At the end of each story arc the characters most relevant from the story will typically enter a nice little area where there is nothing obstructing them. You or I might see it as white space, but to them it looks more like a stage, lit, set up, and ready to go. It all really kind of depends on your viewpoint… We have our essentially main three characters, Lightning, Shadow, and Vinyl. I’m not going to bore you with physical descriptions because if you’ve made it this far I’ve annoyed you with their characteristics many times already…
Anyway allow me to explain the intermissions. Between each individual story arc (Yes I already said that) an author must reaffirm the base personality of the characters while somehow not slowing the story down too much. Most of the time this consists of a short rest at the supposed “Home Area” or sometimes a side adventure with a more lighthearted theme. Honestly I hate both of these mechanics… they bore me. My tool? This right here.
The intermission is a scene where I pretty much join my characters for a friendly chat on this talk-show reminiscent stage (though to you it’s just white space, unless you see some sort of other image behind the words you’re looking at) and basically we will…
“Hey Comet?” says Lightning.
Oh? Yes?
“Shut up.” says Lightning.
Um…right…I guess it kind of is your turn to talk isn’t it?
“Yeah it is,” said Vinyl “Now sit down and shut up.”
What’s the good of being an author if I don’t even have omniscient control over my characters? Fine! I take my designated spot.
“Hey can I describe you?” asked Shadow “I mean it’s only fair, after all you described all of us.”
What? Oh…well…I guess it can’t hurt…
“Alright!” said Shadow, looking me over with a quizzical look “Comet Chaser, our author, looks a bit like me I suppose… After all he is…”
“No spoilers!” Lightning exclaimed “We aren’t allowed to give spoilers!”
“Okay sheesh…” said Shadow.
Everyone, myself included, freeze. Vinyl is somehow able to move so she turns to address the readers “Just a quick something before we really get into this,” she says “This next part is going to be really, REALLY, silly and kind of useless. It has no bearing on the actual story and may offend some people and/or show spoilers for the rest of the story. If you are not interested in seeing this, go to the top left of your screen, click the back button, and go to Chapter 12. Well…assuming it exists by now…which it very well may not… I’m telling you all this because I’m not an original character, so you have to listen to me. If you still want to read on, I’m not stopping you, but you have been warned.”
Vinyl leans back again and everyone moves again. “Alright no spoilers,” said Shadow “But anyway. He’s a Pegasus, which I think is stupid because authors should be unicorns, but anyway he has black fur and his mane looks black, but it’s actually green (Or so he says…). Again this is stupid.”
You’ll be singing a different tune by the end of this story…
“Dang it, I don’t know what that means!” Shadow shouts “Just because we can think for ourselves doesn’t mean we have your omniscient power thing!”
“Speaking of which I really don’t like the end of Chapter 11,” said Lightning “I wanted it to end with one of my lines, but you just had to go look at the hive…”
“You didn’t give enough exposition on that either,” said Vinyl “You mentioned Princess Abdomen of the changelings once, and you called her Abby. And again, does she even have any bearing on the story?”
Look, I have to leave some mystery for the story, not everyone is going to read this part and honestly I’m not sure they should. This is really more of a chance for me to get to know you better as my characters.
“And a chance to laugh at how dumb you are,” said Lightning, to which Shadow laughs “Anyway you want to get to know us? Ask us anything.”
“Except about me,” said Vinyl “I’m in so many stories you can’t type me.”
You’re in the actual show! But anyway you haven’t even had lines there yet.
“Speaking of the show,” said Shadow “I’m having a bit of trouble with the timeline on this… Considering my mom only returned from the moon recently how do I exist…?”
I put one or two years during, and between each season. In this head canon it’s been anywhere from ten to fifteen years since Luna’s return. Consider now, the fact that you are seven. Does it make sense now?
“But the mane six…” Vinyl starts but I interrupt her.
They don’t have any importance here. Except maybe Twilight… But I accept the idea they could be anywhere from 12 to 16 in the first season, but I don’t have any trouble believing they’ve completely grown up since then.
“I still don’t fit in,” said Vinyl “I’m the same age as the six in all my appearances.”
