Amigo: The Epilogue: The ending · 1:46am May 10th, 2019
Also known as Holy shit ROB you finished a yaying story.
Yeah, so this has been a long time coming for me. What was intended to be a quick story, short, less than ten chapters and be done in the span of a year, turned into a... what, four year, but still only ten chapter length story? Hella.
So, I guess lets dive into some of the finer things in this epilogue, because I'm sure none of you really care.
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So the first thing you see is the perspective change. My amazing pre-readers, Flutterpriest and Admiral Biscuit, were both unsure about this. Priest was insistent that it was weak, and needed to be back to Twilight's POV. Well, yeah, that could have been done, but this epilogue was the one thing that I had planned from when I first started this story, and while I'll bend over when it comes to criticism, this was one thing that I was firm on wanting to keep. Admiral also suggested I could cut it down, keep it short, to lead to a sequel, but this story never was intended to have a sequel.
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So I've never been to the Grand Canyon. I want to go, just never got to. I have some old slide projector plates from when my grandparents went back in the 70's, but that's it. Those coordinates are to the actual spot described in the story. I actually did research on this, wooo, go me.
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So, Keith is an odd duck, but like most of my stories, I like to borrow elements of my real life encounters with people, and use them in my writing. There is a particular gentleman at the airport I work at, who "attempted" to dodge during the Vietnam conflict (he gets upset if you call it a war) but went none the less. Got shot up, but made it home. He told me that his plan, when dodging, was to "just get all drugged up and see where the hippy train took me."
Sadly, he and my father had a falling out a few years ago, so I do not talk with him much anymore, but I enjoyed his stories and his attitude towards the conflict. He also swears he knows what happened to Jimmy Hoffa. It's a fantastic story that I may one day tell...
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So, I love the idea that Equestria uses mirrors for all their interstellar travel, or dimensional travel, or whatever. Always mirrors. Big, small, clown house, whatever. I wanna use this idea more in my stories, but sadly I don't write enough like I should, and haven't worked enough on them.
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So Priest had issues with how "calm" I had Keith being at first, to Twilight's appearance. He was right, but at the same time, I've known people to be so stunned and/or shocked, that they go mute. Keith's reaction was kind of a mix of the two, which is why I love Twilight's rambling to help "humanize" her for the readers. I'd imagine, if a pony just appeared in front of me and stood there, looking at me intently, I'd be weirded out. But if she appeared, and was just as nervous as I was, and rambling, talking about this and that, it would make her feel more natural, real, etc.
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So I know there are some older folk, veterans especially, around here on fimfic, so I really hope I've not offended any of you, or upset you, over Keith's actions and opinions on the matter. Or Earl's on the Korean conflict. Having never served myself, I get a lot of my opinions, and stories, from those who did. Most paint it in a colorful light. Many... don't. If you have stories you'd like to share as well, or thoughts/opinions on how Keith or Earl talked about their experiences, feel free to comment on them. I'd love to read them, and get some further insight.
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My biggest worry, out of the very end of the story, was that people might complain about Twilight's words being possibly "out of character" for her. There's a fine line between characterization of self, and characterization of others, and I feel like Twilight is one of those who would "break" her own character, just to say or do the right thing by another. It dives a little into the "honesty" aspect of things, like Applejack would, but I feel Twilight would be willing to do the same, because yeah, Earl was a pain in the ass, but he was her pain in the ass for the day.
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Welp, that's it. That's finally a story done after... so many years. I got a couple other projects in the works, but expect a blog post in the next week or two with a poll. I got lots of unfinished stories here, and we're gonna vote on the next one I tackle. Until then, thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the story. Thanks, once again, to the amazing Flutterpriest and Admiral Biscuit, who were life savers on this story. Also sorry to the both of you, for being hard pressed on this epilogue chapter, of what I wanted in it, and glad you guys could appreciate that.
Dude, regarding the stunned into silence (instead of running around screaming), I can think of two times in my life where I was so gobsmacked I just sort of stood there with a mental bluescreen error going on--one of those times was in marching band, and I dropped my trumpet because I forgot I was supposed to be holding it.
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Yeah, I know it's happened to me once or twice.
Nice! (I mean, I haven't read it or anything, but) I also know that it's nice to finish writing a story!
I know the poll isn't up yet, but if we're taking a vote I'm for continuing The Whittler next. In my top 5 HiE favorites.
Congrats on getting it done! It's always a nice feeling.