besides a lake near Fluttershy's cottage / startles little filly / asks for a sip from her cantene / "And try listening to your parents next time." "What do you mean?" "You really shouldn't talk to strangers." "I'm not scared." "Oh really? It isn't a very safe world, yanno." "What makes you so sure?" "I exist."
-Harmony has to *force* Fluttershy into seeing her, using her 'royal authority'
-Harmony urges Fluttershy into training animals to sing in advance for the Gala
-Fluttershy begins to open up about herself / Harmony questions Fluttershy on her reticence to be around other ponies / analogy of Last Pony - Lonely Pony
-Fluttershy feels that she needs one element: a singing creature that she is too terrified to tame
-Harmony goes into Everfree Forest to tackle creature and tame it / she wins Fluttershy's trust
-Fluttershy takes Harmony to Ponyville to introduce her to Twilight and bridge the gap between them and Princess Celestia / Harmony vanishes before they can reach Ponyville===???===
FLASHBACK
-Young Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash cuddling on a cloud overnight / Rainbow Dash fulfill's an older sister role for ScootalooFUTURE
-Ruins of Cloudsdale / Rainbow Dash's ashesPAST
-Porting into thin air / sudden race with Rainbow Dash / Ecstasy and frustration / Tackling Rainbow Dash to get to the point
-Rainbow Dash takes Harmony on tour of Cloudsdale
-Harmony and the Cloudsdale Machine Shop / Harmony crafts gun "to kill" before startled ponies
-Weather Flying
-Rainbow Dash and Harmony draw close
-Talk of rainbow as a signal of 'hope' / beacon
-Awkward moment
-Harmony monologues to a fallen asleep Rainbow Dash about her childhood feelings / "closest thing to love" / Warm fuzzy moment that mirrors the Flashback===???===
FUTURE
-Spike is getting weaker and weaker / he explains that it's because of the effort he must go through to produce green flame / he tells Scootaloo to keep herself busy while he conjures more flame
-Scootaloo goes through the normal motions of her everyday life / is too distracted and miserable from her trips to the joyous past
-Revisiting flying squirrel, Gilda, Monkeys O DozenFLASHBACK
-Gazing at the meteor showerFUTURE
-Scootaloo returns to Spike
-Scootaloo must navigate the impact zone of a moonrock to find the ashes of Pinkie PiePAST
-Harmony can hardly get a word in / Pinkie Pie dominates the entire visit / glimpses of Apple Jack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Twilight Sparkle(!)FUTURE
-Harmony returns to the future--furious to have accomplished nothing under Pinkie Pie's supervision===???===
FUTURE
-Rarity's body covering Sweetie Bell's remainsPAST
-Rarity
-Cutie Mark Crusaders
-Harmony can't contain her tears
-Twilight Sparkle?
-Scootaloo, Rarity, and Twilight uncover facts about the 'Eponal Eclipse'PAST and FUTURE
-scenes blur as Scootaloo grows closer to Spike and "Harmony" grows closer to the Mane 6FUTURE
-Happy emotions
-Return to Spike - only to see him under attack===???===
FUTURE
-Battle to save Spike
-Spike survives, but is wounded / nature of wounds aren't severe, but his reaction to the wounds strangely is / Scootaloo begins to suspect dishonesty-Scootaloo must travel to half-submerged Manhattan to find scrolls on the 'Eponal Eclipse'
-Scootaloo is cornered by raiders
-She finds a random unicorn's body and uses its ashes to travel back in timePAST
-Great and Powerful Trixie in Canterlot===???===
PAST
-Harmony spends several days with the Great and Powerful Trixie
-Unwittingly helps her get even more popular with her magic act
-Harmony shows off rainbow rig to Trixie
-Harmony and Trixie are invited to one of Octavia's performances
-Best night of Scootaloo's/Harmony's life
-Heart to heart between Harmony and Trixie
-Both are summoned before the presence of Princess Celestia
-As Harmony is being ported back, she lets it out that she's from the future and everything is doomed / begs Celestia to write back to TwilightFUTURE
-her last spot in Manehattan has been 'settled' by raiders / they surround her===???===
FUTURE
-Harmony fights and swims her way out of Manehattan-Close call with Dirigible Dogs' ship
-Return to ailing Spike with scrolls on the 'Eponal Eclipse'
-Spike reveals that he's had the ashes of Twilight all along / sends Scootaloo back in timePAST
-Harmony and Twilight Sparkle
-Heavy research on Eponal Eclipse
-Twilight Sparkle reveals she knows Harmony is Scootaloo from the future
-Emotional breakdown of Scootaloo/Harmony===???===
PAST
-Twilight Sparkle, Harmony, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Trixie form a group who attempt to prevent the Eponal Eclipse while at the same time keeping Harmony's secret-The Eponal Eclipse is determined to be unavoidable
FUTURE
-Scootaloo confronts Spike on unpreventable Cataclysm
-Spike confirms that he knew the past couldn't be changed all alongPAST
-Twilight Sparkle and Harmony attempt to enjoy the present while they can
-Rainbow Dash proposes to the Mane 6 that whenever there's a 'rainbow signal'--they should all gather together in the name of friendship-Harmony finally braves speaking with her past self (Scootaloo) / is surprised and angry to discover she doesn't remember the meeting in her own past
===???===
FUTURE
-Harmony confronts Spike on the fact that the past can be changed
-Spike reveals that he killed Twilight to attempt preventing the Eponal Eclipse / "I killed my mother"Scootaloo: Everypony. Look at me. Why, after all this time, do I even bother to write that anymore? I might as well say 'everybody'--because that is all that is left of my kind. Bodies.
