Author's notes for Time Enough · 6:15pm Oct 18th, 2020
I released a new story recently for the Most Delightful Ponidox Contest, Time Enough, and here are some of my thoughts on it. This post contains spoilers, so go read the story first. But maybe don't read the comments.
First though, I have to kick the elephant in the room.
Abuse in the comments
There is no excuse for being rude or abusive to anybody on this site. Ever. This counts both for the original commenter whose insults set this off, and for anybody who responded to that abuse with abuse of their own. You can be critical of a story, disagree with an opinion or object to somebody else's behaviour without descending to the level of insults.
This isn't just any other fandom. We're supposed to be better than this.
Managing expectations
For my own part, I realise in hindsight that I should probably have tagged the story with the [Death] flag. I didn't because I didn't think it was a big deal. Nobody actually dies or is dead in the story; death is merely alluded to in a remote way.
Contrast this with my previous story, containing scenes of warfare in which characters die in visceral detail. It absolutely earns the [Death] and [Gore] flags.
Headcanons and succession
Leaving all that aside and turning to the story itself, some have questioned my decision to kill off a beloved character.
The show is ambiguous on the subject of immortality. It doesn't state why the princesses are immortal, whether it applies to all alicorns or only to the two ancient sisters, or what changes after Twilight takes over. There's no surprise there - as a kid's show it can't really say anything about death directly. It can't even say in as many words that Applejack's parents are dead, despite making it 100% clear in every other way.
And that’s fine, because that's where fanfiction comes in. We all come up with our own ways of filling in the gaps in the canon. I've seen authors take the question of immortality in a variety of directions, all of which are equally valid. We each have our preferred headcanons, our personal interpretation of events, but that doesn't mean another take is incorrect. One of my favourite versions is the Cadance of Cloudsdale series by Skywriter, in which Cadance spent centuries as a foal; but that doesn't mean I expect that same interpretation to apply to every story with Cadance in it.
Even within my own stories there's no need for consistency. The Fishbowl and Log of the UNS Twilight Sparkle present two very different visions for what the world of Equestria Girls really is.
The core of Time Enough is, first, the concept of life being long enough to do what you want with it. Twilight’s life will be long enough to discover friendship without losing out on her passions. Celestia’s life has been long enough for her to do almost everything, save the one thing she feared was impossible, save her sister. I really wanted to touch on the idea of being satisfied with what your life has been.
The second part is the idea of succession. Of learning to trust your successors despite their youth and inexperience; and of respecting and honouring those who went before you while not blindly copying everything that they did. And for that, it was necessary for Celestia to look ahead to a world without her. Not just an Equestria ruled by Princess Twilight Sparkle, but one where Celestia cannot be there to help her any more.
I chose not to go into any details of how or when it happened, because that wasn’t the story’s focus. It’s something universal. We all have time sitting on our shoulders, reminding us that anything we truly care about may need to survive in a world without us.
New followers
Welcome to everyone who's started following me recently. I don’t write very fast, but there are a number of stories in progress that I hope will see the light some day.
May I suggest taking a look at Princess Celestia's Private Library? The audio reading for it is absolutely lovely.
Aye aye Captain
Just ignore the guy whining that alicorns are immortal.
One of the great things about Equestria is that, even after some of the clumsier moments in the later seasons, the world is still what you make of it. This can lead to some friction between author and reader, but that's a mroe than acceptable consequence for a world so rich with possibility that no two Equestrias are completely alike.