The day after: How we got here + a reminder that the much-teased sequel is finally here! · 2:35am Dec 11th, 2019
Geez, when I left Pony-Me™ on an open-ended note, I wasn't planning on writing a sequel this early.
Though, of course, life happens. Things change, stuff comes up that you never expected. Into Equestria sheds the emotional basis of Pony-Me, and instead focuses on inner change, and the anticipation of the future. It's a story about Elise Fairchild, a somewhat-cleverly named girl with nods both to the protagonist of Pony-Me, Lisa Garnet, as well as an early pioneering company in the electronics industry, Fairchild Semiconductor. Also, on a side note, it just works out nicely to have her name be what it is.
Rather than starting with a dis-connection, Into Equestria, as the title suggests, begins with an opportunity. Though in early planning Elise wasn't meant to be Luster Dawn, the finale of MLP Gen 4 presented a chance to quite literally pass the baton to the next generation. And so, the story opens with an older, more experience Lisa Garnet, one who has since brought back the education program both she and Samantha enjoyed when they were younger. The story somewhat parallels the final episode; where Twilight is presented as having a personal protege of her own in the show, Lisa is written as considering taking on three, straight out of the top students of the classes. While the two others are yet to be mentioned in the published chapters, Elise is introduced immediately as a timid girl, who isn't quite sure what she wants in life quite yet. She's very much a doormat, letting others make all the decisions for her, and generally not likely to push back against much anything.
And so, we have our story. We have our protagonist(s), but what other thing have I been teasing in blogposts as of late?
The antagonists.
Given how Into Equestria's writing was directly spurred by my still-ongoing adaptation of Pony-Me into original fiction, many elements of the original fiction can be seen (or will be seen) being carried over into this story. One of these elements is to grant the story a deeper lore, with more ongoing tensions and conflict beyond the surface-level, inner ones of Pony-Me. No longer is the story focusing only on the thoughts and desires of a single character, but instead it broadens, attaching itself to and following multiple characters as time passes. The inner turmoil key to Pony-Me's characters and story are indeed still there, but have become suppressed over time. New conflict-- that is, the need to decide for oneself, and to become more confident, arises in Elise Fairchild instead, in a way mirroring how Lisa, though herself unsure at first, would quickly come to make long-lasting decisions that would change the course of her life.
But that's enough ramble about inner turmoil. I was talking about actual antagonists, after all!
Funnily enough, in Pony-me, I actually originally wrote Melina Daalmans with plans to have her return to the story later on as a villain of sorts. It never occurred, and she would instead be relegated to being a part of the sprawling background lore that would later become the original fiction.
In Into Equestria, however, there very much is a force actively working against the protagonists. Not necessarily against Elise, per say, but rather everyone you knew from Pony-Me collectively. It isn't a single character that they target. Instead, it's YmEgMzQgMzIgOTAgMzkgYjQgYjYgYmEgYjYgMzAgYmEgMzQgYjcgYjcgMzkgOTAgM2EgMzQgMzIgYjYgYjkgYjIgYjYgM2IgMzIgYjkg.
Now, the "villains" of this story are named NTEgYTEgOTQgODEgMzkgYTUgOWQgYTEgZDEgYjUgODUgYzkgOTQgYjAgODEgNWQgYTUgYjEgOTEgOGQgODUgZDAgYjAgODEgODUgYjkgOTAgODEgNDEgYzkgOTUgZDEgZDEgZTQgODEgMzEgODUgOTEgZTUg. All three were originally conceived in the original fiction, and funnily enough, the piece of lore they belonged to actually wasn't meant to show up in Into Equestria until the very end. Naturally, however, as I started integrating it into the original fiction, I took quite a liking to it, and decided to move it faaaar ahead of schedule. Instead, it now serves as a part of the underlying lore, as well as a new source of tension, and the origin of a sort of pseudo-protagonist...
The first character of the three is a bit of a nod to MjcgMzQgYjMgYjQgM2EgMzYgYjAgYjkgMzIgOTAgMjYgYjcgYjcgYjcg. She's a bit of a micromanager at times, and very much an all-around jerk. Why? Because she's lost just about every job she's ever held to some form or another of technology. It's more of an awful stroke of luck than anything, but she ultimately comes to see ,X^I}@p;6UBvhQQn82gZN[|L<R{+Tm9jr5zIP:&e$yF2!55p)z9Kq/H[QSd/<P_o>WH<:W~j<R6t(bRn]U^I,WmeKUX
And so, her plan begins: 72 105 114 101 32 115 111 109 101 111 110 101 32 116 111 32 116 97 107 101 32 111 117 116 32 116 104 101 32 102 97 109 105 108 121 32 98 101 104 105 110 100 32 116 104 101 32 102 105 114 115 116 32 99 111 109 112 97 110 121 32 115 104 101 32 119 97 115 32 102 105 114 101 100 32 102 114 111 109 46 <= this one's an easy one 
Unfortunately, if you know the lore behind Pony-Me, it backfired.
Eventually, she would be joined by the two others mentioned, with the last one of them named above actually 0011011000111000001000000011011000110001001000000011011100110110001000000011011000111001001000000011011001100101001000000011011000110111001000000011001000110000001000000011011000111001001000000011011001100101001000000011011100110100001000000011011000110101001000000011011100110010001000000011011001100101001000000011011000110101001000000011011000110100001000000011001000110000001000000011010100110100001000000011011000110101001000000011011000110011001000000011011000111000001000000011010100110011001000000011010000111001001000000011010000110111001000000011001000110000001000000011011000111000001000000011011000110101001000000011011100110010001000000011011100110011001000000011011000110101001000000011011001100011001000000011011000110110001000000011001001100011001000000011001000110000001000000011011000110101001000000011011100110110001000000011011000110101001000000011011001100101001000000011001000110000001000000011011000110111001000000011011001100110001000000011011000111001001000000011011001100101001000000011011000110111001000000011001000110000001000000011011000110001001000000011011100110011001000000011001000110000001000000011011000110110001000000011011000110001001000000011011100110010001000000011001000110000001000000011011000110001001000000011011100110011001000000011001000110000001000000011011000111000001000000011011000110001001000000011011100110110001000000011011000111001001000000011011001100101001000000011011000110111001000000011001000110000001000000011011000110001001000000011011000110011001000000011011000110011001000000011011000110101001000000011011100110011001000000011011100110011001000000011001000110000001000000011011100110100001000000011011001100110001000000011001000110000001000000011011100110100001000000011011000111000001000000011011000110101001000000011001000110000001000000011011100110011001000000011011001100110001000000011011100110101001000000011011100110010001000000011011000110011001000000011011000110101001000000011001000110000001000000011011000110011001000000011011001100110001000000011011000110100001000000011011000110101001000000011001000110000001000000011011001100110001000000011011000110110001000000011001000110000001000000011011100110100001000000011011000111000001000000011011000110101001000000011001000110000001000000011011100110011001000000011011000111001001000000011011001100100001000000011011100110101001000000011011001100011001000000011011000110001001000000011011100110100001000000011011000111001001000000011011001100110001000000011011001100101001000000011011100110011001000000011001000110001
<= got another easy one there.
Short to say, one of the three might just eventually switch sides...
That's all for now! 
Puzzles.... nice!
Okay got one of the easy ones. 
Still working on the others. 
So. Much, Codes.