More healing and/or fading of scars. · 3:03am Sep 1st, 2018
Well, the last part of Scars of the Sun is up and online. Time for a post-story overview.
This story is as much a follow-up to A Light in the Dark and Six Nights (and a Day) With Sunset as it is to Scars of the Quill. I always planned on bringing Sunrunner back and continuing her story, though how I got to this point wasn't always clear. Way back in the day, Quiver was going to attend the reunion that Sunrunner was helping to put together here at Rarity's urging (and with her coming along as his Plus One)...until I realized that, much like me with my nasty school experiences, Quiver would want to stay as far away from those who'd hurt him as possible. But the reunion was still a plausible plot device to get that smaller, more intimate reunion between Quiver and Sunrunner arranged, so I still made use of it.
It also gave me the chance to postulate a bit on the Equestrian school system overall. The show itself has suggested a measure of Fantastic Racism in Equestria, which Chancellor Neighsay ended up making far more obvious than it had been before. And while we haven't seen many schools in Equestria, the one that we have seen - the Ponyville Schoolhouse - only had ponies among its students. No donkeys or mules, and certainly no calves or lambs. The former I can forgive, given the only donkeys we've seen in Ponyville are apparently too old to have children, but the latter raises some questions. And we already had some hints of segregation for particular bits of higher education (specific schools for each of the three tribes), so the idea that someone might want to make it more widespread in the mistaken belief that other races are better off being educated by their own kind isn't too implausible. How well that would work is debatable, of course, but public schools have done more foolish things for more foolish reasons.
Finally, I got the chance to build up a recurring antagonist of my own in the form of Primrose Thorn. I always planned on having her show up, but this was the first chance I had to show her and her posse in action. She was always going to be a horrible, nasty, spoiled brat and Alpha Bitch - Diamond Tiara at her worst taken up to eleven - though she ended up chrystallizing after I got into the series Miraculous Ladybug and encountered that series' own Alpha Bitch, Chloé Bourgeois. That said, Primrose is much, much nastier, and far more petty.
Anyway, the pieces are in place now, and with luck, by the end of this year, things will come together, and the third part of the Reunion Trilogy will see a lot of threads come together at long last. There's scenes in that story that I've been long looking forward to writing, and I hope that folks will enjoy them.
I think it worked out for the better, with Quiver not going to the reunion and all. Definitely made sense for his character, and also allowed us this story with insight into Runnie and her character. ^_^
And yeah... the portrayal of the Equestrian school system here does seem depressingly plausible. Especially the concept that someone in charge of the school system would think that it's best to keep the schools segregated according to type of pony...
You know, when I read the chapter with Primrose I almost made the Diamond Tiara comparison. And huh, now that you mention it, I can kind of notice the Chloe Bourgeois influence on her as well. Interesting...
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I like this version better too. It let Sunrunner get to be her own character, which is always a good thing.
As for the segregation, thankfully, attitudes can and do change with time and the right circumstances. And the right circumstances are definitely on their way.
And finally, the Chloe influence...what can I say, I'm a pop culture sponge and not afraid to admit it.