Hello everyone. I'm EchoWing - saw this group and decided to take a stab at it in the hopes that folks would take interest.

I've been writing fanfiction off and on for almost two decades now for various fandoms - I started with Transformers, then moved to Pokémon, then to Gundam, then back to Transformers and Pokémon, and now my focus is mostly on My Little Pony. I've been working off-and-on on an original novel, however, and hope to get it published some day.

I don't expect to do anything beyond my little alternate universe, the Quiververse, but should that ever change, folks will know. Ironically, I never intended to do a big series, it just kinda happened on its own.

So far as I'm aware, I've had no fanfics here featured on Equestria Daily, but I have had one story featured on this site. I'm content to take that as a victory. Anyway, I'll be posting what went into my stories as time goes on - hopefully, folks will take interest.

My first MLP fanfic, posted in June of 2013 on DeviantArt and posted here on FiMFiction in November of 2015. I didn't know it at the time, but it was also the first building block in what became the Quiververse - I introduced the series' lead, my OC Quiver Quill, and set up the foundation for what was to come. It's a one-shot, always has been and always will be.

I've said it before and I'll say it again that Quiver's story is in part autobiographical - he just straddles the line between an OC and an Author Insert, due to the various differences between me and him, but there's still a lot of me in there, and his story is directly inspired by much of what had been in my life at the time. His job is identical to my job at the time, and many of his issues with his family (some of which I've yet to explore) mirror issues I have with my own. His first meeting with even has some rough parallels with things that have happened to me, albeit spliced together from various encounters in real life with local politicians as well as my meeting Tara Strong at a convention years before she got involved in MLP.

The way I wrote this was meant to put readers into Quiver's mind and help them sympathize with him. I honestly have no idea how well that worked out, but I'm glad that I haven't repeated it since. Dialogue makes a story far more interesting than massive blocks of text. But given that I've yet to get a downvote on it, I think I didn't do too badly with it.

My most popular story on this site, and my first exposure to the power of the Almighty Bacon Hair, better known as Sunset Shimmer. It also ended up becoming the next building block for the Quiververse, though I didn't intend it at the time. Blame Sunset for the change - I love a good redemption story.

Unsurprisingly, I was inspired to write the story after viewing and digesting the first Equestria Girls movie, and only spurred on by that first Equestria Girls annual that IDW put out. I wasn't the only fan who thought that the first film had a number of plot holes and unexplained bits, and I set about providing my own answer for that question. I also went into it thinking that Sunset's turn to the side of the angels was legitimate - something that future stories confirmed - and wanted to wash away any feelings folks might've had towards it being false.

As far as the plot holes went, I wondered how Sunset supported herself in the human world - where she lived, how she paid for food, and so on. I also wondered how she knew everything that she'd have needed to know in order to do what she did in the film. Some of those answers were supplied in the comic, but the rest didn't start getting hints of being resolved until the next film (with others not coming until the recent Summertime Shorts). That was the main impetus behind the creation of the bridge realm, and the mirrors leading into it. I further justified that with the thought that if one magical artifact like the Crystal Mirror existed, then others like it might exist as well...and like any good plot device in the hands of a competent writer, I got to thinking about how the bridge mirrors came to be and why they came to exist, and a big backstory built inside my head that I've continued to develop with the Quiververse.

Now, a little bit of trivia - I started working on the story in October of 2013, shortly after Equestria Girls came out on DVD and Blu-Ray. I paused on it, then didn't get back to it until the following spring. I released it shortly before the comics did their "Reflections" story, which not only ended up building upon the mirror portal concept, but also confirmed a headcanon that I'd played with - Star Swirl the Bearded being responsible for crafting the Crystal Mirror. That the next film didn't discourage that thinking just made things better.

It's also with this story that I started thinking of doing storylines. This and "An Act of Random Kindness" were both intended as one-shots, but with time, I ended up deciding to make follow-ups. I felt like Sunset had a story to tell, as did many others here on FiMFiction, and I decided to take my own stab at it. There's been bumps along the way, but so far, the journey's gone pretty well.

