Stupid Fake Sunlight -- An Extended Author's Note · 9:35pm Apr 13th, 2021
This is my first time doing anything like this, but considering the length and time commitment that went into Artificial Contained Daytime, I felt a little more compelled to do so. I apologize if doing so seems pretentious or self-indulgent or what have you.
I think the weirdest part about the Season Five finale is how little we see of Twilight in it.
Not our Twilight, but rather the Twilights of the alternate timelines we are shown. Logically, they should exist, and yet we see neither hide nor hair of them at any point. Granted, we're only shown glimpses of much of the timelines in that finale--one of the biggest flaws it has, in my humble opinion. Honestly, and this will probably surprise some people, but I wasn't particularly fond of the S5 finale overall. I didn't think it was bad either (I don't really think many pony episodes are 'bad', even the most forgettable still tend to have some funny joke or nice detail I can appreciate on a rewatch) but it was certainly flawed. I would have much preferred to have been shown only one or two timelines, instead of a plethora of them, because almost all of the timelines we're shown tend to fall apart on closer examination.
Making sense of the silliest of all of the timelines seemed like a fun little thought experiment, and originally I was going at it in a much more lighthearted manner. I got about 700 words in before I realized I was just ripping off another person's fic, which I will absolutely have no trouble citing as a major inspiration for what Enclosed Solar Beams ended up becoming. It's called Selling Out, and you can read it right here. Regardless, I ended up scrapping what I had, though a lot of it returns as dialogue in the second chapter between Twilight and Celestia. At the time in 2015, I distinctly remember the Flim Flam Timeline being a big source of laughter and ridicule amongst the fandom, with "holy shit how worthless can Celestia be if she let Flim and Flam take over Equestria?" being one of the central remarks. I decided to tackle that idea--what if that was worked into the story's own universe as well? What if Flim and Flam themselves were the ones parading that idea? What if Celestia was too preoccupied with the other foes who would logically still be a threat to do much about it? From that vague premise I wrote about 3000 words in my university library, went home and gourged myself with shwarma, and then tackled the rest the next day. I published the story before bed and expected it to get downvoted to hell, and was surprised to find it nestled beneath my idol Shortskirts in the Featured Box when I woke up the next day.
In retrospect, I'm glad I continued the project from that point.
This isn't to say I didn't like it as a one-shot, either, but I certainly see that there was much to be desired in what was presented in its original 8k word form. It's basically just an extended build-up to what is essentially an anti-climax, and implies a bunch of ideas without actually delivering on any of them. Then, I made the mistake of thinking that a second chapter would suffice in that regard. I wrote Twilight on a whim, vaguely extrapolating where she would have been without the magic tutelage that framed her position in the show. As I said earlier, her not having any development in any of the alternate timelines was something that I was greatly curious about, and I figured she would probably have been harmed the most by the idea of never getting her cutiemark. All of the friends we see her with in Amending Fences were made during her magical schooling, and that's to say nothing of the lack of Mane 6 and how it would have shaped Twilight from Nightmare Moon's return on.
Writing Twilight and Celestia interacting quickly became... fun. I realized very quickly that I loved their chemistry--I already did before of course, unapologetic Twilestia fag that I am, but essentially swapping the reliance the two had on each other quickly became a fun twist to explore. Celestia was weak and worthless and nothing, and she saw Twilight as her salvation. I sort of approached the idea as an inverse of the event that promoted Twilight to try for Celestia's School in the first place. Instead of Twilight being enamoured by Celestia's grace, it was Celestia being immediately enamoured by Twilight's compassion and intelligence.
From there, the rest of the story quickly came. I wrote excitedly, developing more of the world as I went and publishing a chapter every month or so for some time, thrilled to be building and building on the world that was absolutely fucking ridiculous and should not have ever been taken seriously.
Then, a bunch of depression and indifference and apathy and a glacial drift from the fandom occurred--I never left completely, of course, but I just kinda stopped caring about everything--and my writing suffered as a result. Chapters became few and far between, and I fear the quality of those 2017 chapters may have been affected in places, too.
I'm glad I got back into pony. I'm glad I got back into writing, too. I wrote the 2020 chapters with a passion I hadn't felt in a long time, and in doing so, more and more ideas in turn developed. The thestrals and the subplots involving Shining Armor went from being throwaway conversations in one of a dozen scrapped 2018-2019 drafts to actual elements of the story with characters and environments that affected the central duo of Twilight and Celestia in meaningful ways. It got longer than I intended, and part of me fears the pacing of some of the latter chapters suffered due to my creative overindulgment.
But I guess none of that matters anymore because the story is done, after all this time.
This story means a lot to me mainly because it harkens back to an exciting time in the fandom for me. The S5 finale, for all its flaws, spawned so many amazing stories from so many talented authors, because ridiculous or not, it gave us so many intriguing ideas to chew on. I love it for doing that. I love the show's writers for doing that for us. And I love being part of a fandom that would endeavour to contextualize and build upon the flaws of something instead of just complaining noisily about them.
