The Inspiration Behind "To Be Kind" · 2:52pm Nov 5th, 2019
Hi everyone!
First off, I'm happy you all have enjoyed "To Be Kind" so much! I know it's darker than my normal stuff--heck, it's darker than most of you were probably expecting--but it was fun to write, and, I hope, fun to read!
More below the jump.
A reader wrote me the other day and asked me where I got the idea for "To Be Kind." If you've been keeping up with my blog, you'll know--I've been kicking around the idea of a Princess Fluttershy fic for some time [1] [2]. However, there's one big influence that might not be so obvious, but might help explain what the Discord I was trying to do-- not to mention, deserves more than a little credit.
One of my favorite pieces of fanfiction is a story by the name of "The Reality I Choose."
The story tells about one potential alternate-reality that Twilight stumbled into during the Season 5 finale: one in which Sunset Shimmer, not Twilight, was Princess of Friendship. It was so fun, in large part, because Sunset's different set of skills led to a very different sort of Equestria: for example, she successfully reformed King Sombra, but was unable to help Nightmare Moon. I'm fond of writing AUs to begin with, but I especially liked that particular approach: not just making someone else Princess, but showing how they failed in new and different ways.
As you should know by now, AUs are some of my favorite fics to write--but I do my best to add a twist of some sort, aside from just swapping ponies around. In this case, "To Be Kind" took inspiration from "The Reality I Choose": Fluttershy is Princess, of course, but her different skillset leads to a very different Equestria from canon. Some villains worked out better for her than for Twilight, and some... well...
It's very easy to read Princess Fluttershy as a monster. However, I tried hard to write her as a fundamentally good Princess, but with a couple rather glaring blind spots. And, to me, that's a lot more interesting than just making her a straight-up villain.
If you enjoyed "To Be Kind," I highly recommend my Celestia XVII series, which deals with an AU in which alicorns are mortal, Princess Celestia is a teenager, and best friends with nerdy recluse Twilight Sparkle. The first story was actually featured on EqD, and has been published in a collection by the Ministry of Image! I'm currently in the middle of posting The Broken Princess, book two of the (planned) quadrilogy, in which little Cece has to deal with both Queen Chrysalis and Discord. We're almost to the juicy bits 
Thanks for reading, and I'll see you around!
~brokenimage321