*Rainbow Dash almost kisses Scootaloo (Harmony); Stops herself upon Scootaloo's reaction*
Scootaloo: Rainbow Dash, I--
Rainbow Dash: No, don't bother. It's fine, really. If there's anything I've gotten used to in life; it's being different.*Scootaloo (Harmony) appears sidestage someplace*
Trixie: Who dares drop in unannounced on the Great and Powerful Tr--(ULP!)
Scootaloo: (hand over her mouth) Shhhhh! (glances all around) Where are we?You live in a giant black sepository held up in the air by sepositories!
So, yeah. End of Ponies is done. Dead. Buried. Finito.
Now we must bury its shadow.
But not without thanking those responsible for its inception. Chiefly my knight in shining armor, ol' candlestick head himself, Vimbert the Unimpressive. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't be where I am today--mostly for the better. Even if End of Ponies didn't achieve full transcendence, at least it raised my level of writing quality and allowed me to focus on the good shiet. Also much thanks to theworstwriter and Warden. Your editing assistance back in the day made for a super tight experience. Props, even though you didn't hop on board until Petra-or-so-abouts, you know you're sexy and mustached and incredible, and thanks for hosting the podcast we had. Also thanks to Ponychan, which no longer exists in the same capacity as it once did, but nevertheless was the blissful spawning point of EoP's inception.
Last but not least, I'm making this blargh an official Ask-Me-Anything session concerning EoP. If you have questions regarding the story, the plot, the narrative, the background farting, princesses, and Scootaharmony at large--feel free to ask me in this blargh. I won't promise to answer every single question, cuz I am a douchebag, but I'll do my best to provide responses to as many as possible. Thank y'all once again, and feel free to ask whatever in the comments.
Rest in peace, EoP. We hardly knew ye.
-SS&E
Just out of sheer curiosity... what led you to stop writing this fic?
Obviously, this story is dead. You're not writing any more of it beyond what exists of earlier Petra arcs (Kaizo and HHH). But you did the rewrite in 2013 for what I assume was to be preparation for the rest of the story, to update the story's style and narrative voice from 2011 to more or less how you write today. Was it your success with Background Pony? Austraeoh? I forget if you've talked about it before, but during the podcast you seemed to be wishing that you could have gotten around to writing some of the fight scenes and the climax.
So there is a happy ending, is what you're saying.
When will you be starting up Appledashery again?Thanks for the awesome podcast, and I look forward to checking out the outlines.
I'd love to hear more detail regarding all of Dinky's prophetic lines during the Fluttershy Arc, but I don't have a list on me. Are there any ones (aside from those mentioned in the podcast) that you thought were foreshadowing something especially cool?
Thanks again for doing the pod cast skirts, the entire thing was an exercise in catharsis, and the glorious joys of releasing old grievances.
That's a staggering outline. I'll always be saddened by the fact that it was never finished, but at least we know all of what was going to happen. I like the closure with the book and scroll, but... I'm kinda sad that future Gilda got no love from the past. :P
Sounds amazing.
I'll be damned. I would have actually read it...
The outline you gave was primarily built around the 2011 edition (since it was rebuilt from your and PiercingSight's chatlogs), with some venturing into ideas you toyed around with for the 2013 edition and beyond.