There's a sci-fi series that I'm a fan of and has been a big influence on my writing, "Babylon 5". Showrunner J. Michael Straczynski once talked about how, when he was writing a particular story, a particular character stepped forward in his head and said that he needed to be the one to do a particular action. I'd elaborate further, but it'd spoil you for something in Season Four, and what little I've said was enough to get into how this story came along.

To make a long story short, Sunrunner leapt out of my subconscious and called "Write about me now!" This was the first one that I actually wrote that was released here on FiMFiction concurrently with my DeviantArt page, and also the first one that underwent significant editing as a result of reader feedback. With it, the third foundation stone for the Quiververse was laid, and I could start putting everything together.

I've been with this fandom long enough to know about the complaints that were made about the Wonderbolts, particularly from "Wonderbolt Academy" and "Rainbow Falls". A part of me wondered if anyone would react to something like that; let's face it, no job is without its watercooler gossip, so word had to get out about what happened somehow. Sunrunner, as I imagined her in my mind, was the perfect one to step up, react to Spitfire's actions and call her out. As detailed in the story, she suffered through bullying and the negligence of her superiors, and joined the Royal Guard in order to defend against such actions - joining the Wonderbolts as they were presented in series would've run contrary to that.

As said above, however, this story ended up getting edited after it was released. This was due entirely to a comment from another author on the site - Reality Check. I won't deny that I felt excited by that - I'm a fan of his MLP writings, particularly his stories with Nyx (though some of his views don't agree with me), and his stuff regarding the Wonderbolts in "The Great Alicorn Hunt" was also an inspiration for this story. However, he came in and, in a precise bit of critique, pointed out the story's flaws, which prompted me to go back and fix the story up. The original ending had Sunrunner reapply to the Wonderbolts, which on reflection kinda negated the point of the story - that actions have consequences both big and small. The ending now is much stronger, and opens up more possibilities for Sunrunner in the future. Given the story has only recently gotten a downvote after two years, I think the changes were for the better.

This was a big one for me. It was my first real sequel, directly following on from the events of "The Sun Also Rises". It was my first real multi-parter - again, "The Sun Also Rises" was initially posted as one big story rather than a two-parter. It was also my first attempt at worldbuilding for the Quiververse, as well as the first story where I've deliberately homaged others' works. All of it was done with the other authors' permissions, however.

Going into this, I had two very specific goals in regards to Sunset Shimmer - have her interact with the HuMane Five, one on one, and establish a backstory for her that not only made sense based on what we'd seen thus far, but could also fit into established canon. Doing that also let me establish some basic facts about the HuMane Five, all of which ran parallel to what had been established in the series to date. The girls might be human instead of ponies, but I hate the idea that everything has to be totally different just because it's a different universe, and besides, you shouldn't change more than you absolutely need to. Alas, some things I've ended up having to retcon - or will end up retconning - due to stuff established later in the series still happened, but that's the way things are.

I also went into this wanting to address a dangling plot thread from the film, one that the producers seemed to have no interest in furthering whatsoever - Twilight's relationship with Flash Sentry. Some reviewers looked at this story and thought that Twilight's subplot regarding him was pointless, or that it should've been its own story. Maybe they were right, but I'm happy with what I wrote, and besides, I felt like the guy deserved a break. I still do, but I felt it then especially in the wake of "Rainbow Rocks". That I ended up doing what the showrunners themselves did with Flash's relationship with Princess Twilight in "Legend of Everfree" was a happy accident, but still, there were only so many ways that relationship could go. Plus, I knew that "Friendship Games" was on the horizon, so I didn't feel too unjustified.

One change that I did make to this story as a result of complaints was a change to the epilogue. Initially I used it to unload a lot of information, drop a lot of worldbuilding all at once. This was a mistake on my part - I won't deny it, I tend to rush things, and that's gotten me into trouble more than once. I cleaned it up and pared it down a few months later, however, to focus on the things specifically related to Sunset and her friends rather than the storyline as a whole, but the rest of it is still canon. I'm just being a little more careful with how I introduce that exposition. The rest of the stuff I set up in it, including things that I've yet to build upon, that I'm not gonna apologize for.