The age reversal spell set your age back almost twenty years, just as the bracelets sprung Lightning and Shadow forward the same amount.
“I had a question about that too,” said Shadow “How did those age spells work exactly?”
The bracelets didn’t affect your age directly, but rather maturity. You swapped with the first ones you thought of when they started glowing.
“My first thought was how much trouble we’d be in with Celestia…” Lightning admitted.
“I just wanted mom…” said Shadow, clearly embarrassed.
And that takes care of that!
“Wait a minute, what about the magic water?” said Vinyl, narrowing her eyes at me “I think it’s awfully convenient they had two age spells readily available on the castle grounds…”
There weren’t, at least technically not. The statues held massive amounts of base magic in them and were, as Lightning correctly guessed, triggered by water. It flowed along the first conductive path the magic found to follow. That could be an inner desire, a base need, or especially a direct wish. It was imbued with Lightning’s desire to return to her normal age.
“You’re not a very good author if you have to explain that directly…” said Shadow.
You think so? Well that is technically a spoiler because now I have the statues to use as a plot device I could bring them back. For the sake of linear exposition I’m probably going to have to.
“Speaking of linear exposition how did we get here?” asked Lightning “How does this fit into the story?”
It doesn’t.
“So this technically isn’t happening?” asked Vinyl.
No, it’s happening, otherwise it wouldn’t be here.
“Then…how…?” Shadow stammers.
None of you will remember any of this; to you the next thing that happens will be Chapter 12. You’ll have totally different memories of what happened in between.
“So we don’t even exist between chapters?” Shadow asked.
Technically you don’t exist at all, but yes, I control what you do and do not know. So for now you know I exist, but you won’t remember that when you get back to your place in the story.
“Speaking of remembering,” said Vinyl “You make a lot of allusions to the past I can’t remember but you never established that at all. Is that a failure on your part? Or do you have yet another convenient excuse?”
The real reason you lost your memory was to not spoil anything in your back story, Allons-y. Everyone freezes to allow me to say that you can find that off to the right of the story. Unfreeze; and that story exists in the same universe as this one, just earlier in the timeline.
“So you used a back story you only just started to base a huge chunk of the story around?” asked Lightning incredulously “Can you do that?”
I can do whatever I want. I’m the author.
“So you control everything we do?” asked Shadow, head drooping “There goes my whole sense of individuality, heck you’re even controlling what I say now aren’t you?”
Sort of, more documenting events. I’m more of a specific god than an omnipotent one.
“What?” said Lightning.
I made you as characters, but after that I almost instantly lost control. You, as characters, will do certain things in certain situations that I can’t legitimately change. Well, I could, but if I did that I wouldn’t have a story so much as a jumbled mess…
“So you gave us free will?” asked Vinyl.
At the risk of adding more fuel to the fire of my growing god complex, yes. It’s called character momentum, meaning the less I have left to establish about you the less control I actually have over you. Shadow, you’re probably the most in control of anyone here because this story is essentially a documentation of your life specifically.
“Awesome,” said Shadow “Do I get to have control over you?”
Over what I write I suppose.
“So I actually have more power over you than you have over me right?” asked Shadow.
Well…um… I fumble a little bit here because I completely realize this kid is right, but there’s no way in Tartarus I would tell him that.
However I do move on to mention that for the time being I still have a lot of control over Vinyl, as she hasn’t really been well established as a character.
“Well whose fault is that?” asked Vinyl angrily ‘I would love more story time, but you keep cutting me out!”
Alright you have one aspect of totalitarian freedom, you have a short fuse. Of course your personality is intentionally underdeveloped for now so as to leave a bit of breathing room between here and Allons-y. I could, for instance, make it so you calm down quickly in an attempt to prove yourself superior.
“Like I care…” Said Vinyl, still seething slightly.
Though I will admit her personality is a lot more distinct in Allons-y, I still have the freedom to make her a totally different pony in her foal hood. I actually don’t have any intention of doing that, but the possibility makes it fun to, say, put a disclaimer in her words.
“I said that myself…” Vinyl grumbled.
Because I made you think it was an incredibly clever thing to say.
“What about me?” asked Lightning.
