EMy Life as a Bipedal Quadruped
MLP: FiM
MLP: Comic
Slice of Life
Our hero finds herself in a strange world, and in a strange new form. Maybe this could be a fresh start, you ask? The thing is that she wasn't aware she needed one.
Human
Celestia
Luna
OC
Main 6
Nurse Redheart
Snakeskin Ducttape · 377k words · 2,150 60 · 36k views

The grand finale · 7:11pm Jul 12th, 2019

There’s a lot of stuff I want to get through with this blog post.

So I finished the story. It took almost five years, but I finished it.

Have you ever seen listened to podcasts or read blogs that talk about amateur writing? Have you noticed how a lot of people say that you shouldn’t write something long for you first story because you’ll never finish it, and that you first story will always suck, no exceptions.

Well I finished mine. As for whether it sucks, that’s a matter of taste.

So that’s my writing lesson; if you have a long story you want to write, do it. It can be done.

I had help though, and I’d like to thank them. First of all a general thank you to people who have encouraged me with their kind words, but also those who have helped in a more active capacity. It’s been a few years so I apologize if I have forgot anyone but here goes:

Topaz Moon
Fickle Wood
Detsella Morningdew
Snuffy
ssokolow
Robcakeran53
Dragonspectacles
and RP422

Thank you, guys.

Wow, it’s actually hard to wrap my head around this. I did it. It’s done. I wrote a story, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. I’m happy with it. There was a lot of stuff I’m a little sad I didn’t have the time or energy or skill to make happen. That is, there was a lot of cut stuff. For example, the part after the magic spring with the Dazzlings were supposed to be longer and more varied, starting out with one chapter about the heroes being separated in a jungle of illusions and being hunted by Zecora, titled Bad Mojo. Then there were scenes and chapters that have mostly faded from my memory or the ideas of which morphed into what the story ended up being, but there were some good chapter titles among them, like “Sirens In Background” “Song of The Skald, Flash of The Sword” “The Third and Last Dance” “Hero For A Dime” and “Hair Force One”.

But in the end, this is how it turned out. I hope you all liked it, because it was a lot of work. There are sequels coming up, but I still like that the story has an ending. No matter what happens from here on out, if the sequel is cancelled, or internet dies or whatever, the people who read and/or downloaded the story will have a conclusion. It ended, and it ended happily, which will set the tone for the sequels that might never get one; it will all work out.

Now onto the other stories. At the time of writing this, I don’t know how many of my new stories have gone through the approval process, but there are five of them in total.

First of all, there is the straight sequel to My Life As A Bipedal Quadruped, called Noble Goals. This one picks up where the main story ended. The adventure is over, the world is safe, and Gabe and Armor can calm down and resume their previous lives. I plan on this going back to the slice of life with some comedy and drama, and will resemble parts one and two of mlaabq. Gabe will hang out with friends, develop relationships, and all that nice stuff, but no life is completely static, and there will be some complications and excitement in the form of obligations, some fame and fortune, and new and familiar faces showing up in Ponyville, such as Starlight and Trixie.

Secondly, there’s Sunset Among The Simians. This one is also a sequel to mlaabq, and is connected to the Equestria Girls world. A little like how Equestria Girls works in the show canon, I suspect it will end up being somewhat isolated from the main continuity, and exist in its own little section. I might change that though, if I think it’ll mesh well with the main story. It starts off a little ways ahead of Noble Goals, but I don’t know exactly when in the main show. I’ll have to check the timeline of Equstria Girls and the show to know when it's the most appropriate to start, but I think shortly before the season 7 finale.

Sunset Shimmer have been reporting a little too many magical incident in a world that’s supposed to have little to no magic activity, so Gabe and Armor are sent to investigate. The princesses aren’t worried about their safety; it’s not a dangerous mission, they’re just there to research and observe, but of course it won’t be that simple. There seems to be some force behind all, or at least many, of the things going on, and some of the humans are getting wise to the supernatural events. Gabe and Armor are skilled combatants by this point, but the challenge is in investigation and solving this mystery, not combat.

Third. The Dark Shadows of Prince Shadowdark. This one was trickier. For some context, when I first started working on mlaabq, I had read, or started reading, a bunch of stories about humans going to Equestria. I found a lot of them lacking, and many of the ones that weren’t as lacking got cancelled after a few chapter. I still appreciated them though, there was a lot of learn there, especially about where and how you might go wrong when writing that particular type of story, and what I, and other people, want to see in this genre.