In any case, flaws or no flaws, this was still a reasonably popular story. I give all the credit for that to the Almighty Bacon Hair herself, and I hope that others can continue to enjoy it themselves.

This story was another first for me - it was the first time that I adapted a story written by someone else, in this case Katie Cook and Andy Price. I'm still pleasantly surprised that it was accepted on the site, though considering I had the good sense to credit the original authors right off the bat and my adaptation changed a bit from the original tale, well, maybe that gave me some leeway.

Anyway, one thing about crafting an alternate universe is that, inevitably, the changes aren't going to stop with just one event. They'll spread out like ripples in a pond, with one change building upon another. The events of "Reflections" were one area that were going to end up being changed, if only because of my dissatisfaction with the original story. It teased at so much, and ultimately showed so little. Granted, my version didn't show much more than the original, but what it did show allowed me to build upon some of the things that the original story teased. I was also able to explain how things got to be the way they were in Good King Sombra's universe, with the first "Fiendship is Magic" comic giving me even more material to work with.

I also adapted this story for another reason - getting exposition for a later story out of the way. I'm fond of the idea that Twilight was able to use what knowledge she gained from researching the portals in this story to help construct the device she used to jumpstart the Crystal Mirror in "Rainbow Rocks", and as far as the Quiververse goes, that implication is far more firm. It's also let me set things up for further stories down the road, and gave me something interesting in the form of Seventh Moon, the Observer pony who's showed up in most (if not every) comic where Andy Price has done the art (I only take credit for the name, a nod to the primary observer from "Fringe", September).

In any case, this set the stage for future adaptations of canon material, but the ones to come were either more creatively named or not nearly as elaborate. And thankfully, those future adaptations were received about as well as this one was. With any luck, that'll continue for some time to come.

My shortest story with Sunset Shimmer to date. On reflection, this one was probably one of my weaker stories, but I'll get to that.

I had a goal in mind with the Quiververse after a while - I'd do my upmost to feature every character who received a toy for the Equestria Girls line, and make sure that they had something to do in at least one story. Most had an easy time of it, as I could just build upon what was seen in the films, but there were three characters who, at the time I wrote this story, hadn't yet received any sort of appearance in the Equestria Girls films, one of whom was Zecora. Other stories had her on staff at CHS, some teaching chemistry and others as a guidance counselor, but I thought it would be an interesting idea to have her as a shopkeeper. Having Sunset be under her employ would, in that way, feel natural, plus it would let me employ a couple more characters.

For the record, I wrote this years before the toys and shorts were produced depicting Sunset working in a sushi restaurant. I think the toy is adorable, and I look forward to owning one for myself (assuming I can ever find one for a decent price) but I liked my idea, and I'm sticking to it, especially considering the stuff I've hinted at with Zecora and her other employees, Lyra Heartstrings and Sweetie Drops. Sunset learning how to cook sushi in the future is, of course, entirely within the realm of possibility for the future.

Anyway, as far as it being a weak story goes, well, it's a one-shot. I've still yet to elaborate on exactly why Sweetie Drops has such animosity towards Sunset (especially given we've yet to see evidence of her or Lyra being at the Fall Formal), though I figured at the time that the general animosity towards Sunset for her actions over the previous two-to-three years at CHS was enough. Still, that's up to the readers. But I will build upon that, with time.

Remember what I said about adapting events from canon? Well, this is an example of a less elaborate adaptation of canon events, this time the "Princess Twilight" two-parter that kicked off Season Four and its overall arc. I didn't include everything from the original episode, just the important stuff that needed to be included - i.e., the stuff that changed. And I'll be the first to admit, there wasn't much change.