But one thing in particular that I noticed was absent was the follow-up to a 2013 added scene in the MODD, where a group of patrons are discussing a new type of fuel (supposedly much better than steam) discovered by wolverines in the frozen north. If I remember correctly from some spoilers you gave during our first meetup, this was going to lead into an additional wasteland arc revolving around discovering that this fuel was derived from the remains of crystal ponies.
If you still remember any of this, where and how was it was going to fit into the story as a whole?
Definitely would have read that, glad we got to see the ending appreciate it.
1) How did Scoots get her cutie mark?
2) How did Scoots learn Moonwhinny?
Huh, so you knew how to make an outline all along.
I haven't really had the time to listen to your podcast or read through this entire document that you've outlined here, so I'll make this simple: Why stop the story?
I have a question:
Where do I have to send the 3 million dollars I want to bribe you with so you will finish writing it?
.....
What? I'm serious.
4890580
You send it to me, because I'm the head of the one man team who attempts to write Skirts fics so he doesn't have to burst his brain noodle. Is called ghostwriting, it's a real thing that happens.
4890580
You seriously have 3 million dollars laying around to throw at things?
4890589
Hey, I'll take it if he's willing. I'll bump EoP in the Skirts alts project to number 1, and I'll be set for freaking decades
Are you going to link to this blog on the story itself?
I wonder, did you recycle elements of your Euthenized Teen Titans fic into this story?
Would you be willing to share what some of those element are?
What inspired such a grim twist, especially since the majority of the show appeared to so happy go lucky at the time of initial publication?
And despite its dead-ness, did you see it as a pleasant or necessary experience for what you do now? I guess the best way to say it is, do you think it was worth the time and effort?
PS: No pressure by the way.
4890589
Of course!
4890582
That sounds lovely. I mean, that someone does that effort to get the story to its deserved completion. I would even do it myself, if I had skirts' skill and heaven sent writing talent.
And I'm not saying you're a bad writer. But I'm having doubts anyone could reach up to skirts' level.
4890659
News flash! Writing skill isn't something like an ability determined by an xp bar. It's why specialists need to take exams every once in a while to prove they know their shit. If somone gets tired of of speedrunning Super Mario, they're not going to maintain the reflexes anymore. Mainlining drugs to get close to that skill is not healthy.
The shitty version i would write? That's exactly how he would go about writing EOP, because he doesn't care anymore.
The "skill" you speak so fondly of? Its gone, mate.
I've always been a little curious, but was Moonwhinny invented specifically for this fic, and then just adopted into the overarching Skirtsian headcanon? Or was it already a tool from larger headcanon that you just used for the first time in this fic?
4890677
D-Did you really just imply that skirts isn't a good writer anymore? And you call me out for trying to get him to continue "The End of Ponies"..... I think that conversation has reached its end. Forever.
4890737
I'm not saying Skirts is a bad writer. I'm saying he's a bad writer for finishing End of Ponies. A baseball player (writing EoP) who decides to mix drinks is not going to play baseball well anymore, but he can sure mix drinks (writing anything other than EoP). Forcing the retiree to play baseball again is going nowhere good.
If I think skirts is a bad writer why am I following so many of his stories?
No matter how famous he is, skirts has retired from EoP, something which I don't think has gotten through your head.
4890496
>>Just out of sheer curiosity... what led you to stop writing this fic?
Once upon a time, there was only *one* horse fic in my life. I only had plans for End of Ponies. Any other ideas--which, at the time were very few--would have had to follow the culmination of this one chief work.
That all changed when the one horse fic in my life turned tumorous and gross and distasteful overnight. The honest and sincere roasting from one's editors will do that. The honest and sincere roasting from one's editors immediately after writing 200K+ words down the toilet will do it *harder*. That's not to say that Vimbert and Worsty and Warden are to blame for the downfall of EoP. In truth, my insistence to do the Petra Arc was its downfall. It remains an interesting question if--had I continued with the story--their literary sanity may or may not have sunk my future plans for the unwritten arcs. I'd wager to say that I would ultimately have to ditch a lot of the stuff that sounds exciting (albeit vague) in the podcast. I'm not certain I would have been happy/and/or/proud with that in the long term. I suppose you could say that End of Ponies proved that I had too big an ego and too selfish a creative mindset to bend towards editors in a manner that's indicative of a legit professional. Austraeoh has carried on as long as it has because *nothing* and *nobody* has held me back. And we all see where THAT has bit me in the ass (Eljunbyro... Odrsjot).
