A Night at the Gala and What It Means for My Future Writing

I don't expect to make very many blog posts, but I'll make this one for anyone who happens to be curious about the fanfics I’m working on. To do that, I’ll first need to explain the origins of the Night at the Gala and its protagonist as that is greatly tied to what comes next.

I’ll use bullet points to get through this quickly. Ready?

· About 3 years ago I began writing my very own MLP fanfic epic.
· Early last year the story’s word count hit the 80k mark and I realized maybe I was biting off more than I could chew for my first foray into writing.
· I brainstormed concepts for shorter, more manageable stories and I began working on several potential ideas within the Quill & Blade Universe. These stories would focus on characters who didn’t get a lot of “screen time” in Q&B stories.
· During the latter half of last year, Quill & Blade announced its first writing contest. By then I already had around 20k words of Q&B fanfiction written. So I plucked one of my supporting characters from the cast of these fanfics and wrote a brand new short story featuring him as the protagonist while taking the opportunity to explore his backstory. This new story, of course, became A Night at the Gala featuring the dangerously-over-motivated Belltoll.

So where does that leave me? Well, I’ve got several fanfics I’m working on, all of which take place within the Quill & Blade universe. The objective of these stories is to explore the various facets of the Nordanvern War and its effect on the Equestrian world and its characters. This whole concept, which was introduced to me through the Silent Knight and Crystal Wishes sagas, has fascinated me to no end and these fanfics are the result of my ponderings on the subject.

Without further ado, here is an outline of what stories you can expect from me in the future

STORY 0 – A Night at the Gala

Already posted! Huzzah! This will act as a prelude to other stories to follow. Rest assured there is a lot more in store for Belltoll.

STORY A – Blind Endeavors

This story centers on Sombra and the challenges he faces both as Minister of War and at home as he attempts to integrate himself into modern Equestrian society. This originally began as a comedic romantic oneshot of Sombra in one of his many blind dates mentioned in Anzel’s Trials of a Royal Guard, and although it still retains those moments, it has since become a more fleshed-out analysis of the character and his motives.

STORY B – The Shadow of Nordanver

Already shaping out to be my darkest fanfic as well as the most difficult to write. Taking place during the final months of the war, this story will follow Twilight Sparkle as she travels to the Nordanvern capital of Margull to study and prepare to become an Equestrian diplomat. To aid and protect her overseas, she is assigned three retainers (including Belltoll). Twilight struggles to understand the foreign world across the ocean that is ever entrenched in war. Her vision of reality will be shredded and reshaped when tragedy strikes, and her desire to know her part to play in the war will be answered as she comes to understand the hearts of the three soldiers who sacrifice everything to protect her.

STORY C – Three Musketeers (title pending)

A prequel to Shadow of Nordanver. A short story on how Twilight’s three retainers became friends while on the front lines. Unlike A Night at the Gala, this narrative will not be told from Belltoll’s point of view, but rather highlight the thoughts of a royal guard from the Crystal Empire with the intent of exploring the perspective of the crystal ponies.

So yeah, that’s what I got in store for you folks. Once these stories are completed I’ll finally be ready to return to my personal work armed with some experience.

I’m super excited to share these stories and what new perspectives on the Quill & Blade universe they can potentially provide to fellow Q&B fans as well as the authors of that universe. Hope you all enjoy them!

Until then.