Jul
26th
2022
Timeline for Dreamwalker's Tale · 4:44pm Jul 26th, 2022
‘I don’t usually do blog posts’, he says. Well, here we are anyway. After years of lurking in the background as a reader, I decided to finally shove myself off the edge and start writing. (That is, in English. I’ve been writing since I was ten.)
This entry mostly serves one purpose and I hope the title made it quite obvious. The second entry in my line of stories is an anthology. In its description, I boldly (or cowardly) stated “They won't necessarily be in chronological order […]”. No. They are not. And I suppose that might irk some people. Also, the short description offers almost no hints as to the content of each chapter. I’m trying to rectify that.
And I will keep this blog post updated with new entries. I intend to write another one tomorrow, and I will start on another longer story sometime next month.
Obvious comment is obvious: Spoilers incoming.
Also: I assume a year of 360 days. (For those who are wondering.)
Chapters marked with * contain mature scenes. While there’s innuendo in almost all of them, these ones get explicit. (** basically means ‘I still wouldn’t count this as clop, but I won’t argue if you do.’)
After writing the timeline, I feel like I need to make another addendum: I’ve never done this before. Meaning I have no idea if I provide too little information for the entry to be useful, or if I spoil too much.
Another note. (Hopefully the last one.) ‘Dreams Come True’ is a five-part-chapter. That’s why it shows up multiple times. Also, the chapter ‘Day Unknown: Voidwalker’ doesn’t fit into the timeline for obvious reasons and was meant to stand separate. The length doesn’t justify its own story though.
Timeline
- Dreamwalker’s Tale*: Covers day 1 to day 17. He arrives and immediately proceeds to make a mess of things. Mostly by meddling with everypony’s private business and via relentless and shameless shipping.
- Day 1: Having a Bad Time(-line): Nightmare, dream or memory. Either way, Dreamwalker arrives anew and botches his initial meeting with Twilight.
- Day 31: Hope: He had a nightmare about the potential fallout from his prior meddling and asks Luna for advice.
- Day 48: Day 1: He starts his night guard training and immediately clashes with Lightning Dust, another recruit. He tries to make some friends as well and as usual, things fly off the tracks immediately.
- Day 100: A Normal Day: He tries to bake with Pinkie. The kitchen doesn’t catch fire and he takes a nice, relaxing stroll with Sunny afterwards.
- Day 262: Stroll Down Memory Lane*: Dreamwalker takes a nice, long walk and enjoys the gorgeous landscape.
- Day 462: Drag Down Versus Slow Down: Dreamwalker is obsessing over something and Applejack tries to reason with him.
- Day 591: Make-Believe: He GM’s an Ogres & Oubliettes-campaign with Fluttershy, Derpy, Rainbow and Twilight. Rainbow can’t make it this session, but they play anyway.
- Day 716: Party Planning Emergency: Pinkie hunts Dreamwalker down for some much needed intel.
- Day 738: Subjective Reality: After a tumultuous week, he decides to talk to Twilight about the nature of reality and how literally everything is subjective and distorted. A minor breakdown ensues as the true culprit is revealed – the fear of losing loved ones.
- Day 1,472: Family*: Sunny has a free day. After they take a nice stroll in the castle gardens, they decide on visiting the Tasty Treat. A chance encounter with a little filly awakens the desire to raise their own family.
- Day 1,874: Inherent Weakness*: The prior day marked the end of his guard training. He intends to celebrate his first ‘free’ day with Sunny and arranges for a surprise visit. However, despite plans proceeding smoothly, his insecurities catch up to him and a breakdown ensues.
- Day 1,922: TLC Dreamwalker decides to celebrate Celestia's birthday. Not only does he have a plan, he managed to rope quite a few ponies into it, too.
- Day 1,942: Stress Relief Dreamwalker meets Rarity at the spa. She notices that he's a little bit tense and aims to investigate. And help, of course.
- Day 1,991: Reinforcement: He takes a stroll with Derpy and discovers that her cutie mark might be linked to dream magic. They test that theory and actually confirm it.
- Day 2,052: The Birds, The Bees, The Flowers, The Trees – A Revenge Story: More than five and a half years into their relationship, Sunny and Dreamwalker feel confident enough to open up to the concept of a polyamorous configuration. They have a little talk with Luna and Twilight. Lines are drawn and terms agreed upon.
- Day 2,068: Fluidity: Water brings creativity. He associates Luna with water. Also, it rains.
- Day 2,122: Curtain’s Rise: A field trip to save more books from the ruins of the castle of the two sisters is derailed once Twilight and Dreamwalker discover a secret passage. Leading into a vault full of very dangerous things. Both freak out slightly and get Sunny involved. While he is alone with Sunny, he insists she explain what all these dangerous artifacts are before she incinerates them. Sunny decides to trust him.
- Day 2,136: A Marathon, Not A Sprint: Dreamwalker has had a couple of rough nights again. He avoids the issue, but knows this cannot go on forever. So he lets Luna sort him out.
- Day 2,151: Dreams Come True: Pinkie and Fluttershy throw a party to announce Fluttershy’s pregnancy with her daughter Whisper.
- Day 2,204: A (Ful-)Filling Night**: Luna and Dreamwalker get bored while watching a stage play. They get frisky and things escalate. After their retreat to her chambers, they escalate even further once a gender transmogrification spell is mixed in.
