Blogging: Pony Music Edition · 10:56pm Nov 28th, 2018
Journal date 11/28/18 - Pony Words and pony music edition
Today, I rediscovered pony music in the form of PonyVilleFM and its associated webcasts. The ideas flowed like they haven't in years... Yeah. Years. Or year. I got Cake Thief done pretty quick (relatively) once I started writing in that story again.
So... Let's try to get some of these ideas out of the tangle jumble of thoughts that pony music inspired. This might be a little disjointed, but I'll try to organize it after I stream of thought it.
Tides of Love
So, first thing that comes to mind because I was just thinking about it (duh), is a story provisionally called "Tides of Love", a post-Shining Armor story involving Twilight and Cadance. The idea that came to me was that I was starting the story far too late, and skipping all the interesting bits that made the story intriguing in the first place. So, that brings up a question: Can you have a prequel to a story that hasn't been published? Or does that story become the story and the original becomes a sequel?
The story would start just before news of the loss of Shining Armor is brought to Equestria. Twilight is devastated, but she pulls herself together because she knows Cadance will be worse. She takes off immediately with her friends, and they rush to the Crystal Empire along with Celestia and Luna to take care of the grieving widow, just three months pregnant. (Time adjusted later for actual story timeframe) And continues from there. Eventually the rest of the ponies leave, one by one, to take care of pressing matters. Twilight, however, stays behind with Cadance. She's pushed aside her own grief so much that she can barely sleep anymore. She grieves, of course, but she is on the cusp of breaking apart. Her big brother best friend forever isn't... forever.
There's more, but it's even more jumbled up, and I'll need to sit down for more than a quick stream of thought exercise to get it out. I'll need to explore it and check out some branching paths and possibilities and check out what works best in context to everything else.
Heart of Crystal Prep
This one is the closest that I have to finished. It came out of a Write-off entry, and I kept the original start, but that started to feel less and less appropriate. Sure, it's a nice start, but it's not a good start for as long as the story is turning out to be. It puts the inciting incident and the first major plot event way too close together, and it felt rushed. So I've got plans now to add a couple chapters at the beginning (and even have one of them written, yay!) to dig a little deeper into the world as it is, and dig into the characters personalities a bit more before they bamf onto the screen fully formed with little introduction.
Indigo Zap is the main POV character, with Cadance playing a lesser, but still strong POV character for her emotional and growth arcs. Indigo, being the main character, has her own growth arc involving a crush on Cadance, and realizing that Cadance doesn't return her feelings, but she can't let go so easily. And that's a whole drama point. Sugarcoat also plays a major role, but she never becomes a POV character. She starts out as a foil to Indigo's brash, impulsive behavior with a cool wit, is obstinately literal-minded by choice, and seemingly emotionless.
Sugarcoat is this way because she's both rebelling against and adhering to a standard of social norms that comes with the territory of being the child of 'old' money, an aristocratic upbringing full of the forced social mores, emphasis on appearance and stature within society, and that aristocratic stoicism. Sugarcoat takes these to the extreme, and makes friends from 'new money' families as acts of rebellion. She and Indigo are, from the outside, odd duck friends, but they're the closest thing Crystal Prep has to best friends.
The other Shadowbolts are also there, but mainly play minor supporting roles, but I want to give them some of their own personalities and play their own important parts in the story. None of them will become POV characters, I think, because too many POVs can be confusing, but since they're part of Indigo's friend group, they'll get plenty of screen time.
Sundered Seas
I had some ideas for this one... but they're fading and I can't really chase them down at the moment. I'll need to re-read what I've got written and probably delete some 'later' scenes because right now it's just too rushed, and there's not enough "normal world" going on to really set up some stakes and lore for later parts of the story. Also missing: the middle part of the story. I've got it up to the point that they encounter the spirit that will eventually become Discord, but there's some fuzziness before that, and after that. So there's no ending currently either. Not that I don't have an idea of what comes after, but just the details of what.
My current thought is that they will be granted some power that overwhelms their (or at least Sonata Dusk's, as the POV character) inhibitions against harming other creatures. I'm thinking that maybe, since Sonata is the POV character, this is all a retrospective from her part, and she loses the story after Discord's power invades her mind and sets her to a course of disharmony along with her sisters. She might be telling this story to Sunset Shimmer, or Flash Sentry (they're an item in the Last Vacation storyverse)
Wheat Song
I did have some ideas about this one, too, but they're also more nebulous, as I only have a basic cosmology (important since it's set in a world where the mythopoetic setting is just as or more important than the time and physical settings), and a rough outline of what Wheat Song goes through, and only a rough character growth arc. I don't have any idea right now where she starts out at, so maybe I should start there, with a thoughtful gathering of ideas about who she is before the fateful migration that leads her and her herd to learn more about the ways of their magical world than any other pony to that point in history. From the spirits and godlike entities of the stars and other planets and solar orbiting objects, to the spirits of storm and sky, and the slow (mostly) lives of the spirits of the land, from the great mountain spirits to the lesser plant and animal spirits that are hard to distinguish between their living, flesh and blood brethren - there's also a lot of overlap there. The ponies, on the other hoof, are much more bound to flesh and blood than to spirit, but their magic, derived from their spirits and their bond to mythological origins, is closer to the spirit world than not.
If you've ever seen the anime "Moribito", then that kind of close connection to the spirit world is sort of what I have in mind. Just beneath the surface, and often rising above the surface to make itself known to the physical world. If you haven't seen Moribito... it's really good. It's an action-drama series that really breaks a lot of tropes. The badass warrior is a woman, but she's not dressed like she got mauled by Jack the Ripper and never bothered to change. She's dressed sensibly, and she doesn't wear the same outfit all the time. She's also sensible, smart, and wise.
Well... That felt good to get all that out. I really feel like I was able to solidify some ideas and get some other ideas on where to go, or what I need to do next, but I feel like my thought well is running dry here, so I'm going to wrap this up
I remember sitting in the skype chat when you came up with a lot of these ideas back in the day. Was a lot of fun watching you put them together, and it really helped me kind of come into my own in developing ideas.
4974082
Memories of different times, huh? I remember those days fondly. It was a genesis of ideas for me. My best time
You'd probably dig the iheartponyradio app
4974421
I'll check it out. Thank you!
4974452
I've found a couple good alternative/metalish songs because of it I'd never heard before