Here is my thread about my stories. For each one, I hope to provide some commentary in terms of its origin, personal beliefs that reinforce its existence, and any other tidbits. I should probably say that some stories will have more content than others.

An important thing to note is that even though I have certain intentions with my stories, you are absolutely free to interpret them any way you want. If you want to consider Calling Myself Loyal an allegory about the rise of Hitler, then that's fine (you connect the dots). The purpose of this commentary is to provide some factual information as well as my interpretations of the stories. Chances are great that I will also indulge you with my opinions on different concepts (primarily ones that made me write some stories). I recognize, though, that some of these opinions are unpopular but as I said, you can choose to disregard all of this information when actually reading my stories.

Her Angel
My first story on this site. In June 2014, the Monthly Contest Group was running their monthly contest. The prompt was to write about how Fluttershy has her hooves full with a new pet. I did some thinking and decided that Angel would be an interesting pet to focus such a story on.

I will probably edit this post at a future time to discuss more details regarding this story.

Calling Myself Loyal
At the time of writing Her Angel, I was still new to fandom and my exposure to the show was limited. I had started to watch the entire series from Season One and I was going in order. In early July 2014, I got up to The Last Roundup. I had known about this one before watching it for specifically one thing. Chances are you know what it is but for the ill-informed:

The perfect storm that resulted from this scene told me that I was in for one doozy of an episode. Despite the majority of the episode being pretty good, there was one moment that was absolutely awful, mean-spirited, and infuriating. And it wasn't that scene. It was this:

(2:10-2:17)

Now I realize that some people might disagree with me (going as far to say that it was all Pinkie's fault) but the way they saw it was not the way I saw it and it's still not how I see it even today. Yes, I see that it's more important to chase Applejack at that particular moment but Rainbow Dash's line could have been worded to suit that necessity rather than chewing out Pinkie.

Twilight: Rainbow Dash, go back!
Rainbow Dash: But we'll lose Applejack! We can get them after!

But it's made even worse after the chase when they head back to Ponyville without them. Pinkie and Rarity are abandoned in the badlands just for the sake of an unfunny joke. The heartwarming scene when the other three comfort Applejack is undermined by this sheer negligence.

After the episode ended, I was left in a rather uncomfortable state. I had a need to address this issue but I knew that a review wouldn't help. I wanted to do more. I wanted to fix the ending. Only then, in my mind, would I have been at peace.

I had several ideas of how to go about this. One such idea was documenting the trek home from Pinkie's and Rarity's point of view; the physical struggles of traversing and arid landscape, the feelings of abandonment and betrayal, and above all, the true meaning of friendship.

I ultimately decided, though, that it would be best to focus on the Mane Four because I determined that my frustration with the ending stemmed more from the callousness of the group than this group than from the hurt brought about on Pinkie and Rarity. And since Rainbow Dash not only refused to turn back but even blamed the two for 'bringing about their misfortune', the story should be primarily from her point of view.

From reading this, some of you might come to the conclusion that I created this fic for me more than my audience. Even at the time, I realized that I was making that risk. Therefore, I tried my darndest to be careful and to remain at least somewhat rational throughout, even if it didn't show in my final product.

Writing this fic in first person, I found that you could do special things with this POV. The big thing is that the speaker could be unreliable or too caught up in their emotions to think objectively. I attempted to use this to my advantage. When reading, Rainbow is feeling the fresh waves of guilt as she is writing. Although they may sound overblown, the truth is that emotions can be very powerful while they're being felt and can sometimes get in the way of logic. And given how Rainbow in particular can be dictated by her emotions, it would make even more sense for said feelings to drown her. I will admit, though, that it would have been better to do this while writing in the past tense. At the time I imagined it as Rainbow Dash documenting the experience in a journal or however people write things while in the first person (maybe she was the real author of the story). Looking back, I will personally acknowledge that wasn't the best idea. If I was going to write the story as a journal entry, then I should have tried to format it as such. If I was going to write the story as a memoir by Rainbow Dash, then I should have included scenes outside the frame of the story showing her writing it. Maybe at some point I'll go back and edit it to maybe include those scenes or even write it in the present tense.

When the story was originally released on July 6, 2014, it was only half the story it is today. It originally ended right after Applejack comforted Rainbow Dash after getting to the motel. There was really no excuse for this aside from the pure excitement of getting my story on there. To this day, that is a problem that I still face, although I have been making at least some effort to insure that the stuff I post isn't complete garbage.

On August 4, 2014, I submitted the story to Twilight's Library (which has since shut its doors for good). But not without some changes. I went back to the original and I reworded some stuff, added beef to the first half, but most importantly, I added another 6,000 words to the fanfic, thus bringing it to its current form. The main reason why I did this was because by then I realized how poorly placed the ending was; it didn't feel like an ending to me. At that point, I realized that I had to include the rest of the motel scene and to bring things full circle, Rainbow Dash's meeting with Pinkie and Rarity. With this 12,000 word fic in hand, I proudly submitted it and awaited the results.

In the end, though, the story was rejected for a number of reasons. One of them was the clumsy wording (a problem I had at the time and, in some ways, still face today). There were quite some charming phrases in there such as "my chest exploded", "her desperate self", and "slow body". Another was that SirTruffles, the person reviewing it, did not support my view on the situation. He believed that it was hard to get invested in Rainbow Dash's guilt when it was apparently Pinkie's fault. Finally, the story itself wasn't engaging, at least for him. He stopped reading after they got to the ambulance. After reading his verdict, I sent him a PM that addressing things that were not accounted for. He replied by giving me a wonderful piece of advice: first impressions are everything; if you lose the audience at the beginning, you're never gonna get them back. I then thanked him for both those words and for reviewing my story.

More to Come Soon