Keep in mind, End of Ponies wasn't the first horse fic idea of mine that bit the dust... religiously. That honor belongs to "I Remember Rainbow Dash," which was a sinking blimp of 70k horsewords. Once upon a time, I sincerely believed that IRRD would be my one claim to horse fame. But Vimbert sank it with a bazooka (and rightly so). If that hadn't transpired, I would never have opened up to my own failing tropes as a would-be-writer and I would never have steered myself down classier avenues which brought me to End of Ponies and beyond. And, yes, End of Ponies is half-a-million words... but think about all of the stuff I've written since. Think of all the storylines and literary arcs I've created and all of the responses and friendships acclaimed. For all of its glory, End of Ponies was just another false start like I Remember Rainbow Dash was... it was simply 430k words longer. And not to too my own phallus, but that's a drop in the drivel bucket. The only reason it registers with people was that it stood noticeably atop the barren plateau along with the other *few* epics at the time: Fallout Equestria, Antipodes, Past Sins, and The Laughing Griffon And His Dog.
The part that I truly regret is all the broken promises I made... promises that I would return back to it in full... someday, somehow. That's a shameful mountain I can never carve my way out of. But the truth is I *too* was hypnotized by the false sense of significance that the fic made of itself... simply because I had no clue what would come next.
IRRD and EOP were both my "silver bullets," but neither really hit its mark. As it turns out, Background Pony did... and long after the fact Austraeoh managed and still manages to grant me boundless satisfaction. So... like... why go back and play GTA I and II when GTA III and beyond have put Rockstar up on the board?
Nostalgia, that's why. But you can't manufacture nostalgia. It's sexy to revisit once in a while, but more often than not you just gotta move on. Works in the digital world much like the real one, just at a different rate of time and comprehension.
>>But you did the rewrite in 2013 for what I assume was to be preparation for the rest of the story, to update the story's style and narrative voice from 2011 to more or less how you write today.
And that "rewrite" sucked gallstones. It was derp'd from the start, and everyone knew it. *I* knew it, but I never bothered to FIX the "fix." That should have been the first clue for me and the rest of the marsupial alumni...
>>during the podcast you seemed to be wishing that you could have gotten around to writing some of the fight scenes and the climax.
Fight scenes always live as epic "could-be's" in my heart, cuz I lurve them so dayum much. Remember that stupidly long train scene in Utaan? Yeah? Yeah...
4890498
>>So there is a happy ending, is what you're saying.
There is indeed. It was planned from the beginning--even before I sat down to write the first words of EoP--that Scootaloo would enact a "salvation" of Equestria, rescuing it from the Cataclysm in the end.
This was not some change of heart made halfway through the fic-writing process. Every attempt to tell the reader that "time was immutable" in the vein of the movie I ripped off, 12 Monkeys, was a bold-faced lie. A red herring, in gentler terms. And while it may be natural to be upset and turned off by this, the tone and purpose of the narrative does not change. It's still all about Scootaloo/Harmony making peace with her past... with Rainbow Dash and the Mane 6 and the denizens of past Equestria and even some members of the present-day Wasteland. It's a good thing that she makes this peace, because she *still* dies by heroic sacrifice. In the end, she earns the right to make the changes she could otherwise have only fantasized about.
Also, while the clearly-stated rules of the fic are eventually broken... they are broken by one of the canonical rule-breakers. Princess Entropa herself, established time and time again to be the patron goddess of Time. It's not a change that happens until the very last second, but it still happens... and it happens at the tail-end of all of the protagonist's combined trials and tribulations.
A lot of my stories--especially the sad!pr0n ones--have a common theme. It's about relatively static emotional stereotypes having to deal with a universe in which there is little to no agency. This is best exemplified in Background Pony... and to some extent in Austraeoh (think: the end of Utaan). But some fics (like The Things Tavi Says) spit in the face of that. End of Ponies was also going to be a fic where agency becomes a real thing... and this is after 900k+ planned words of Spike forcefully telling the protagonist (and the reader) that time is unchangeable. I was planning to go full ham on "unreliable narrator," and tether Spike's incorrect exposition/word view with a depressive state of mind that is directly related to a mistake he made in the past that led to the Cataclysm itself. If one were to empathize with him, then they might understand why he would have told Scootaloo all the things he did... and even believed it himself. He had no intention of deceiving her, it's just that his sense of guilt and failure overwrote any opportunity he had to believe in hope.
