So once I had an idea... · 11:48pm Sep 23rd, 2018
Once upon a time, I had an idea. "What if the Mane 6 were all turned into Bolos?" I thought.
Of course, the only way that could happen would be if Discord caused it- and I couldn't think of any reason Discord would do that... Or, for that matter, not reverse it.
So I designed a (badly OOC) scene where he transformed them "for chaos". It was positioned at Canterlot High so I could use the human authorities to effectively delete him for the rest of the story, preventing the reverse transformation. I even invented a mechanism by which his powers could be removed in the human world, so he couldn't escape those authorities and return to Equestria.
I viewed it as a bad start to a decent story... But how many bad starts does anypony know of that produced an overall good story?
None. That I know of, at least- I usually turn away a bad start, assuming the rest of the story follows suit. If it doesn't follow suit, those who liked the bad start (Hey, there's always those few) will be sorely disappointed by the change in tone... and the story will have so dismal a rating I won't even click on it. (I've seen some with 1-6 like-to-dislike ratios... Only read one of them, and true to the rating, it was a bad story, despite a good premise.)
But that was, what, January? Eight and a half months ago?
It only lived for a couple months- last updated mid-March. Six months ago (and three days).
But today, I found myself returning to the idea. I've always liked the idea- the premise... but the execution was nothing short of terrible.
So I'm rewriting it. Just rewrote the published Chapter 1, and labeled it as rewritten. Now, Equestrian Discord isn't involved.
Human Discord is. And he's got an amulet.
It's mind-controlling him, though. That's my excuse for his OOC behaviors. Once it's broken, he's in a state of shock- my excuse for the rest of 'em.
Athena is a little less scathing of him- and, since he was controlled by the amulet (any smart Bolo will see the signs and listen to conversations happening nearby), she forgives him. She can't speak for the less forgiving human authorities, so he has some hoops to jump through... Those will not be shown in the story, but let it be known they do let him off. Probably took the human Main 7, plus Principal Celestia and Vice-Principal Luna, to convince them to let him go... and explain the magic.
Meh, unimportant. Things get smoothed over, that's all that is important; this story takes place in Equestria. There may be visits from EqG characters, from time to time, but that's for the future.
But, I've started the rewrite. Chapter one has been rewritten; the rest have not. But I've started the process. (EDIT, later the same day: Chapter two has also been rewritten.)
... No promises I'll finish it... as my current story count (16 in progress, 1 "finished") can argue, I'm pretty bad at doing that.
Have a good read!
... though it's a bit short at the moment.
I wonder what sort of story that amulet has. If you are really clever (and I've noticed you usually are, or at least have a fairly good retcon handy), its mechanics or creator will show up later. A good start might be trying to reduce or mitigate said vulnerability TO mind control...
4942807
Oh yes, I usually do have a good retcon, don't I? "Cutie Mark Crusaders Retcon Artists!" *checks flanks* Darn...
And plenty of times, that 'retcon' isn't technically a retcon, but just a clarification of something that was never specified... nevermind that the clarification/specification was never even designed until it was needed. I'm pretty good at building a convincing backstory... That is, one that can be described casually through conversation or narration; those kinds of backstories are usually impossible to squeeze ponies' proper personalities into, with all their minute responses & etceteras. So, the more is offscreen/offpage, the more artistic freedom I have for future characters/events' backstories!
4942832
That would be why I said "usually are." I think a lot of Chinese novels use the same methods. I dunno how many times Dragon-Marked War God has dropped some sort of new mechanic just when needed * to defeat the enemy of the week.
*(aside from the whole "fortunate encounter" stuff that either requires an actual force of destiny or implies that "rare" items are so common every living person should be a martial-arts genius...)