You are actually one of the most interesting characters I have. I didn’t create you, someone else did. AS a matter of fact a lot of the story thus far was created cooperatively. I’ve taken a few creative liberties but as a character you are mostly, if not totally, unchanged. I really just took away your affinity for shades, which I thought was silly.
“Do you actually have the right to do that?” asked Shadow.
I told you, I’m the author, I can do whatever I bloody well please.
“But…” said Vinyl.
No buts, anyway, Lightning, is there anything else you wanted to elaborate on?
“Yeah I guess,” said Lightning, “This story arc actually is the end of Comet’s cooperative effort for now, and certainly the end of it in this story. From now on, at least in this story, I’m running from here entirely on his story.”
Well that isn’t entirely true, there is still one part of the cooperative effort left unwritten and that’s Lightning’s cutie mark story.
“Oh finally…” said Lightning.
In the original story she actually earned her cutie mark first, but I cut that, as well as one important battle, and moved it to a point very near the end of the story.
“You’ve got to be joking…” Lightning groaned, putting her head in her hooves “You had my hopes up…”
Calm down Light, you’ll get there.
“Wait, you said end of the story,” said Shadow, head tilting slightly “Didn’t you advertise this once or twice as a sort of never-ending story? Our story is gonna end?”
You calm down too. Yes this story has developed a definitive ending point. You shouldn’t be worried about that for a couple of reasons though. The first is that the end of the story isn’t for a great many chapters. The second is that even after the story ends you as characters are going to continue.
“You’re confusing me…” said Vinyl “Put it plain and simple alright?”
I don’t think so, that’s kind of a big spoiler.
“Hey, they’ve been warned,” said Shadow “We won’t remember any of this anyway. Come on, tell us.”
Well…okay. But if the readers don’t want pretty much the entire story spoiled, cut out this paragraph. The story of Light and Shadow is kind of a middle story. It started as a standalone but I was struck by inspiration (pardon the pun) currently in the works called Truth. That’s the story of your dad Shadow. Anyway the way this story progresses there gets to be too many main characters to continue to call it Light and Shadow fairly. So when I’ve got almost the whole team I’m going to cut out two years of the story and pick up with a whole new one. Sound like an important two years to miss? Don’t worry; you’ll remember it like it actually happened.
You can start reading again.
“I suppose that’s fair…” said Shadow.
Of course it’s fair, for the third time I’m the author and I can do whatever I decide to do with the story. I decide what is and isn’t fair. Yours is not the reason why…
“We get it! Move on!” Lightning said angrily.
Well I’m not sure you exactly want me to move on. Unless you have something else to say I’m going to go ahead and talk to some of my other original characters in order to put some more establishment into some of the points I accidently left somewhat vague…
“Yeah I guess we’re done.” Said Vinyl.
“Thanks for reading guys!” said Lightning with a broad smile “It really is awesome to have you here with us, you’re all awesome!”
“If you had the patience to stay with our story this far, you really are fantastic,” said Shadow “It’s readers like you who keep our story alive! Your feedback is really appreciated by all of us, and just being here is really great for us!”
“You guys are awesome!” said Vinyl, smiling as her horn glowed “We’re outta here for now, but we’re excited to see you in Chapter 12!”
There is a burst of bright blue magic as our favorite trio vanished. I guess it’s time I brought in some of the other characters I created for the story…
“You suck!” Came a voice from an unseen source.
Excuse me?
“You heard me!” Letterheart shouted, walking into view looking livid “You’re a terrible person! How could you create me to be in this much pain? You force feed every bit of information you have about the story into my brain! Why would the author create a character with all his knowledge and none of his power? Why would you do that?”
Spoiler alert here. You’re a pivotal character for the story Pi. Just like you there is another character with author-like powers. While you know everything and have no power he has my power but knows nothing about the future of the story. You know who he is.
“Of course I know him!” Letterheart shouted “And he’s probably in just as much pain as I am! On top of that everyone who reads this will think I’m a cheap rip off from Life of Pi!”