Scootaloo--who isn't Spike and hasn't been suspended in that same neverending well of ennui--is moved to work harder for a seemingly impossible goal. This is somewhat ironic because at the start of the fic she's in the angsty position of giving into despair, and yet her rainbow "signal" shows that she still hopes against hope. This, perhaps, is a facet of hers that remains concrete up until the end of the fic when she makes the bold decision to work outside of Spike's plan. And when they both still fail, they persevere regardless, even if it means their very end.
I always meant for this fic to be an affirmative one. And, yes, the concept in the synopsis *is* misleading if one looks at the fic's planned story in its entirety. But if there's anything that bums me out about going to a cool movie, it's having everything spoiled by the trailer. I like narratives that are free-form and floaty... like a sexy ballroom gown. Give it time. Give it inches... and allow it room to grow and surprise you with stupidly crazy turns. Yes, these turns can reinvent the story, but so long as it's packaged well then I don't think those who are enjoying the ride would mind.
I expected End of Ponies to be one such ride. But I never got that far. It stopped several feet before leaving the cold, dark cave and because of that everybody identified it by its shadows.
Fitting, I suppose, for an elephant forever buried.
4890740
Its a shame that EoP met the fate that it did, despite the Kaizo Petra arc, I actually liked it, train fight and all, but that's reality I suppose. So even if skirts doesn't do it himself, I'd be open to seeing someone else trying to write it instead so to continue now that we know of these notes. I dunno, some part of me always remained hopeful to see its proper conclusion.
EoP was the origin of my joining the Pony fandom and cemented Scootaloo as best pony to me for some reason even if it was a fanon version of her. So skirts, you get props from me for that I guess.
4890499
>>
When will you be starting up Appledashery again?Before one of us is dead, presumably>>I'd love to hear more detail regarding all of Dinky's prophetic lines during the Fluttershy Arc, but I don't have a list on me. Are there any ones (aside from those mentioned in the podcast) that you thought were foreshadowing something especially cool?
O lawd. I guess I gotta do work now.
Hold on, lemme look up a chapter I haven't checked out in over four years.
From Chapter Twenty-Eight: "Evertime"
In terms of relevance to End of Ponies, this line is mostly bullshit. For meta and lulz, however, it's partially referential to These Black Eyes. In Act Two: Red Aviary, one of the prophetic lines foretelling the return of a major villain is "For the sky to turn red, the earth must bleed." "The Earth Must Bleed" was also the title of a major arc in TBE, featuring the resurrection of Terra.
This, I think, was shoved in during the late 2013 edit. It's either Harmony or Brevis shouting at the "liberated" masses of Dredgemane later on in the Pinkie Pie arc.
That's obviously Rainbow Dash in chapter one, which is meant to hook us into the fact that Dinky's saying more than what meets the fuzzy ear.
More Rainbow Dash from chapter one.
This... might be Princess Celestia to Harmony when they meet up in the opera house's balcony seat during the Trixie Arc. Celestia doesn't know who Harmony is at first, and the wounds of the Chaos Wars still run deep... so I had planned her to be intimidating and angry at first upon their meeting.
Oh hai. Look. It's Brucie's last lines following the fight with Pitt and his cronies in the ruins of Ponyville. This must have been added during the 2013 edit as well, because "Brucie knows" was inputted/suggested by PiercingSight in the transcript of my first spoiling the plot to him. The original line was simply "Brucie thinks" repeated during his dying breath, and Piercing suggested "Knows" upon the second statement. Which is awesome. That epic transcript was circa May 2012, and the Fluttershy arc was first written beforehand, so I'm sure I changed it from the original.
That's Rarity at the end of her arc at the end of a scene that has already ripped off Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life for miles and miles. I wanted "There's a good angel, Anastasia" to be something Rarity said commonly throughout the fic. So, her changing it to "Harmony" shows that she's embraced the message that the Last Pony worked so hard to relay to her.
This is also Rarity at the end of her arc. When the whole town comes together at the Carousel Boutique to bathe her in generosity, she realizes that she now has a future outside of the inheritance from her douchebag grandparents. Just like Harmony predicted, she can now do the truly generous thing of being an older sister to Sweetie Belle. Rarity's eyes are flowing with tears, which prompts Sweetie Belle to ask her "Why are you crying, Rarity?" "I'm sorry, Sweetie Belle." "What for?" "That I haven't cried before."