Aaaaand I think that's about all I can think to say that sounds vaguely lucid. I'd love to answer any questions you might have about the story, my experience writing it, et cetera et cetera. AMA or whatever. And, if you've got none of those, at least thank you for reading this self-indulgent nonsense all the way to the end.
and it was a fantastic read from start to finish, look forward to more stories,
with the twilight thing i think the answer is without friendship she never grew into the wonderful mare who could save equestria so she never got other attentions and never became a major role in events, so she just a pony who never got celestia attention so was never in right place at the right time, that being said it mostly writer fault
5497148
I think thats the most logical explanation, yeah. I can see her being sort of like Moondancer in Amending Fences. A shut-in who actively rejects other people's attempts at social interaction because it blew up in her face before.
5497162
yeah without the rain-boom she never passed her exam to get celestia attention, and that failure would probably devastate her, lead her down different path, i always liked stories like that where she eventually gain friendship and grows into that mare just later fixing everything at later time, diverging path stories are great just like yours
to quote star trek which sum it up perfectly just replace death with freindship
"The Jean-Luc Picard you wanted to be, the one who did NOT fight the Nausicaan, had quite a different career from the one you remember. That Picard never had a brush with death, never came face to face with his own mortality, never realized how fragile life is, or how important each moment must be. So his life never came into focus. He drifted through much of his career, with no plan or agenda… going from one assignment to the next, never seizing the opportunities that presented themselves. He never led the away-team on Milika III to save the ambassador, or take charge of the Stargazer's bridge when its captain was killed. And no one ever offered him a command. He learned to play it safe… and he never, ever got noticed by anyone."
5497184
Ahh, Tapestry. One of the greatest episodes of a show that was hardly rare on quality episodes.
5497193
i see your a person of culture as well
In March of 2019, I picked up Synthetic Bottled Sunlight. It was such an off-the-cuff binge; I never would have expected it to consume me in the way that it did. Then again, when we met in the summer of 2018, I never expected you to become one of the few to help me carry myself over the course of the next 3 years. You've had a greater influence on me then I think you know, and SBS is the catalyst at the center of it all: if I hadn't gotten into your writing, I don't think we'd be where we are today. I'm still so humbled that you allowed me into your process—and if this is the case, I'm also glad to have contributed to you continuing SBS and bringing it to a rightfully earned conclusion.
I'll keep it concise, because this really isn't the place for all of that. At the end of the day, I'm just stupidly lucky to have met you and Coffee.
Thank you for bringing this wonderful story to an end, and thank you for your friendship. I'm looking forward to your next writing projects, and I hope that we can keep this going for the foreseeable future.
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I started reading the fic in late 2017- early 2018 and loved it. You have no idea how happy I was when the fic started updating again in 2020, and from there it quickly became one of my favourite fics ever. It's just so... satisfying when it resolves all the tension, so sweet when it sprinkles some of the sweetest Twilestia I've read
Also the way Celestia, Twilight and their relationship changes... mwa, french kiss
I still desperately need to read that one. It's been kicking around on my read later list for what, 5 years now? I guess this can serve as my motivation to finally do it!
Hey, random question from a random reader - a majority of the Mane 6 popped up in the story at least once. But as far as I can recall, Pinkie Pie nor Rainbow Dash ever popped up (though maybe I'm forgetting and this question is pointless). Anyways, do you have any idea where they are in this timeline?
I know I dont comment much on your work, if at all, but I just wanted to say that this story has been a long lasting favourite on this site (up here with changling of the guard). Its both sad that its been finished and happy at how its ended.
5497447
No, you are correct. Neither of those two showed up--I couldn't really think of a way to fit them into the story in a way that felt organic. Despite this, yes I did put some consideration into where they would be in this timeline.
Copied from my story draft notes:
Rainbow Dash continued her flight school training and graduated near the top of her classes, performing well but outperformed by a few other fliers. Reality eventually casts doubt on her belief that she would ever make it into the Wonderbolts, and the trauma she sustains during the Crystal War (mentally and physically) only serve to further convince her its a childish goal. She joins the police force instead, serving as an officer in Manehettan and New Canterlot for five years and gradually becoming disillusioned with how her position seems to be constantly pitting her against desperate and poverty-stricken ponies. She eventually loses it on her supervisor (who is the same one Twilight and Shining encounter), cursing him out and the Industry as a whole out, and quitting in a trademark Rainbow Dash-poorly-thought-out-burst-of-emotions.
Now desperate for work, she applies to the weather factories in Cloudsdale, and gets a job hauling clouds off to far reaches of Equestria. It's not the highspeed, action oriented dream she had growing up, but she's more at home in the skies than she had ever been in the noisy streets of Manehattan.