This was, however, my first time featuring Discord, and my first time featuring how while some parts of canon would change, others would remain the same. It was also a time where a little more realism got into the storyline. Like a lot of people, I don't like that the Royal Guard comes off as horribly incompetent compared to real life military and police forces, and this was my first step in fixing that for the Quiververse. Pixie Dust and Silver Bullet (the latter a character imported from another author and fully credited) were both written to be competent at their jobs, and they certainly made things easier in this version.

It was bare bones, I admit, but I'm fine with it.

This...this was probably one of my more problematic stories. It was one that I felt I needed to do, but I won't deny, I could have - and should have - done it better.

Anyway, this was another adaptation, this time of the events of the Equestria Girls Holiday Special comic that IDW put out back in 2014. Anyone who knows about that story knows that it was controversial, for reasons I don't think I need to elaborate upon here, and many authors, myself included, decided to do something about that by writing their own takes on the story, to varying degrees of success. Mine, in reflection, was somewhere in the middle, and only after some significant edits on my part. I moved the events of the story to between the first two films, rather than after the events of "Rainbow Rocks", because I figured it would make more sense before the Sirens came along rather than after. While the Crusaders were still in the wrong, they were motivated by more than simply petty jealousy over their sisters spending time with Sunset over them, and it also helps justify the cruelty Sunset experienced from the rest of the student body. I also figured this could add fuel to the fire for when the Sirens arrived, but that's a story yet to come.

That said, I got comments saying that Sunset was too quick to forgive her friends and the Crusaders, just like in the original story. They were right, and thankfully, I had another story in the works that would let me explore the aftermath of the Anon-A-Miss incident and help to resolve things in a better way.

Another thing that sticks out with this story was that I was prompted to remove some song lyrics. I get why that happened - they weren't original to MLP, and we don't want to risk the site getting in trouble - but I still feel kinda bad about it, given the song played big role in the story. And the song itself - "The Love Is Gone" from The Muppet Christmas Carol - is absolutely gorgeous. If you haven't heard it, track it down and hear it...and then curse the people who decided to cut it from the film.

This was a story that took me the better part of forever to write, partially because of other stories mobbing my brain for attention and partially because I had some creative difficulties - writer's block, in layman's terms. I actually started work on it in January of 2015, and had most of the ending written by the time I posted the first chapter in November of that year, but lacked most of the middle. Got it done a little bit at a time, though, and now you can see the final product.

After I decided to expand the Quiververse, I decided that Quiver needed an excuse to move to Ponyville in order to interact with the Mane Six. Fortunately, his job gave him the chance, inspired by its real life counterpart. I also decided that he needed to face a sort of starter villain, and cooked up Luster Drain as a result. She's a weak antagonist, I admit, but the way she was designed, you couldn't do too much with her. Her purpose was to give Quiver an early foe, one to test him against similar troubles to come, and show how he could conquer them in the future. Take note that he used his wits to defeat her, and ended up doing a greater service down the road. Little things add up.

This story also began a tradition for me to post a new story (or at least the first chapter to a new story) on the anniversary of me joining the site each year. I repeated it the following year, and I'll repeat it this year. With luck, I'll do the same next year.

This was a surprisingly fast one to write for me. Then again, I didn't have a lot to accomplish with it, beyond setting up plot points for later stories and helping to smooth stuff out from a canon story, but there you are.

As anyone who saw Crusaders of the Lost Mark will tell you, that episode was something of a bombshell. Me, I had mixed feelings about it - yay to Diamond Tiara's reform, boo to how sudden it was, yay to the Crusaders getting their cutie marks, boo to how it was done. It provided a lot of material to work with, however, and this story is meant as the foundation stone that will lead up to equivalent events for that story. Consequently, I wanted a moment where Diamond Tiara came across as sympathetic. Fearing the admonishments of an emotionally abusive mother, and knowing that her loving but benignly neglectful father can't help her, feels sympathetic to me.