- Day 2,214: The Prank: With the help of Zecora, Moondancer and Twilight, he prepares to prank both Sunny and Luna.
- Dreamwalker’s Tale: First (and Last ?) Adventure: The story covers day 2,230 to 2,253. Dreamwalker has the brilliant idea of forging his own jewelry for Twilight’s next Hearth's Warming Eve present. So he takes Sunny to the Forbidden Jungle to partake in some ancient trials in hopes of getting some obscure materials to work with. Because he’s extra. And a little bit dense sometimes.
- Dreamwalker’s Tale: Last (!) Adventure: The story starts on day 2,263 and covers a few weeks. Luna isn’t jealous of her sister’s adventure with him. Not at all. He really is the best choice for this mission. She takes him beyond the Forbidden Jungle, to the former kingdom of the hippogriffs, in hopes of finding, capturing and converting the Storm King’s general, Tempest Shadow, and thereby destabilizing his empire and averting his invasion of Equestria. Easy peasy.
- Day 2,345: The Campaign: In a spur-of-the-moment decision, he proposes to Twilight. Seeing as he’s already betrothed to Sunny and the law doesn’t support multi-marriage, there’s only one reasonable solution. Unleash Rarity on the law.
- Day 2,350: Family Dinner: Celestia and Luna visit Twilight, Spike and Dreamwalker for an evening. Mild innuendo ensues.
- Dreamwalker’s Tale: The Descent: The story covers day 2,352 to 2,357. Something strange is discovered beneath Sweet Apple Acres by mere coincidence. Twilight plans a 'danger assessment mission' (because we don't do adventures around these parts anymore!) and Dreamwalker tags along.
- Day 2,373: Dreams Come True: Luna invites him to a corner café in the middle of the day. She drinks tea. Everything is suspicious.
- Day 2,527: Dreams Come True: He meets with Fluttershy and Rarity at Café Hay in Ponyville. The little get-together is slightly derailed by Fluttershy’s Whisper-induced exhaustion and Rarity’s peculiar new eating habits.
- Day 2,569: Allure of the Forbidden*: While on a day trip with Twilight's family, Cadance encourages Dreamwalker to finally get the maiden voyage of the TwiLestia underway. The schemers are the surprised ones by the end of it.
- Day 2,581: Puppetmaster: After a night of heavy drinking, Dreamwalker finds himself waking up in the wrong bed. At least he's not the only one.
- Day 2,599: Nightmare: A particularly nasty nightmare plays all the best hits of his fears in a multi-stage battle. Luna has her work cut out for her. There is also a ring to be addressed. It ends with ice cream though, so everything’s fine.
- Day 2,641: On the Practicality of Pet Names: Rarity and Dreamwalker go to the spa. They gossip shamelessly about all the different pet names they and others use.
- Day 2,666: Dreams Come True: Sunny recreates their ‘first’ meeting to better relay some good news.
- Day 2,927: Out Of Character*: Dreamwalker gives Sunny a break in her study.
- Day 2,933: The End is never The End is never The End is never—... The End: A long overdue confrontation signifies the end of an era.
- Day 2,955: Dreams Come True: Twilight loses control of her magic. It would be even scarier would she teleport somewhere else than the next bathroom.
- Day 4,065: Diversion: Storm Guards invade Ponyville and search for Derpy. Dreamwalker manages to reach her first and attempts to distract them long enough for reinforcements to arrive.
- Day 6,121: A Lesson in Magic: He teaches his three offspring about magic.
- Day 15,342: Fear: After many, many years, Dreamwalker is slowly dying in a hospital bed. Dying is scary. And painful on so many levels. His children are having the adventure of their lifetime meanwhile, and he doesn’t appreciate it. He’s dying and they don’t agree.
- Day 15,349: Stargazing: They say the scariest thing of them all is the unknown. He is scared by recent events and changes and doesn’t know what to expect or do. Luna tries to sort him out.
- Day 1: Never The End: Stories don't end. We just stop telling them.
You say you started writing age 10.
Diary of Anne Frank Anne died age 15. I strongly suspect she was heavily edited by someone a great deal older.
The Outsiders Hinton started writing it at age 15. It was published when she was 18. Most popular thing she ever wrote.
"Cosmic Corkscrew" Asimov's first sale. Started writing it age 17, sold it age 18. He didn't really hit his stride until his 32nd story, "Nightfall" (Later made into a novel with Robert Silverberg.) He tried writing at age 11, but abandoned the effort after a few chapters. About half the stuff he wrote before "Nightfall" was never published & is now lost. After "Nightfall" he failed to sell only 2 stories. One was a movie script written at the request of Paul McCarthy.
Frankenstein Shelly wrote it at age 18. It was published when she was 20.
According to the internet, there have been a few authors self publish under the age of 20, but I've never heard of any of them.
5684364
I'm not sure how to take this comment. I was certainly not trying to brag, if that was assumed? And it was not my intention to imply that someone of younger age could not write something worthwhile either.
5684399
No criticism, just "This is how others have done". Other fields of artistic endeavor, yes. Look at Mozart or Michael Jackson, for instance. But good writers under 20 are all but unheard of.
I read his 2 volume autobiography (sadly out of print) & he reprinted an essay from his HS newspaper. Let's just say that reading it, you would NOT suspect that he would grow into one of the greatest Sci-fi authors to ever live.