//------------------------------//
// Author's Note 
// Story: The Mare Formerly Known as Lyra 
// by Dubs Rewatcher 
//------------------------------//

        It’s over. It’s finally over. Jesus H. Christ, it’s over.

        Well, that took...nearly half a year.

        Anyway, thanks to everyone who read (what, like all three of you?)! It was a long and tough journey. I started the first chapter of this story on November 2nd, inspired by this blogpost on EqD:

        http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/11/official-blind-bag-pony-names.html

        Whenever something canon happens that in some way threatens my headcanon, my mind scrambles to make up an explanation that can fit both the canon and myself. For example, Sparkler and Dinky in the Sisterhooves Social. Instead of just accepting Sparkler as another daughter of Derpy, I made up this whole complicated story in which Dinky was sad about not having a sister, so Sparkler, a family friend, sneaks in with her.

        Here, my response was to write this down:

Bigshot Canterlot producer will get fired if he doesn’t create the next “big thing”
        -Goes to Canterlot Amateur Music Festival, searching for talent
        -Lyra happens to win
        -Gets her to sign deal
        -Changes her name to Heartstrings
        -Finds out she’s a terrible singer

        That, my good friends, is what TMFKAL started out as. Noteworthy also came from that same wave of blindbags. I just found the whole “Heartstrings loves to sing!” thing strange, and wanted to write about it.

        Originally, this was supposed to be a oneshot. I predicted about 5000 words long. Little did I know that it would evolve into something MUCH bigger.

        Even though this didn’t get many readers (at least, as far as I can tell), this entire thing was a great learning experience for me.

1. I learned, really, how to write something with more than one chapter

2. I’m still not perfect at it (re: Blue Belle), but I learned how to write OC’s

3. This was the first story I had ever written with any kind of “romance” in it.

4. I realized that before I write something as big as this, I need to KNOW WHERE I’M GOING. It took me until the fourth or fifth chapter to write out a series-wide outline, and even that got changed a lot. That’s why there are a LOT of plotholes and stupid conclusions.

5: Finally: I love Vinyl Scratch. Before, really, the final chapter, I had absolutely no headcanon view of either Vinyl or Octavia. Now I gots them bein’ cousins and all that? Vinyl’s strange “Manehattan” accent is almost completely based on my own general New York accent.

        Anyway, if you’re still here, thanks again! Have a spectacular day!

~Dubs Rewatcher


(By the way: the song sung is Tests (Part II) was "For All I Am" by Lisa Smith. In the epilogue, it was "You'll Always Be My Best Friend" by Relient K.)