The Making of “Divine Flight”

Welcome to the first of my very own ‘Making of’ series in which I describe the creative process and writing of my stories on FIMfiction. Today, we’re going to be discussing my Zipp/Pipp-centric story titled “Divine Flight.” Let me tell you, a lot of things went into this one. I know I say that for basically all my stories, but for real, this one had a real uncertain lifespan.

So, fresh off my Izzy story called “Why Did You Come To Maretime Bay,” I wanted to make one focused on Zipp Storm and/or Pipp Petals. I basically had two ideas and two stories. One was titled: “I’m Sorry, Sis” and the other “Divine Flight.” The former was to be more Pipp centric and the latter was to be more Zipp centric. So what happened to the other one, you may ask? Well, reshuffling happened. I deleted a lot of my unsubmitted stories that were not related to the “Guardians of Harmony” shared universe (my big MCU-esque interconnected universe of pony stories) in order to fill out the entire slate of titles. With the scrapped ideas went a pony version of the Snyder Cut that I later realized would never be allowed on this site, and also, “I’m Sorry, Sis.” With that, “Divine Flight” remained.

Now, the original idea for “Divine Flight” was for Zipp to be writing in her diary, expressing her personal feelings about her family’s “Big Lie” to Zephyr Heights about the pegasi flight, hence the title “Divine Flight” being a spoof of the medieval concept of ‘divine right.’ I then went through another idea related to that, with Zipp giving a speech to the pegasi citizens apologizing for her mother’s deception, instead of a diary entry, after it became clear to me that I had a lot to learn about writing diary stories. That’s probably because I don’t even own one, lol. But the more I thought about how to start it, the more trapped in writer’s block I became. So, I put away the idea entirely and started focusing on writing the infinitely many sequels to “Guardians of Harmony: ‘A Friendship is Magic’ Retelling.” I ultimately decided that I was probably never going to write a Zipp story and began crafting an idea for a standalone Pipp story unrelated to either idea.

But the story’s obviously available now, so what changed? Well, the “My Little Pony: Make Your Mark” special dropped on Netflix. I loved it. I seem to be in the minority here, but I ultimately really loved this special. The most important thing that resurrected my interest in a Zipp-focused story was the MYM special’s focus on Zipp. I watched the special two times and jotted down in my brain what I could pull from that for a story.

Ultimately, once I had finished writing the entire story slate for the GoH universe, I immediately got to work on the story, bringing back the original idea for “I’m Sorry, Sis,” but keeping the title of “Divine Flight” as it relates to the sisters being of royal blood. I know the allegory of the title ultimately doesn’t make sense anymore given the new context, but ultimately I think it still fits as the ‘Big Lie’ of Zephyr Heights is still referenced a tad in this story and it ended up being both a Zipp and Pipp story at the same time, so…yay?

I finished writing “Divine Flight” last night and posted it around midnight where it seems to have exploded in views overnight! Whoo hoo! Early ratings seemed pretty divisive, but as I continue to advertise the story, I hope the likes will increase as I really put my all into it. If you enjoyed it, feel free to comment on it your feedback as well as your own analysis as I love discussing the characters of G5. They may not be 100% my jam as say, the Young Six (specifically Silverstream and Ocellus), but I do care about these characters a whole lot to make stories about them.

Also, I’m doing editing work now for others on this site to expand my writing and editing experience, so I’ll keep y’all posted on my adventures in relation to that. Last G5 story for a while will be a Sunny Starscout-focused story and I’ll also be writing some additional Young Six stories and experimenting with more comedy, so that my formula doesn’t become stale. I already have a pretty cool idea about Gallus becoming Batman for some reason and…yeah, stay tuned for those.

With all that being said, I’ll see y’all next time! Take care.