I also wrote this to help further the relationship between Twilight Sparkle and Flash Sentry. Something that people have complained about with Flash is that he's kinda bland, so I thought it would be a good idea to give him some color to his personality - he's got a younger brother who adores him (Pop Fly, better known by the fandom as First Base), he's the victim of domestic abuse courtesy of his crappy father, and he tries his best to follow in the example of his stepfather, a genuinely good stallion. What I tried to imply was that Flash is guided by shame, and a desire to prove that he is not his biological father, to the point of outright rejecting him and calling his stepfather his true father. It's obvious and heavy handed, yes, but it says a lot when he refers to his biological father by name and calls his stepfather "Dad". And it's supposed to.

Sadly, I think a lot of people downvoted this story just because of Flash Sentry's presence in it. Which sucks, but what can you do?

This story had a very interesting genesis to it. At one point, I was going to have "The Last of the Elements" cover the events of not only the Princess Twilight Sparkle two-parter, but also the events of the episode Castle Mane-Ia. I eventually decided to split that story into two distinct ones, and as time went on and more canon material came available for me to work from, I found myself with something really juicy to work with in the form of the Tantabus.

Now, like a number of people, I saw the similarities between the events of Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep? and the "Nightmarity" arc from the comics, and also had the Nightmare Moon issue from the "FIENDship is Magic" miniseries in mind. That got my mind churning - perhaps Luna wasn't torturing herself with the Tantabus since shortly after being freed from the influence of the Nightmare. Perhaps the Nyx, whom Nightmare Moon had warped and corrupted into the Nightmare Forces, assisted her with crafting it. Aside from an excellent chance to apply some Arc Welding, this also gave Luna another reason to craft the Tantabus in the first place, and a more immediate cause of guilt.

Many authors, myself included, have noted that Equestria tends to have a viewpoint regarding potential things that can be summed up as "out of sight, out of mind". Luna was so relieved at having been freed of the Nightmare that, for whatever reason, she neglected to think of those others that had been warped by the Nightmare; the Nyx. This, of course, came back to bite her. She crafted the Tantabus in order to make certain she never forgot any of her crimes, as Nightmare Moon or as Princess Luna.

Also like other authors, we all recognized this as unhealthy behavior, and this story was my way of nipping the problem in the bud before it got out of hand. It also let me simplify the events of Castle Mane-Ia, and let me (within the Quiververse) prevent the events of Inspiration Manifestation. Don't get me wrong, that wasn't a bad episode, but the fewer moments where we look at Spike and cringe, the better for all of us. I also took this change to establish that while Nightmare Moon was a terrible thing, there were those who, even though they didn't know the whole truth, recognized the fact that Luna was a victim, and some good came from it. As I've said before, actions have consequences, and as terrible as this action was, it helped at least one little pony along the first steps to finding his voice.

But that's a story for another time.

There's a certain amount of irony in this story. I wrote "Wherever You Find Love" as a fix fic, and ended up writing this story as a fix fic to the fix fic. Amusingly, however, without it being a fix fic, there wouldn't be much story to it.

This story, more than most of the others, had a lot of thought put into it, and went through a number of changes before I started serious work on it. But the one thing that was going to be with it from day one was the appearance of the human version of Time Turner (aka Doctor Whooves), as well as Amethyst Star and Roseluck. Given the latter two characters only made minor cameos in the "Life is a Runway" short, I felt like they were a nice blank slate to work from. Plus, having Roseluck in a high school setting gave me an organic means of working in the meme associated with her pony counterpart, and let me get something out of my system. Seriously, I read "Heart of Darkness" in high school and college. There's a limit to how much Joseph Conrad you can handle in one lifetime, and I reached mine with that book. As for Time Turner, well, I really wanted to homage that one scene from the Doctor Who episode "School Reunion".

...I still miss you, Liz Sladen...

Anyway, as I started serious work on this story, I consulted with one of the more measured and decent critics I had on "Wherever You Find Love", one Final Legend Zero. I discussed my ideas for this story, and between the two of us, it ended up getting refined into a much better tale than before. The aftermath of Anon-A-Miss wasn't something that I really explored in the previous story, but it was something that needed to be explored - as much as the Crusaders needed to be called to account for their actions, so too did the Rainbooms and (in my version of events) Principal Celestia. They all hurt Sunset, and as sorry as they were, simply apologizing wasn't enough. They needed to understand how much they hurt her, and how much they needed to do in order to make up for their mistake. I like to think that they managed it.