Lady Pestifero--er... I mean Dinky here isn't particularly quoting anyone. This is me delivering on the meat of foreshadowing. My guess is that it's the disembodied spirit of an alicorn swayed by chaos... maybe the spirit of Discord... or one of many other mischievous "chaos lords" or intesterllar beings dwelling beyond the firmaments of Equestria (like the capricorn). Whatever it is, it's interrupted Dinky's mental "wavelength" for the express purpose of torturing Harmony. Before and after, Dinky's catching relevant thoughts/words trapped in Entropa's chronological fart waves... or something.
This is old dying Spike--in tears--confessed to Scootaloo after she/we experience the flashback to when young Spike is forced to murder Twilight in order to relieve her torture.
This is Rainbow Dash to Harmony--as a lopsided, tearful confession of love--shortly before the end of the last non-climactic Twilight Sparkle arc.
This is Sweetie Belle reading Scootaloo's song lyrics in the episode "Showstoppers" of MLP:FiM Season One. Which is bringing us back to reality.
4890511
>>Thanks again for doing the pod cast skirts, the entire thing was an exercise in catharsis, and the glorious joys of releasing old grievances.
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/yogscast/images/4/40/Thelizardwizard1.png/revision/latest?cb=20130720131738
4890521
>>That's a staggering outline. I'll always be saddened by the fact that it was never finished, but at least we know all of what was going to happen.
derpicdn.net/img/2017/7/21/1491626/large.jpeg
Now it's your turn.
4890838
it's still going on! I just posted a new chapter... uh... last April! In fact, I'll publish the next chapter this week! J-just to show you!
4890529
steamusercontent-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/579026622182831994/277FEEFEF41B27300C12EE5E315CF902C3F8F3A2/
4890845
I'm talking about that arc.
4890849 I-um. Ah. I guess an outline might not be a bad idea ~_~
4890530
Only now do I remember this, thanks to you. And even then, a lot of it is blank to me.
I think there was going to be a side-arc that involved Scootaloo going to the Frozen North to find some macguffin. I needed a "new sapient wasteland creature," so I thought of adding wolverines. I don't remember much about it, except for a scene where Scootaloo carves her way through a huge ice sheet and discovers the relatively un-touched remains of the Crystal Empire living in immaculate condition beneath the frozen surface. It's a cool visual, but it's too much like the opening of the Pinkie Pie arc and I seriously do not recall at the moment where I was going with it. I'm sure I've got notes in the EoP-Revamp file on Sedna... but Sedna (the old computer) is dead now. So meh.
4890538
1) How did Scoots get her cutie mark?
She didn't at first cuz she was a blank flank when the Cataclysm happened and the Onyx Eclipse wiped out the natural occurrence of Equestrian Magic. So a cutie mark never came to her.
Her alternative universe gets one because of destiny bullshiet. My suspicion is that Goddess Entropa (who, herself, is likely not bound by cause-and-effect like mortals are) had some influence on her. Maybe Entropa is following the Scootaloo of the final chapter in much the same way she was drawn to the blank-flank Scootaloo from the Wasteland. Perhaps there's still room for young Scootaloo to become Entropa's Avatar of Time. Now there's some "sequel material."
2) How did Scoots learn Moonwhinny?
I think it was from possessing and reading Princess Luna's journal. I suspect it contained a codex that taught her all of the runic words. And since Equestrian civilization had collapsed, there was no regulated law keeping Scootaloo from tapping into forbidden taboo lunar magic. Also, there were moon rocks everywhere, soooooooo, score(!)
4890574
>>I haven't really had the time to listen to your podcast or read through this entire document that you've outlined here, so I'll make this simple: Why stop the story?
I hid two road blocks in the editing process that forced me to go back on over 200k+ words... basically a novel's length of futile progress. I wrote for about two months, then had to throw all of my stuff away. I took a break. I came back, wrote maybe 40k+ words... then had to throw that away as well.
I was angry. I was frustrated. I was stubborn. I was selfish.
So I thought "fuck it" and wrote something without editing whatsoever. That became Chapter One of Background Pony... which accomplished everything I ever dreamed of. I carried on where the success was and left EoP in the dust with the flimsy dream of returning to it some day.