The Dark Shadows of Prince Shadowdark will be my attempt at writing an overpowered character. Again, I’ve started reading some stories about dark and edgy alicorns or demigods or cosplayers, and I can see some of the appeal behind the idea, but I’ve yet to read a story in the genre that’s really hooked me (edit: scratch that, My Life As My Ironically Bad OC was great). One thing I’ve learned is that when you have a character with combat abilities orders of magnitudes above what he’s facing, well, that’s fine, but then you shouldn’t make the combat the exciting part, the interest should lie elsewhere, like humor, or relationship drama, or… how does one define themselves as an individual when surrounded by world saviors and powerful champions? That’s what Shadowdark will be about.

An Establishment Of Exclusivety is story number four. It’s a silly idea I’ve had for a while. When it comes to fics about humans interacting with Equestria, some people are set that humans with their democracy and/or science, lack of magic, cynicism or whatever are superior to the silly ponies and their joyous way, while other are the opposite, thinking that humans, with their pollution and wars and general failings are just evil and wicked compared to the adorable ponies. I’m undecided on this, and it depends very much on the story in question.

In mlaabq, I think I’ve been pretty fair on the topic, where ponies are superior in many ways thanks to their magic and the effects of being magical, while the ponies are impressed by what humans have accomplished in response to their limitations. The HiE Club will be my gentle dip of one toe into the kind of story favoring the humans. The concept was inspired by Billymorph’s The Humans In Equestria Club, and is similar in that suddenly a bunch of humans have appeared in Equestria, as the native species, and have banded together to make the best of the situation. In this story, it’s about a club they’ve started, as in an establishment, where there’s human culture, and human music, and only former human patrons are allowed. This isn’t so much because I hate ponies, like I sometimes suspect some authors do, but because it allows me to explore concepts relating to cultures and subcultures, alienation, and gentrification. Some ponies just want to use this exotic new culture for their own ends because it’s esoteric and exclusive, while other are genuinely interested and fascinated by it, but the humans will not allow either to get their way, because if they do, it’ll be absorbed by mainstream culture, and it will cease to be theirs.

And lastly, there’s Sonic Överload.

This is actually the story I wanted to write shortly before I made this account. In 2013, I started reading ponyfics. In 2014, I was hooked but not entirely satisfied; there were stories that needed to be written, and no one was writing them. The first was a wild and humorous adventure about pony society being turned upside down by ‘scary’ and ‘unsavory’ individuals, that is, changelings with the power of rock’n’roll. Dark heroes and rebels, on the run from all authorities, loved by the masses, mysterious and alluring.

But it was too ambitious, I spent a lot of time thinking about it, and I decided that I didn’t have the skill to turn the concepts and images in my head into a comprehensive story, so I decided to practice with an easier concept. A HiE story with some mild spice would be easier to start with. That’s right, my story of 376k words and almost five years work started out as a practice session for Sonic Överload.

And now I’ve managed to write the intro. Oh well, you know what they say; rum wasn’t brewed in a day.

So that’s five new stories, and I don’t know if it’s because I’m more skilled at writing Gabe and mlaabq, or perhaps I’ve been pushing myself too much lately and too many different directions, but the mlaabq sequels, the immediate one and the EqG one, were much, much easier to write. Regardless, no matter which one I focus on, I’m going to have to slow down and recover a little. Plan some more, perhaps rewrite a little.

(Oh also, I’m planning on writing a sequel to The Eye of Argon, where Grignr and Carthena finds themselves as ponies in Equestria)

Which brings us to which one I should focus on, because I’d like your input on this. What do you think of the different stories, and which one do you think I should focus on?

Like I said though, I’ll have to take a bit of a break. I now have a job where I need to be social so I have few hours and little energy at the moment, and I’ve also gone many months without getting many comments. A lot of people say that you should write for yourself and not care what others say, and if people really did that, then no one would bother publishing anything. I like comments, especially the nice and supportive ones, and the ones where I can see the positive reactions behind it.

So that was a pretty long post. I don’t really know what to say now. Or wait, I do know: Thank you all for all your support ones again, both newcomers and people who have read it for years, and to all those people who say that you can’t write a good or a long story the first time you try: Hah!

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Algedor

Algedor #1 · Jul 12th, 2019 · 7 · ·

Hey, I haven't read the finale or the new stories yet, but thank you for all your hard work and dedication. You created a wonderful story that captivated my interest for many years. I can't wait to read how this ends and how you plan to continue it.
Are you thinking of publishing at all?
Thanks so much for helping build our wonderful fandom.
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Snakeskin Ducttape

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