That is a terribly convoluted viewpoint; I haven’t even gotten any comments about that. The only thing you share with that character is a name. You two are nothing alike! For one you are a girl, this other Pi is a male. Second, the other Pi is not omniscient like you are. And third, you have two totally separate personalities. It’s like saying King Arthur and Arthur the aardvark are the same character! If I see any complaints about that, I’m deleting them.
“People are stupid,” said Letterheart “You’re going to get complaints and people will hate me…”
Hey, Letterheart, you and I both know that isn’t true. The community you and I are working to benefit doesn’t judge like that. I’m sure the readers will love you. And if they don’t all we can do is try.
“I suppose…” said Letterheart.
That’s it, now get back to the story and give it your best! You and I both sister!
“You based me on yourself…” said Letterheart.
I did no such thing. As you can plainly see I am a male author and you are a female character.
“You put your distracted intelligence in me to make it harder to identify,” said Letterheart “It’s a far cry from self insertion to the story but you’ve clearly already done that…”
I forgot how much I hated real adult conversation…
“You just don’t realize how futile it is to argue with yourself,” said Letterheart “Especially when the character you pour soul into is not only smarter than you, but a girl.”
You, get out, I’m tired of you being right. As a matter of fact I’m going to force you. Letterheart turns around and walks out.
“I’m not done with you!” she shouts “You haven’t heard the last of me! I’ll be back next intermission!”
In a dozen chapters? I think I can wait that long. That’s even assuming this story survives that far into the future… Gosh I would hate for all my inspiration to just be wasted like that… Oh well, whose next?
“That’d be me,” said Nightwing, stepping into view “And I have to say sir that this is an honor that you would consider me important enough to elaborate on.”
It’s no trouble. Besides, the inclusion of a bat winged pony can’t exactly be brought in without explanation.
“Sure we can, we are canon after all!” says Nightwing.
Your existence I suppose, but where you fit into the whole story as a whole is entirely head canon. A lot of ponies think you’re an illusion created by Luna, others think you’re demons. Theories abound around the lunar charioteers.
“Well I’m clearly none of those,” said Nightwing “Would you care to tell our readers how the system really works?”
Actually I was hoping to leave that to you. Go on, tell our readers about your career.
“Oh, well thank you,” said Nightwing “Well since Luna returned the royal guard has been divided into the lunar and solar divisions. The lunar guard is one of barely a few employment opportunities for ponies with the mutation of bat wings, since most think that it’s some kind of witchcraft.”
What about the stratification of the guard?
“You made it, you should know,” said Nightwing “But I desist. The guards are hoof chosen by the princesses and assigned to the lowest tier. Then you can become a next tier guard after so long in service and all the up to a very few at tier ten. Usually there are about five tenth tier for lunar guard and five from the solar. I’m a seventh tier, somewhat prestigious.”
And Shining Armor was…?
“Used to be a tenth tier solar guard,” said Nightwing “He was decided by the princesses to be the captain, or leader, of the guard after Umbra Chaser. Umbra was actually the first of the lunar guard to be appointed since the lunar guard was created. It’s a shame he only held the position for a year or two. That position has a habit of changing hooves rather frequently. Shining was in the service for, comparatively, a very long time.”
Well thank you for your time Nightwing. I know you didn’t spoil anything or get any unwarranted information, but I’m still going to erase your memory of these events.
“I understand,” said Nightwing “But I am glad to have made the impression, even if I won’t remember it later.”
Thank you for your time Nightwing. Nightwing bows and walks off. Now there is one more character that can be brought in without the ruin of mystery to the story, though she is shrouded in a bit of mystery herself. Now I warn you all that this is the biggest spoiler in the whole of the intermission. Like, bigger than all the others, so much so it’s probably better that you not continue reading at all. Even if you’re okay with all the other spoilers so far, this still has the horrifying potential to ruin the whole story for you. So if you have ANY desire for this story to have ANY suspense for you. Stop reading now!
“Oh my…” comes a quiet voice from offstage “Is it really all that trouble? I won’t come out if it will be that much of a burden to everyone…”
Oh no! No, no, no, no, no, no! Please, it’s no trouble! If anyone is offended by your entrance they’ve been warned. Though you’re really not that big of a spoiler… I just wanted to emphasize how awesome you are.