I never did. Background Pony gave me the accomplishment and the catharsis that I needed, since I wrote it in mostly the same mindset with the same inspiration. Going back was like pulling teeth, and by then I was making oneshots and working regularly on Austreoh... sooooo... Proto-Skirts kicked the bucket.
4890834
Thanks for the neat notes! Were the lines in that set the only ones that were meant to be directly referencing things? I see several more in chapters 27-29, but even after looking at the podcast and outline some of their meanings are not especially clear:
From Chapter 27: Everdaring
Some more from Chapter 28: Evertime
Guessing this one was from the 2013 rewrite for the possible version two of the Twilight Arc. Speaking of which, looking back now do you have a preference between the two versions?
Spike and Scootaloo for the first part, I think, but no idea for the second half.
I’m guessing this one is referencing Ponymonium?
And from Chapter 29: Evercircle
4890580
>>Where do I have to send the 3 million dollars I want to bribe you with so you will finish writing it?
.....
What? I'm serious.
Consider for a moment if someone paid you 3 million dollars to march up into the arctic circle and fuck a leprotic walrus. Just think about it. This poor walrus has been sitting--and bleeding--on this lonely half-melted iceberg. It probably hasn't eaten in days. It's most definitely dehydrated. All of these would only serve to accelerate the process of skin-melt, and that's not even touching the degree to which its external cartilaginous structure has peeled away due to sheer bacterial deterioration. The poor thing may not even possess ears and eyelids with which to enjoy the simple senses of physical existence. One would suspect that such an ordeal would put the walrus into a state of extreme discomfort and depression, neither of which are conducive to a state of sexual arousal, which would imply that any act of coitus performed on said creature would be purely non-consensual. So now the intercourse is not only rape, but it's rape by proxy of bribery.
And, y'know, I can't front. Three million dollars is a lot of money. The leeching atrophy of inevitable tax fees aside, that's a great deal of money to possess. The first thing one would do with those kinds of funds is settle oneself into a place of good health and security. In short, you can live a long time on three million dollars.
I don't know about you, but that means a long time of having to remember the heinous act of polar fornication that brought me to such a position of unmitigated affluence. I have enough amounting regret to live with as it is, but to add Odobenus rosmarus erotica to the list? And that of the non-consensual variety, as evidenced by every whimpering breath that issued out of the poor marine as it shook and squirmed and shifted painfully away from me, depositing strips of flesh and dirty blood in a copper-brown streak across the ice berg beneath us?
Just imagine that you're age seventy-two. You've smoked and vaped your way past the twentieth femboy orgy of the week. The world darkens around you and your thirty-foot square water bed, narrowing to a pinprick bead of light that paints the miasmic color of that moment when you grabbed your genitalia and positioned yourself squarely behind the disintegrating napkin of pukeish leather that the poor walrus' flipper has become. You remember every day following that you had to change the channel with an uncomfortable sigh because a wayward Sea World advertisement flipped across your holo-tv. Old reruns of Roseanne drive you into a cold sweat because you can't stand to look at half the cast without suffering PTSD.
What do you tell your spouse when you both go to sleep at night? Would you ever marry? Could you even go dating? Don't you know that leprosy is contagious? Did you know that way back when, the very moment you and the melting victim of abuse engaged in a phallic embrace? Have you put to thought just how quickly your manhood would fall off? Or the years spent in sterile regret afterwards, wishing you could look at Disney Princess lunchboxes and backpacks the same way again.
Did you even ask the Walrus its name? Something Icelandic, no doubt. But that's not going to help you. Have you even bothered to guess how many syllables there are in a traditional Icelandic name? I mean, sure, you could go searching for reclusive families of walruses, but that's the tragedy of leprosy. It drives people apart--even next of kin. I doubt any of them would be able to help you find a connection. And besides, why bother? It'd be an admission of guilt--an admission of bribery and leprotic walrus rape. You'd only be opening yourself up to more pain, and all the nights spent drinking and weeping into the moist confines of your lonesome shower won't wash away the fact that someone once opened itself up to you--against its consent--all the while trying to keep its tusks from falling out as it shrieked and wailed helplessly into the Aurora Borealis twinkling overhead, a neon stain that has been bleached forever against your mimetic eyelids.
I mean, that's not to say that couldn't find some sort of sense of catharsis or redemption. You could turn to Jesus, but I'm certain that even the Son of God knew--when being stapled to the cross--that non-consensual leprotic walrus fucking simply wasn't in the cards. I mean, that's something Satan has yet to dream up for the denizens of Hell. There's one consolation, I suppose. Once you died and went to Hell for your bestial actions, you could become in charge of a brand new form of torture in the Underworld.
