Insert Clever Blog Title Here (shut up, I'm tired) · 12:47am Mar 1st, 2021
Howdy folks! First and foremost, as always, Adorable Applejack:
Here, we see four appuls stacked atop each other
Now then...
Jeez, what is this, the third story I've written about Spike dealing with trauma?! I thought I liked the kid!
Truthfully, I was blown away by the positive reaction to The Enemy Within, named for an Arch Enemy song with no connection aside from the title. I mean, I knew I had something special—at least my ego liked to think I did—but while I certainly hoped it would take off, I didn't think it would. But holy shit, people seemed to really dig it! It made the Feature Box in less than an hour, and stayed there or in the popular stories sidebar for five days. Hell, it even made it to the top of the Box and stayed there for nearly a day!
Ignore the stonks Loona in the Discord chat
unless that kind of thing is your thing uwu
How in the Hell did I manage to—
Ah, that explains it
Now I know, I know. The Box isn't really a mark of quality or an acheivement really. Still, despite know this... well, you know...
Validaaaaaaattiiiiooooonnnn........
But for realsies, thank you so much to everyone who read, liked, faved, and commented. I had a shit eating grin for five days straight.
Some of you may be wondering if this story is like Best Left Unsaid, where I began it seven fucking years ago, abandoned it, then came back and added the last 500 words a week ago. Well, this both is and isn't an old story. It was like two or three years ago that I first had the idea of Spike dealing with the aftermath of Secret of My Excess. I mean, we've seen consistently that Spike can be a sensitive little guy. So coming out of a fugue state and realized that you level several buildings in your home town and put all of your best friends at risk? Yeah, that ain't something that's gonna be fixed by a kiss from Rarity.
The problem was I had the concept, but I could never figure out a good idea, or angle to take. I didn't want to to be generic "Twilight comforts Spike," but I couldn't figure out anything else. Then around six months ago, I began work on another story, also a follow up, but this one to that animation/song Lullaby For A Princess. In fact, I actually alluded to that story in this one, where Luna describes Celestia breaking down in tears once they were finally alone. As I was thinking on it, I thought to myself, "Wait a minute. If you look at it through a certain lens, there are a lot of parallels between Nightmare Moon and Spikezilla. And that, as they say, was that.
The idea of the Guard relief force was mainly born out of a desire for Shining Armor to be there, because as I have stated many times, I wish the show had truly explored Spike's relationship with his "big bro." Especially given the age difference. My brother is only three years older than me, so we conflicted and fought all the time. But friends who have a brother that is like 5+ years older than them have told me that their relationship dynamic was basically hero worship. Add to that the fact that Shining Armor was specifically designed to be the perfect "Big Bro," and I think there's a lot to work with. I absolutely head canon that Shining is the one who got Spike into Ogres & Oubliettes, and that the reason Spike dreams of being a valiant knight, as in Dog & Pony Show and Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep, is because he so idolized Shining when he was little.
View on Derpibooru - Original source
You know the acronym...
Plus, I wanted to at least somewhat acknowledge the damage Spike did. If you go back and watch it again, we a pretty sizable field of destruction in a few shots. Now I know, it's an episodic cartoon, they hit Star Trek: Voyager's patented Magic Reset Button between episodes. Hell, in Mysterious Mare-do-Well a fucking dam is destroyed! How many ponies should that have killed?!
[EDIT: Apparently the dam wasn't destroyed in that episode. I chalk that up to I have not rewatched that episode even once.]
The angle of Spike being ashamed that he enjoyed it came when I watched the Nostalgia Critic's review of the Ang Lee Hulk movie. I remembered that trailer where Eric Bana says, "At the end, when I finally lost control... I liked it." Let's face it, despite the fact that I love the little guy, Spike has consistently been the butt of the joke throughout all nine seasons. He's always disrespected and being looked down on because he literally is smaller than everypony else, so I figured that him suddenly being the biggest and the Strongest thing in town would be something he'd enjoy on some base level.
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"Oh, yeah! Look at you! You was talking all that good shit a second ago, and then you got kicked in yo chest!!"
But in reality, the real heroes of this story are the pre-readers: Pascoite, Georg, and Tek. And before you ask, no, I don;t have a damn clue how I got those guys to pre-read for me! Actually, I just asked them and they said yes, but that's not very cinematic, is it? See, the problem I ran into is that I've been in the fandom for so dayum long that the guys who always pre-read for me—Piquo Pie, Golden Vision, and Pilot—are gone. They all "ninja vanished" at some point. SO as I was thinking on who might be willing, I remembered that when I submitted best Left Unsaid to EqD a few months ago, Pascoite read it... then sent me nearly two thousand words worth of shit I did wrong.
SO I asked him, and he said yes. However, I still don't have enough faith in myself to only have one dude read it, even if it's someone as talented as Pasc. I then thought of any other pre-readers I knew, and remembered that Georg always has Tek do it for him, and his stuff is awesome. SO I asked Georg if Tek would be okay with me dropping him a lone asking for his services, and he said yes... then offered to look it over himself.
My approximate reaction when...
So... really don't have much else to say. I'm super proud of this story, and even superer happy that so many people enjoyed it. Once more, thank you all, and never forget that I fucking love you all. Til next time stay safe, stay free, and stay metal! Jake The Army Guy out!
Sorry. I was reading but then Loona.
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Hey, happens to the best of us.
Hell dude, you deserve the praise for this short piece! It was wonderful... Ya know, aside from the ninjas armed with those god damn onions again. Also, you're a metal fan, I'm sure somewhere in the back of your head you had something playing as Spikezilla went tromping through Ponyville! Admit it, you and I both know you did.
Seriously dude, love ya though, keep up the great work and if you ever need an extra set of eyes, I've done far more than my fair share of editing and pre-reading in my life.
Pascoite is a gift from God. In an earlier era, he would storm into Shakespeare's office, slap him in the face with a manuscript, and demand, "What is this crap?! Sit down! We're going to make this usable if it takes us all week!" Or perhaps he did. It's said that he's immortal, that War and Peace escaped to the publishers a week before he managed to catch it, and he's been cursed to live a life of eternal editing ever since. Dungeons and Dragons has the artifact Rod of Lordly Might. Our world has the more powerful artifact Red Pencil of Pascoite. He's awesome.
That sparkly eyed Shining at the end is adorable and captivating. Could you link the source to that one as well? Is it from one of those meme formats?
Good to see you in good spirits again Jake. I've added your story to my reading list, looking forward to it!
5464159 My point exactly.
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[url=https://derpibooru.org/images/1740024?sort[]=63&sort[]=1740024&sd=desc&sf=gallery_id%3A13561&q=gallery_id%3A13561]Here is a link to the image... though beware looking for the actual source. It comes form a... rather naughty comic.
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Well, I mean he is a rock, so...