A Well-Deserved Break: The Other Way to a Unicorn's Heart

by TimeBomb0


BONUS: Commentary

Note: This chapter is not an extra chapter to the story, but rather a series of interesting tidbits that went into the creation of this fic. Spoilers warning apply. Enjoy, and thank you for reading.

-Let's start off with before I ever began writing the story. You see, right after I finished Friendly Games, I made a crushing realization: I had no idea what I wanted to write next. Well, that's not entirely true. I had a few characters I wanted to write about (Zecora, Princess Celestia, etc.), but I had no absolutely nothing in terms of a good enough backstory to justify the sensuality. My inability to write anything was further compounded by the season 2 premiere. Discord's shenanigans had successfully put me into a depressing funk that lasted until part 2 (something I would've never imagined doing over a kid's show). Once I saw Part 2, however, that funk lifted pretty quickly, and that's not all. After a while, the episode got me thinking about Twilight Sparkle once again. Everyone's favorite lavender bookworm has certainly gone through a lot of garbage over the course of the series, and after I started thinking about it, I realized that there was a part in me that wants to see Twilight get a nice break. Soon enough, the idea and the resolve to write a story about giving Twilight a break came to me. It was good to be writing again.

-Speaking of episodes, while writing my story, I was a bit afraid that Lesson Zero, the first slice-of-life episode of season 2, would either A.) Introduce something to the series that would completely negate my fic, or B.) Kill my drive to write once again. It turned out to be quite the opposite. Not only did it strengthen my resolve to keep writing, it fit perfectly with the story's concept of Twilight needing a nice retreat. I even ended up adding the part about Twilight overworking herself and making a mention of the episode because of how well it fit. It's like Faust's mind and I are in perfect synchronization...

-Yeah, I pretty much put Rarity in this story just so I could have a line of dialogue referencing In Sickness and Health. To be fair, I ended up giving her a more substantial role than just that.

-I kept arguing with myself over just how long I wanted the scene where they arrive at the spa to be. I didn't want to have a lot of filler for the reader to wade through, but at the same time I didn't just want to cut to "You are now in your room for the weekend." I suppose that scene is still pretty filler-ific regardless, but I think it helps the story's pacing.

-For some reason, the thought of a valet parking service for hot-air balloons in Equestria made me laugh. That's the only reason that bit is there.

-Anyone catch the Hotel Dusk reference?

-Ah, Winter Wrap-Up. How you make me feel for Twilight. I had to have that there.

-I agonized over exactly why Twilight would be depressed in the hot spring scene for the longest time. The only rejected reason I can recall is that she was lamenting for all the bad things that happened to her on a semi-regular basis while ignoring all the good. Even when I eventually settled on "I'm not a good enough friend", it still took me a while to figure out exactly how I wanted her to say it.

-I also debated how long I wanted the actual sensual bit to last. I had started writing the belly portion when I looked back and saw that the sensual part was already pretty long at that point. I ended up moving it into the extra scene instead. The interruption part was planned since the beginning, however.

-If you were wondering what Twilight Sparkle and the chef get up to after leaving the spring, I did write a scene involving that. I can't post it in this specific story, as it is rather explicit, but if you want to find it, you need only dig through my blog posts on here, or do a quick search through the Pony Fiction Archive or the Clopfics Directory.