New Fanfic Fully Illustrated by Equestria Girls Storyboard Artist?! - Development Blog #1 · 10:16pm Feb 26th, 2020
Okay, so, I've mentioned that this is happening in a few scattered places, but not in one proper announcement post: I'm writing a novel-length fic (currently nearing 70,000 words and counting) that will have every chapter illustrated by Bevin Brand, who worked on Equestria Girls! Woo!!!
That said, there's a few questions I'd like to answer (along with some teaser images from Bevin!)
Q: That many pretty pictures for one fic??? How??????? Sorcery????
Bevin and I became best friends, so collaborating on a project like this is more out of passion than anything. Neither of us is paying/commissioning the other, we just super love working together creatively. Basically, a total love letter to the stuff we loved about Equestria Girls plus way, way more that we wanted to see or explore.
But, you know, I heard somewhere that friendship ≥ magic, so in a way, yes! It's sorcery.
Q: So what's this story about, anyway? Can I get an elevator pitch?
Sunset Shimmer and her friends receive remarkable news: Princess Twilight's becoming the queen of all Equestria! At least, Sunset would like to feel that it's remarkable, instead of being haunted by mixed feelings and self-doubt. That alone would be enough to deal with, if Equestrian Magic wasn't already going a bit haywire in the human world due to an ominous dimensional rip in space-time hanging in the sky above Canterlot High.
I'd say that covers the basics, but exactly what magical shenanigans and other emotional fallout you can expect, I'll reveal a little closer to the release date.
Q: Release date, you say?
I don't say, really, and that's partially because I want to have the whole thing written, edited, and illustrated before publishing. I have an estimated release date in mind, though, and I'll let you know when I'm sure. For now, I'll just leave it at: Coming soon.
I will, however, be looking for an editor who likes to read Sunset Shimmer stories, so if that might be you, please let me know!
Q: Okay, what else can you say about it?
Fun fact #1: Shipping! It proudly features Sciset and the little known (but much loved by few) ship TimberFlash. Since it's a Sunset story, it's obvious that we'll be seeing things from her perspective, and you know, she really loves her girlfriend so I don't think we'll be lacking in that (but, in the same breath, it's not just a shipping story).
Fun fact #2: Extended Universe? Yup. While it's a sequel to my last story, The Exes Club, you don't have to read that first. You're smart. I'll treat you as such. If I tell you there's a crack in the sky because of something that happened in the last story, you can decide for yourself if that's something you want to go read (from Flash's perspective primarily) or if you're more interested in what's currently going on with Sunset.
The themes and bits of character progression I introduced there are going to be explored in greater depth in the new story, so by all means, discover at your own pace.
And fun fact #3: Title??? The title is actually still a work in progress, which is getting more hilarious to me the more words I write in this thing. I'll let you know when I settle on one.
Q: Should I keep an eye on your blog posts for more news?
Yeah! Every 2 or 3 weeks leading up to the release, I'm going to try to post a development blog here to update anyone interested, give you teasers, and ramble a little.
Bevin and I are making this for ourselves first, then releasing it into the wild. It's all about the fun of making it right now. Hope when the time comes you decide to come along for the ride.
- Marvel
I really enjoyed The Exes Club, so I look froward to seeing your and Bevin's next colab.
Pretty neat
This is pretty tempting stuff
5210136
I was pretty happy to spotlight Sciset more than I did in the last story, so I'm glad you're looking forward to seeing it because I hope it's up your alley 😉 (I'm still totally with you on the fact that Sunset supported and cared for Twi the most in LoE; it's kind of hard not to ship them after that)
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No worries, SciSet is probably my biggest OTP in the franchise.
And I'm with ya. FG and LoE really put SciSet on my radar (and was later cemented by Oroboro and The Albinocorn's SciSet stories). They just have so much chemistry, y'know what I mean?
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Oh I so feel you there, Albinocorn and Oroboro made me a hopeless Sciset shipper, if I wasn't before! Along with the likes of Dubs Rewatcher, Bookish Delight, Space Jazz, and many more phenomenal fandom writers who just knew how to use that chemistry to make me absolutely addicted to Sunny and Sparky together.
And yeah, FG/LoE both demonstrated how much those two cared about each other. Little moments in stuff like Forgotten Friendship carried that torch, really, but there's something so simple about Sunset tenderly extending her hand mid-magical girl fight and Twilight taking her up on it. And something even better to see their concern/care for each other in the series going forward from that.
Dammit, I'll never be over those dorks 😂
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I know what ya' mean.
TBH, whle it would have been cool if the show had taken a page out of Joss Whedon's book (ala Tara and Willow in S4 of Buffy) and let them get together, I understand that we're still getting there in mainstream media, particularly for main characters like Sunset and Twilight. But, that's why we've got FimFiction.
5212510
Oh, absolutely, beyond with you there. And I don't know about the writing staff in LA, but I do know from conversations with Bevin that the storyboard team at DHX in Vancouver was all for canonizing LGBT+ characters and relationships. A huge number of them were LGBT+ themselves, actually, or just interested in including those kinds of stories like Buffy did (well, without the death). They're the reason Rarijack is drawn so... well, Rarijack:
i.pinimg.com/236x/37/0d/15/370d155358b1b57e7a41cdbd93c56280.jpg
And the reason we have those two background boys who are very clearly a couple:
mlpforums.com/applications/core/interface/imageproxy/imageproxy.php?img=https://derpicdn.net/img/view/2018/7/24/1788294__safe_screencap_curly%2Bwinds_golden%2Bhazel_sandalwood_some%2Bblue%2Bguy_trixie_wiz%2Bkid_equestria%2Bgirls_rollercoaster%2Bof%2Bfriendship_spoiler-colon-eqg%2B.png&key=1914c43c6059fbdf8f566d1c709fb8316e9cd7fe6dddc0c75c06ed82d8b82386
From what I've heard, the DHX team didn't have say over the writing, but would have totally been down to pursue Sunset and Twilight as a couple (and/or other ships, Rarijack was a fav for some members on the team) if they did have a say in it.
So yeah, this is exactly what FIMfiction's for! I can say that while a ton of the ideas for this fic are from me since I'm writing the thing, there's some stuff that Bevin either helped come up with or had been thinking about since her time on the show.
It sucks that the DHX crew didn't get to properly send off the series, or even implement some of the ultra cool ideas they had while working on it. But hey, now that people like Bevin are free from Hasbro's clutches... might as well have fun 😉
I can't exactly remember how I came across The Exes Club (still a great story name, holy shit) originally but I think I was just looking for something that had both Flash and Timber in it and neither of them were written as assholes. That lead me to this and boyyy, was I instantly engaged. I'm so excited for this follow-up! I can see why SciSet is so popular because they definitely fit well together and are so fucking adorable!! (They're basically in my "I WANT WHAT THEY HAVE" category haha.) I loved them in TEC so if there's more of them here, god yes. On top of that, your writing style is amazing and was one of the things that definitely stood out to me! So I can't wait for this hehe 💜
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Portraying Flash and Timber as characters with depth to them was important to me when I wrote The Exes Club and it's been even more important in this upcoming sequel. They may not be the point-of-view characters, but they're absolutely central to what's going on. If you liked how they were portrayed in the last story, I think you're going to have a good time with what's to come 😉
Just like Timber and Flash, Sunset and Twilight are still going strong when we pick up with them in the next story, so more of them is definitely on the way!