Nightmare Night Chapter 32 · 5:49pm Sep 21st, 2020
I've currently got 5000 words written with at least a couple thousand more to add; I will aim to have it ready by the weekend for a Sunday launch or sooner. Slight change in plans to chapter content, however.
Since I don't want attention split between two equally strong M-rated scenes, which (in my view) tends to weaken both, this chapter will be limited to the Shadowdash/Night Owl duel, in two sections, with an overdue return visit to Starlight's perspective separating them. So the follow-up to the action in Canterlot will be put off until next chapter so it can get its own spotlight. As for Starlight herself, in truth, I'm now leaning hard against converting her. The main reason is that a planned scene I have at the end of the story will be much more powerful if she ends up escaping the curse unconverted, but not unaffected. Needless to say, she's not going to shake this off easily.
With regards to Shadowdash and Night Owl, this story borrows from the Gentlemanverse version of griffons where they fight 'mating rounds' to get themselves worked up and establish dominance for rutting. So that's what you're going to get here, if in a much more adult fashion. You already know the outcome, but there'll be plenty of fun getting there! You'll also get some insights on Rainbow's relationship with Gilda and why she likes griffies in the first place. This will also be helping to set up a bonus chapter on the original Unleash the Magic: Midnight Rising for Gilda later, where you recall she made an appearance that was only mentioned in passing but wasn't fully explored.
That's it for now. Another blog post with a possible teaser may follow as we get closer and the chapter takes full shape.
Apologies to anyone who wanted a conversion but I have to agree 110% on your decision not to convert Starlight Glimmer. To explain why, I'm going to borrow a reference from an old FInal Fantasy game (6) where you find the magicite of Ragnarok. You're given an option for achieving the task of tracking him down and defeating the demigod creature in battle and are offered two possible rewards: Keep him as a magicite which will allow you to learn magic from him as well as summon him in battle and let a famed blacksmith transform him into a mythical sword of legendary might.
It is my take that Starlight is not only Twilight's equal but her superior. Were the two of them to meet prior to season 4, Starlight would have wiped the floor with her. This never happened though owing to Celestia's plans which allowed Twilight to find a bunch of friends and get leveled up and grow alicorn wings, after which she followed a pro-social path that Western society has been mercilessly pushing on everyone since the end of World War Two whilst holding a gun to everyone's head; this enabled her to defeat all manner of bad guys through strength in numbers. Starlight followed an anti-social path allowing her to hone her strength through the acquisition of power from others. The twist in this universe occurs when the two of them circle back on their original path and take each other's place. So you have Starlight as Twilight being held captive by the Eclipse who wants to do the same thing Starlight did except with sex, creating one forced collective of augmented, sex-obsessed superfreaks.
Starlight is the Ragnarok to bring this all back to Final Fantasy 6.
So two paths lay before us; destroy Starlight's arc and character for the sake of creating one legendary scene - one sword of Ragnarok - shattering her character in the process or allow her to take the arc she was always meant to take and assist the relief forces trying to rescue a dying civilization.
I always saved Ragnarok in the end in Final Fantasy 6. Why? Because Ragnarok deserves the respect his power grants him. I always felt he should be kept intact for what he's able to teach us all of my characters because he is a character himself who can grow and change as long as he's alive in some sense. That's how I see Starlight Glimmer. As soon as you impose upon her this transformation, there is no redemption.
I genuinely believe that when all is said in done in this story no matter how it's resolved, the ponies are broken and changed. They live in a world that's not necessarily one for the better like, for instance, Middle Earth in LOTR. No ancient evil has been vanquished to never rise again. No dragon has been slain that was going to rise anyway. In the end, there will be the heroes who were spared corruption through willful resistance to tyranny, and the ponies left picking up the pieces after being overtaken by a traumatic event. Starlight deserves to be a hero. She's my hero, dammit! And I look forward to seeing her shine.