CRISIS: Equestria - 10 Year Anniversary-ish · 10:57pm Sep 1st, 2021
Ten years ago(-ish), the first chapter of CRISIS: Equestria was published on Equestria Daily. I say "-ish" because due to how EQD posts, I actually don't know the exact date it published on anymore! But I do know that it posted up roughly around the beginning of September 2011, so I consider September 1st to be the official "anniversary".
It is now September 2021, and CRISIS: Equestria has gone through several changes and updates, and ups and downs. While I know it will never attain the profile that it possessed in the early days of the fandom, I take some satisfaction in knowing that, for a time at least, CRISIS: Equestria was viewed and enjoyed by hundreds of readers with every single update. I'm glad to hear that there are still several of you out there that read and enjoy this story, this world, that I have created and that it brings you even the slightest amount of emotion. It is every writer's dream to hear that someone has read their work and engaged with it, good or bad.
There have been some low points for CRISIS: Equestria over the years. The huge, several-year-long hiatus is of course the most prolific, brought on by a mental breakdown of sorts during a low part of my own life and not helped at all by what I felt like was a lack of support from friends and family. Though I did eventually come back around to finishing the last few chapters of CRISIS: Equestria's original run, I know that the ending was delayed so long that it probably didn't live up to anyone's expectations, least of all mine. I'm satisfied with the ending, certainly, but I know it could have been better.
Of course, I think everyone knows by now about the ill-fated radio play that was being produced on YouTube by BogyleBronies, and I personally consider this the catalyst that caused the hiatus in the story. I prefer not to talk much about the project anymore as I don't want to speak ill of anyone involved, but suffice to say, I think that attempting the project when we all did was a poor decision on both side; CRISIS wasn't finished yet, and the project was too big for us to handle. It didn't end well for anyone involved, and we'll just leave it at that.
Once the original story was finished, I decided to write a series of other stories set within the CRISIS-verse, starting with the prequel story, A Royal Affair, which helped to further establish the setting of the CRISIS-verse and which I am still quite satisfied with. I found while writing it that I rather enjoyed that smaller things these days; the epic adventures of the original CRISIS felt daunting to me now; I'd grown older and though ironically I had more time than ever to work on the story, I still felt overly pressured by the work.
The sequel story, New World Order, did not turn out exactly as well as I had planned. Though I stand by the story and the direction it took, I am unsatisfied with its conclusions, mostly because I feel I made a poor decision to limit the group as much as I did. CRISIS: Equestria benefitted from its large cast of characters, not just canon ones but original ones, and New World Order not only didn't include the robust canon cast, but removed some of the more interesting and enjoyable original characters and did not replace them with equally compelling ones.
This, in turn, inspired me to give CRISIS: Equestria another attempt via the Divergence timeline, an opportunity to hopefully try something new and different with the CRISIS-verse while staying true to the roots of the original story while blending elements from the prequel. Since the story is still ongoing I won't comment too much on it, but I will say that I am satisfied with the directions it's taking.
As for artwork, I would love to give a huge thanks to Starlight Spark (who no longer uses that handle nor does any pony artwork outside of the commissioned work for CRISIS), as without her artwork I don't think CRISIS: Equestria would have attained the initial "pop" that it did in the early days of the fandom. While she no longer has a DeviantArt page, you can still find her work on Derpibooru.
And of course, a huge shout-out to my editor and co-author, Devnator, who has kept me motivated to work on the CRISIS-verse over the course of the past two years, especially this past year during the pandemic.
Last but not least, thank you to all of the readers and fans. I wouldn't be able to keep writing CRISIS material without your engagement and interest, so thank you all for reading.
It has been a very good read! Yours is one of several fics on this site that I see as true classics of the fandom!
I may not have kept up with all the sequels (I honestly think I burned myself out on CRISIS: Equestria by *writing* the LSB chapters) but I can say that it was one of the best fics I've ever read—and when I first found it, my young, impressionable mind thought it was nothing less than pure absolute gold.
For the sake of that child who sat in his bed on a kindle, I thank you.
-GM, master of Sweeties.
It's been a real thrill working with you over the last 10 years, you wouldn't believe how overjoyed I was when you sent us the mail regarding you wanting to finally finish Crisis: Equestria.
It has been a fun journey working with you on all the projects that came after Crisis: Equestria and I hope the readers enjoy the rest of Book 3!