“I still don’t want offend anyone…” the voice continues “Please…will anyone be offended?”
I’ll just delete any comments that don’t like you. Please, just come over here. I do very much want to talk to you.
A small zebra filly, which an observant reader would recognize as Zecora’s unnamed daughter from earlier in the story comes into view. Her ears and nose twitch a bit, learning the surroundings better than you or I could hope to, and she stands in the middle of wherever we are.
“Um…hello everyone…” she says softly “My… my name is… mister Comet, should I tell them?”
That’s one of the more clumsily kept secrets of the story. Go ahead and say it, but only use one line of text so they can skip it over just in case they don’t want to know.
“Okay…” she said “My name is Iris…Iris stripes…”
Thank you. Now Iris…oops… you know if you’ve read this far you can kind of expect to deal with spoilers like that.
“Um…mister Shadow…” said Iris sheepishly “Were you talking to me just now? Or the readers?”
The readers, sorry Iris. Now why don’t you tell us a little about yourself? Don’t reveal too much though.
“Um… can you please…?” said Iris “I really don’t like talking to lots of people… And I’m not sure how much I should say…”
Alright, I’ll tell you what, we won’t give any details about you other than some interesting plot facts about you as a character. The next chapter is going to tell enough about that anyway. I should mention something about my double avant-garde in the author’s note…
“Okay…” said Iris, stammering a little “What should I do…?”
Well if you want to do something cute I’m sure the readers would love that.
“But…” Iris squeaked, scrunching herself up into a little ball, covering her blind eyes with her tail “I don’t know how to be cute…”
Perfect!
“W-what…?” Iris stammered.
Iris is actually the favorite character I’ve ever brought to the series. I know because I brought her in almost the same time as Snowdrop that there may be some controversy about her originality. For what it’s worth though, Iris has been in the works ever since I started making OCs for MLP. She was created very soon after Light and Shadow, even before the story evolved to contain Vinyl. Since the original story (The awful version which no longer exists thank god) was started long after the planning stage reached this far. It wouldn’t be posted for three months after it was started, meaning it has been almost a year and a half since her character was originally idealized. If she is based on a pre-existing character, it would be Toph Bei-fong.
“My name is there before I’m introduced…” said Iris sheepishly “Why is that…?”
Technically you still haven’t been introduced. However I do like to allude to startlingly obvious things. Shadow’s obvious infatuation with you and Vinyl’s obvious infatuation with him was my first ever successful attempt at a love triangle. And the best part? I didn’t even realize it was happening!
“What…?” Iris squeaks “Shadow was…?”
At first I considered shipping Shadow and Lightning, but since Lightning really isn’t my character that would get weird really fast. Vinyl wasn’t anyone’s character but the community’s so she was the next obvious choice. There’s another reason for her infatuation too, but that is a secret I’m still keeping. Very early on I knew I would have to build some complicated interrelationships and Iris, you just make that job so much easier.
“Thank you…?” Iris stammers.
You’re quite welcome. You can leave now if you like, there isn’t anything else I planned to ask you.
“May I say goodbye to the readers…?” Iris asked.
Please do so.
Iris blushes and bows toward the distant seen words that are the story, and beyond that the readers “I can’t hear you when you’re so far away…” she said softly “But everyone tells me you’re out there. I just want you to know… If you’re there… I appreciate you…” Iris squeaks and scurries quickly off the stage.
Well I guess that’s the last I’m going to see of you for a good few chapters. Just remember that this event technically never happened, and it has no significant bearing on the story. Also, since it would be pointless to deliver an author’s note because I’ve been talking to you this whole time.
This whole “Intermission” thing is the result of my tired brain running on fumes for inspiration. A little bit more development here has the convenient plot tool of allowing my characters to take a little better shape without the chance of injuring the whole story.
And I may or may not have been a little drunk; I know I was certainly a little bored.
Anyways, if you’re reading this it means I was not only crazy enough to type this up, but also to submit it. Hopefully I won’t take this to mean I don’t need a chapter next week, but that is what an intermission is, the chance for the actors (or the author) to catch their breath before clambering back on stage.
Thanks for reading Light and Shadow!
Not so much for reading this part…
-CC