Weekend Update 2021-11-27: Dash of Humanity Edition! · 8:40pm Nov 27th, 2021
TL;DR
- NaNoWriMo accomplished. 52k words, with 8k more on the way.
- Dash of Humanity 3 Reboot is nearly ready to premiere.
- DoH 3 Reboot will release, or have a release date, by next Saturday (Dec 4th)
- Excerpt from Chapter 2 below
- Ponified without Consent 2, Twilight's Dollhouse 2, to resume monthly updates in December.
For anyone seeing this for the first time: Dash of Humanity 3: Consequences is being replaced (but left published), by a new Comedy/Adventure story to fix/continue the Dash of Humanity trilogy/franchise. (Is it weird to call it that? I just have a lot of ideas of things to do for Dawn, but almost none of them work with Consequences.)
What a week
Nothing better than a little vacation from work. I was able to spend time with family for Thanksgiving, despite the power going out, and a horrible case of "tech neck". (Which is the unofficial term for 'strained as fuck from tilting head forward mainly due to using electronics) And wow, it hurts. But I pushed through it for all of my followers, and wrote pony. Also I didn't have a choice. Power was out, laptop was charged, and Dawn had really awesome crap to do.
Anyway, see the last blog if you want to know the 'what I'm grateful for' type stuff. Hopefully you all loved your week too, and are in the phase of your life where you don't have to work Black Friday. If you do work in the service industry, just remember it'll get better. It got better for me and as far as I can tell, my only skill set is making poor life choices and tormenting ponies.
Dash of Humanity 3!
So I hit 52k words today, officially reaching my goal for the month.
I have 3 chapters to go for the first draft to be "finished". That means about 21 total chapters. My amazing editor, TheEightyDayOfNight who volunteered to help me with this so we could get the story to you as soon as possible in December, has already edited 7 chapters. I just need to go make the changes, so I'm hoping that by next weekend, I'll be able to start releasing the new story. I can't thank them enough, but please if you read this drop by and check out some of their stories. They're spending time they could be updating their stories to edit mine so we can all enjoy a new Dash of Humanity together, and that makes them awesome.
I am thinking of doing updates twice a week, just got to figure out a release schedule. What days are best to publish on, what days do people do most of their reading, etc...
Dash of Humanity 3 Excerpt
You can see the Introductory chapter's excerpt here.
This next excerpt is something that was completely overlooked in the original darker 3rd story: Don's education as a nurse on Earth. He came to Equestria, became Dawn, and I mentioned he went into search and rescue but... he didn't really get to use that skill set.
So one of the pivotal moments early in the story is getting a chance to save a pony's life. One of my goals in the 3rd story is to let Dawn have some more agency in his stories. He's still a victim of circumstance, but this time it's up to him and him alone to solve problems and save everypony. Without further ado...
I continued down the road, noticing the sounds of hammering and a pony shouting commands. Just ahead was a new two story home being built, with a couple dozen construction ponies hard at work. Several ropes and pulleys were in use, lifting up wooden beams to form the structure of the upper level of the house.
There didn’t seem to be many unicorns on this team, it’d have been easier with a little magic. The burly earth pony lifting the wooden support beam must have been ridiculously strong, and I wondered how much one of those things must weigh.
That was when I heard the snap. The rope failed in a split second, and I watched the beam, probably ten feet long and almost as thick as my chest, fall down onto a pony who was standing in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Ponies began to scream and shout in a panic, looking around to each other and unsure what to do. A couple of the older ponies, perhaps ones that had seen tragedy before, moved forward to start lifting the beam.
I had jumped into action without thinking, this was the sort of thing I’d trained for as a human. It was my last link to who I used to be, a skill that even Discord flinging me here couldn’t take away from me.
By the time the two earth ponies began lifting the beam, I had two hooves under it to help toss it to the side. My wings strained against the weight, but I ignored their protest. There was a heavy thud as the thick wooden plank landed behind the pony and I began checking his vital signs.
He was out cold and not moving. I used the frog of my hoof to try and find a pulse, noticing it was weak and thready. Next I checked his breathing by leaning in to listen and feel it against my face, it was there but very shallow. He was still alive, for now.
I stood up and looked at the ponies gathered around, watching and unsure how to help. To snap them out of the bystander effect, I picked the first pony I recognized out of the crowd. “Flitter! Fly to Ponyville hospital, tell them I need a trauma team here immediately.”
She nodded, and flew off towards the hospital. I looked down at him again, noticing his chest didn’t seem to be moving anymore. He’d stopped breathing, and a quick check against his neck and I couldn’t be sure I felt the pulse anymore.
“You,” I shouted to one of the earth ponies that had helped lift the beam. “You know CPR?” He nodded. “Good, two breaths after every 30 compressions.”
I adjust the unconscious pony to give better compressions. It wasn’t quite like a human, I had to adjust for the new anatomy, and to date I’d been lucky enough to never need to perform CPR in a real life or death situation. It looked like today I’d find out how well I’d learned from Nurse Redheart.
Counting out loud, I finished my first set of thirty, and waited to let him deliver a couple breaths. I completed the second set, then a third, and a fourth. Muscles began to burn, but the adrenaline kept me going as we waited for the trauma team to arrive.
By the twentieth set I was tempted to take a break and let the earth pony take a turn with compressions. I knew I couldn’t keep it up much longer, but I also knew handing this off to a pony not as well trained as me could mean the dying pony had a lower chance of survival. That was a risk I was not willing to take.
I was so fatigued by the time the trauma team got there that Nurse Redheart had to pull me back herself, stepping in and using her magic to deliver the compressions.
I caught my breath before muttering, “Show off.” I chuckled and got back to my hooves. The other two unicorns from the hospital had already loaded the pony onto a stretcher and began carrying him off towards the hospital.
Teaser
So there you have it. I wish I could share more, because a lot of cool stuff happens. Luckily, I can just start releasing it soon! I even have 1-2 potential clop side-chapters, if that's something people are still into.
But until then, know that the story will also include some fun references... Hard Reset, Cloud Kicker, Stargate SG-1's "Window of Oppurtunity", Groundhog's Day, Office Space, Taken, Twilight Gets a Puppy, Witch in Broad Daylight (I'll find somewhere to slot that in), Back to the Future, Doctor Who, Happy Death Day, and more... I even bumped Minuette up to a supporting character because I read so many of Jhoira's Minuette ship fics.
I'm a sucker for references, and this is the one time travel story I've written to try and fit them all in! Hopefully they'll help recapture the amount of humor of the original Dash of Humanity. Maybe I should make a reference bingo card...
I'll hold off on reading that excerpt and wait for the release instead, still looking forward to it!
Yay this continues
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Thanks! It means a lot to know people are looking forward to it, and I'm getting so excited to start sharing it. I just wrote some amazing scenes today near the end of the story, and pretty soon everyone will get to start the journey of reading it.
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Dude you have had an awesome story series with Dash of Humanity. Its a reason i made Dawn in my Born for loyalty. I knew you qere dealing with stuff so i didn't bug you but aleays hoped this series would return. Wasn't expecting a rewrite of book three bit hey if it improved the story that's awesome.
YAYYYYY!!!!!
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I know! I'm working on the epilogue now. 70k words, got to edit the whole thing still, but yay!