"Endings' Complete and BronyCon Announcement · 3:49pm Jul 29th, 2019
To all who are interested, I just finished uploading all of the stories that will be featured in my story collection Endings at BronyCon's Golden Oaks Bookstore (save the story Hard Deadline, which I will be uploading after the con so purchasers can read it first). Below are the descriptions for each story and their theme regarding "endings":
Steve's Final Adventure (Ending as Prologue): Long ago, before the Elements of Harmony saved Equestria more times than most ponies could count, two unlikely friends wandered the land. One was a donkey searching for a long-lost love, the other a gigantic sea serpent with a taste for grooming. Together, they forged trails not even the bravest explorers dared traverse and learned secrets long forgotten by modern ponies.
One fateful day, the two came to a lonely town on the Equestrian plains. "Windvane", the serpent called it. The signs promised a one-of-a-kind spa and quaint sabbatical from their journey, away from the heartaches and pains of the past.
But not all promises are kept, and the two friends soon found nothing could be the same ever again.
Hard Deadline (Ending as a False Truth): Price Back, intrepid reporter for the Equestrian Grazzette, doesn't want to be in Baltimare. Nor does he want to be stuck in the Convention Center, covering a Daring Do convention with a bunch of obsessed weirdos. He's a stallion made for big stories, and there are none around ponies dressed up in strange costumes.
But he soon finds there is a story brewing in Baltimare. One of mysterious authors, notorious gangsters, and weapons of mass destruction. It's a story many reporters would die to get... and Price just might.
No Gift is Free (Ending as the Last Chance): Ponies attain redemption different ways. Some do community service for the less fortunate. Others visit estranged relatives to sort out the troubled past. A few even go on grand adventures across Equestria, saving the innocent and weak from terrifying monsters and villains.
Lightning Dust didn't need any of that. She didn't bow and throw herself down in pitiful humility, begging for a second chance or whipping her back. She took her life by the reigns and steered headlong into the dangerous stunts her flight coaches told her never to do. With a little luck and a lot of skill, she managed to build a crew that attracts record crowds and can go head-to-head with the Wonderbolts.
But when the rival that sent her into this tailspin of success appears at her show, she learns time doesn't heal all wounds. Sometimes, it just makes them deeper.
The Right Reads (Ending as Amiable Conclusion): Sunset Shimmer, invited by Twilight to an Equestrian Hearth's Warming party, finds herself back in the world she'd left long ago. Surrounded by familiar strangers and without a gift to give, she quickly becomes alienated from the other guests.
Except for one.
Every Nightmare's Caveat (Ending as the Ultimate Finality): In a dungeon cell deep beneath Nightmare Moon's castle, a lonely prisoner spends his nights remembering the daylight. Memories and the stars are his only comforts now in a world bent on punishing him in any imaginable way.
But when he least expects it, a reprieve comes from the most unlikely source. A source that, if satisfied, can make the prisoner's life a virtual paradise.
All it takes is a single spell, one that will make his jailer a goddess over all.
The Slow Transformation of Oliver Sanderson (Ending as Change): Oliver doesn't know why the Equestrians came to Earth. He doesn't know why the portal they used is expanding and turning humans into colorful equines wherever it passes. He doesn't even know why the rest of the world seems so accepting of the change.
All he knows is that his father dragged him all the way to Portland, Oregon, to say goodbye. To family, to friends, and to humanity as we know it .
It'd be a lot easier if the invader in his aunt's apartment would stop smiling.
Also, if any of you are going to be at BronyCon, I will be wearing a tan straw sombrero throughout the convention. I'm usually pretty quiet and reserved, but if you want to say hi, I won't be too disconcerted.
Hope you all enjoy the stories, and I'll see you around!
Expect me there, mi amigos.
(Also, I am admittedly flattered a story you wrote for me is getting sold at the con.)
5096131
I was initially on the fence about including it, but I decided it belonged because:
A) It was a little more upbeat than a lot of the other stories I put in the collection, and I thought a little tonal balance to the collection would do it good.
B) I realized the collection's theme was so broad (How many different ways can things 'end'?) that it actually could fit in just fine.
C) It's by far my most highly-rated and popular story. Some users even remarked that they remembered me from "The Right Reads" when I posted my newer stories. The businessman in me couldn't help but think of that as a little extra motivation for a potential buyer.
In the end, I should probably be thanking you for pushing me to write it back in December. It's a cute story, and one of many that's pushed me to seriously step up my writing game. Hope you have a good time in Baltimore, and perhaps we'll run into each other in the hallways!
5096145
Head over to Quills and Sofas, and I will be there.
5096154
I'll be sure to stop by!