"Director's cut: A Giant Adventure to Equestria, chapters 13, 14, 15 · 4:56am Jan 25th, 2019
Because this was the climax of the story, I gave this 3-parter the most thought, well before I got to writing it. However, the only real change from how I first thought the Queen Chrysalis battle might go, to how it ended up, involves Starlight's role. Originally, because Starlight's role in the whole story was going to be much smaller, she wasn't going to be a part of the final battle, and It'll be Eric Reed by himself saving Twilight. But I added Starlight in it for two reasons.
One is because of how her role in the story ended up becoming much bigger in itself. Since Chrysalis's plan was to get revenge by making her feel guilty, then try to kill her, I thought it'll make perfect sense of her to be there in the final battle.
The second reason, and also why she was in a hero role, was because that I thought having Eric "save everybody" would be a bit weak. I also didn't want to run the risk of making him look like a "Gary Stu" by him doing it. So I made it a team effort between him and Starlight, and made sure that Starlight NEEDED to be there. This was also why I made sure it was Twilight and Starlight that finished off Chrysalis, and not try to somehow give Eric the power to do it. I even thought letting him be able to teleport might've been pushing it, but I kept it in.
I had Eric walk out of the hospital, not riding out on Twilight's head to show a subtle sign of character development, that he wasn't going to try to rely on Twilight so much like he did before. She would of course be there if he needs her, which is why I had her have her wing around him: if he'd need her, she's right there. Since Eric never overly relied on Starlight, I didn't have her also put her hoof around him, and it was just Twilight that did anything like that during the scene.
During editing, I thought about making Eric's award ceremony be its own chapter, but since it didn't make part 3 of "The Redemption" be too long, I kept it in part 3 of it.
One last thing, the signal of "slapping your face three times" in chapter 13 aren't something I picked randomly. There's a reason why I had it be slaps, why it was three times, and it's a callback. Can you figure it out?