But who was really tortured, huh? You--the one who walked away with only your crotch missing? Or the walrus who lost its skin, tusks, and flipper... immediately after losing the sovereignty of its abdominal cavity. The walrus never got three million dollars. All it got was a brief flash of pain and humiliation, and then an endless cascade into the unforgiving black that awaits us all. Did you ever once consider donating even half of the proceeds to some sort of Walrus Rape Hotline? So what if you were the first. The funny thing about life is that it consistently inspires and balloons creativity--and more often than not it's the wrong kind of creativity... the kind that leads to massive non-consensual leprotic walrus fucking on a grand scale. That's another thing on your consciousness that you have to live with, a new escalation of epic tier sub-arctic deplorableness. No wonder you drown yourself in femboys and water beds every week.
But... three million dollars. Surely in some sort of capitalist mindset, this obligates one to acquiesce to a request--any request--if only to secure such a state of monetary prestige. This is, presumably, better than a clean conscience, better than achieving a state of contentment, and better than guiding oneself down the avenues of life that are far more happy, far more profitable, and far more anithetical to the hitherto inconceivable act of forcing oneself sexually upon walruses diagnosed with leprosy.
All I'm saying is... life--especially a rich life--is a very long time to dwell upon having done something that one was not personally motivated to do. Looking back, you would be dwelling upon a life lived solely for the benefit of others, especially those who would attempt to bribe you into fucking a half-dead walrus.
I mean where do I have to send this message for someone to quit redundantly obsessing with it?
...
What? I'm serious.
That doesn't really tell me much, but back to the drawing board I guess. Thanks for the fish and all.
--a Skirts Alt.
So I assume your last fic for the site will be called The Beginning of Ponies?
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Ah, that makes perfect sense. Glad we all got some form of closure at least.~
Hey Skirts, I don't really have a question. I just wanted to say thanks for giving closure to something I didn't know I wanted/needed closure for. You were always one of my favorite authors on this site, even if I didn't read 100% of your stuff. Keep on being awesome.
Oh boy!, Skirts is actually answering questions! Uh.. if I only had something interesting to ask.. uh... eh... what's your favourite sauce?nowaitithastobesomethingbetter uh.. how are you so awesome? nosomethingrelatedtothefic uh.. oh yeah!
I always feel after reading the Petra arc specially, that in EoP we can find the genesis of what would be Austraeoh later, I mean, obviously you spoke about the lore and all, but I rather refer to the structure that appears constantly on the Aaustraeoh saga. Again, specially in petra, we get this thing Rainbow/scootaloo, hunting their own agenda, travel to a place, in wich the thing they look for is somehow blocked for a local problem conflict, Rainbow/scootaloo then proceed to get involved on the local conflict with the help of local simpathetic character, and, through their sheer awesomeness, they end up focusing and solving the local conflict, even if for a moment threatens their own objetive.
An awesome formula tbh.
So, the question, how much do you think EoP worked as a practice, exploration, motivation or in general, what you feel is the link between EoP and the Austraeoh saga?
Damn, it's done. I remember reading this back in the hayday in the fandom. It feels surreal and a bit sad to see it resolved like this, podcast and transcript form. I can see some stuff Background Pony borrowed from this. Surreal indeed.
I'm very glad you gave us this closure on this story. It's nice to finally know how it was all going to unfold. I haven't got the time right now to go through the whole podcast (watching SGDQ right now, as usual, this time of year) the shortened outline and the written version was very nice to read. I don't really have any questions I just want to say that I really love your stories and I can't wait for the Austraeoh saga to start up again, keep writing Skirts.
Edit: I have thought of a question. While this doesn't have anything to do with EoP I have to know: Shellstrings it's not marked as canceled so is there any chance of a revival for that story? I have a feeling its unlikely but I have to know.
Since I am dumb, what exactly was the Onyx Eclipse? The reading/listening I've done so far and I think I've missed that part.
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Howdja know I was Argonian?
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Giant death beam from space that killed Celestia and Luna, and due to magical life shit, chain reactioned into killing off most of the hooved creatures (except the End of Ponies).
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Oh and I found the relevant bit and yea, okay, getting shot with concentrated oblivion does not go well makes sense.