Pinkie Pie works in the rock farm for most of her formative years with the revelation that she can bring happiness and joy to others occuring slower, instead of being revealed to her by the Rainboom. She works to keep the spirits of the rock farm up after Maud moves away, and eventually starts working part-time selling baked goods to travellers near the Ponyville train station to make extra money for her family. She does her best to remain optimistic and pleasant and bring joy to ponies lives, but in a considerably more restrained and subdued manner. Eventually, at some point after Celestia takes over, she ends up auditoning for and ultimately co-hosting Ponyville's first radio talkshow, bringing lively energy to the program and helping it become one of the most popular emerging broadcasts of Post-Industrial Equestria
As a general note, I wanted to write the Mane 6's fates with the vague hope that eventually they would be drawn together once again. You see it in the main story with Applejack, Fluttershy, and Twilight forming a friendship, and Rarity having a desire to divorce Blueblood and start a small independent seamstressing shop in a quiet town. Twilight spending a lot of time in the same town Pinkie Pie spends a lot of time at and Rainbow Dash playing a role in weather control which would likely put her on the same track as Applejack and Fluttershy's attempts to heal Sweet Apple Acres' soil also corroborate that idea.
5497552
Yeah. I'm relieved to be done with the stress of working on it and its nice to be able to focus on other things without a sense of guilt, but I'm going to miss the time spent working on this fic.
5497193
5497194
I'll always remain biased towards The Inner Light, but TNG...feck, I will admit that while I love the modern era where so much of TV is good, there's something charming in older styles that is somehow...lost now. Hopefully if we escape capitalist hell we'll rediscover it cause that...oddness in older filmmaking borne in part of limitations is oddly compelling.
I am normally used to a sensation of depression when stories finish, like a 'I want more, and there is no more' melancholy and here I did not get that, and yet I find it a pleasing thing. There's no depression, I think, because it paints a world where the future can easily manifest in my head, so their sort of 'happily ever after' is one whose seeds are sewn so well throughout that by the end you can see the many ways they might grow, and that is a happier sort of denouement.
I checked out the story you cite as inspiration, and gosh, that drew back nostalgia of that bygone era; and now I am seized by the idea of a storylet of a post-Golden Age Equestria which is hardly like, bad in any way, its jut that everyone knows it once was so much more alive.
Survivors refusing to leave the old rock while the others have fanned out to the stars, except somebody already somewhat wrote that idea though it was Twilestia only. mm.
It's amazing what stories crop up in the smallest of details. This one was a treat, and I find myself greatly enjoying stories that hail back from the early-mid 2010's, they have such a vibe about them.
I'm glad to see this story was finished, and that it was an enjoyable one.
Also reading this blog reminded me of a comment I wanted to leave last night but forgot to before I went to bed. Not sure what chapter it's on, I think Fine Line's flashback to when The Industry started spinning the orbital theory of the sun raising itself. Really gave me a Rock-a-Doodle vibe, with the Equestrian populous being the frightened farm animals who quickly turned on Chaunticleer (Chauntilestia? Celesticleer?) once the Sun rose without him, and The Industry being the Grand Duke and his owls stirring up fears and feasting on the animals.
Obviously there are a lot of points for the comparison to break down, they definitely aren't the same story by any stretch, but it really gave me some food for thought and a kind of extra imagined-depth (in addition to the existing actual depth the story already had in abundance).
With that thought nugget finally mined out of my brain, I can just sit back and say what I did in my last story comment. This was a fun story to read, and I'm extremely happy that it was finished rather than being left hanging in the last decade forever like so many other stories with extremely engaging buildups.
So thank you again for the wild ride
5499142
Thank you for the comments and for the follow. They've been a joy to read and I greatly appreciate it.
5498149
The Inner Light gets me real good everytime. Such a beautifully bittersweet story. Felt like it owed a lot to classic Twilight Zone, which is prolly why its so good. I really loved how TNG could do an episode like that, where the Sci-fi elements are so weak so as to be nonexistent, then turn around and do something like The Pegasus or Parallels next week, where the sci-fi mind-fuckery is absolutely bonkers.
I get what you mean about older TV having a different tone to it. It's cheesy and it doesnt always age well, but there were just so many amazing ideas being put forwards by so many brilliant minds, and despite that so much of it felt like the creative passion project of whatever writer happened to be working on the episode.
5499426
It's not just about the ideas too, but about something about the lower level of technology and arguably, showcraft in general being less sophisticated which lends it this strange sort of earnest charm that I no longer see. And I mean, I love the modern, but...I'd enjoy new 'classic' oddness to, from time to time
What ever happened to the fic Cyclosa?
5502773
I decided that, were I to continue the story, I would be doing so via a sequel which I've been (very slowly) chipping away at. As soon as I have a decent backlog of chapters for it, I'll likely wrap up Cyclosa and publish the sequel on the same day.
5502903
Thank you!
Thank you for writing this story, and thank you for finishing it. It’s been a pleasure to read.