Of course, with most of my plan in place, I still needed to lay groundwork in place in order to make things just a little more organic. Hence that tiny bit at the end of "Nightmare's End" - it helped to set things up for this story. That's a good thing about planning things out in advance, you can plant something in an earlier story and have it come to the fore in a later one without worrying too much about it.

In the process of doing this story, I got to build upon what I'd already established, and add in a few more things, some of which I'm sad to say ended up being overridden by canon. In hindsight, I'm very glad that I still hadn't established much about Fluttershy's family before I wrote this story, given I edited this tale to account for the revelations in The Perfect Pear (tiny edits, but still, edits). Some things that came after this, however, I'm still making plans to account for, but again, stories for another time. It also gave me the chance to finally give Sunset a proper Crowning Moment of Awesome, and stand on her own two (or rather four) feet. Having her on stronger footing now and able to really put the past behind her is only good for her, especially in light of what's to come.

Incorporating events from two more of the Rainbow Rocks prequel shorts was a last minute thing, but I felt like it was the right decision, especially as I was able to use them to set things up for future stories and introduce Rainbow Dash's mother. The one thing I regret is that canon came along and gave her a very different mother, but that's something I can sort out later.

This story, meanwhile, has ended up being one of my most heavily edited for this site, not because of content but because of working with other authors. RQK came along with his story "Reflections", and I volunteered the events of my storyline to intersect with his own. Time passed, and I thought it would be a good idea to more properly integrate things on my end, plus do a couple more edits in light of the Season Seven finale. Thus, the story in its final form. And I won't deny being proud of it.

This was a story that I had the rough idea in mind for as early as when I was starting work on "New Horizon", though it took time to develop. It ended up being another retcon story, however, this time drawing from one of G. M. Berrow's books, "Pinkie Pie and the Rockin' Ponypalooza Party!", as well as the episode Hearthbreakers.

I knew early on that it would be a good idea to write stories where Quiver Quill interacted one-on-one with members of the Mane Six - this was his story with Pinkie Pie. Her learning about his family, as well as the fallout from the events of "New Horizon", led to her trying to track down any relatives he had in Ponyville. I figured this was logical, given she found out about the possibility of being related to Applejack, though her not finding any was also totally plausible. Still, it's the thought that counts, and this was a good time to establish that though Quiver didn't have any blood relatives, he did have those he considered to be family with him in the form of the Mane Six (and others).

As for the flashbacks to the events of that book, I thought that would be a good idea, both to lend realism to the events therein and to streamline characterization between the book and Hearthbreakers. I also thought it would be a good idea to offer a potential explanation for why Pinkie ended up in Ponyville living with the Cakes rather than anywhere else - after all, what sensible parent would just let their kid go off to live with total strangers? Ending it with a flash forward to events from the episode Maud Pie seemed like a nice way to conclude it, too, especially given how things will change as time goes on.

Hey, what fun is there in having an alternate universe if things don't change around a little?

Like "Family", this was a one-on-one story for Quiver and a member of the Mane Six. This time, Rainbow Dash was the one who got stuck with him, though this ended up being a far less intimate story than the previous. This was also Quiver's first big adventure story, as well as a good glimpse of the sort of pony he is when the chips were down.

I detailed a lot of what led to this story in blog posts here and here. Feel free to check those out if you're curious, but all the big stuff is there. What I didn't detail is the trouble I had in getting this thing written, but as time went on, those troubles resolved themselves...mostly. I just hope I don't have as much trouble with the next one...

This story...egads this story's got a lot of weight behind it.

I admitted a long time ago that my primary OC, Quiver Quill, took a lot of inspiration from myself. That came to the fore with this story, which also saw the tying together of a lot of strands of story that I'd been building for a while - Quiver finding a home in Ponyville, Twilight's relationship with Flash Sentry, Luna coming to terms with her past, and even the plot threads with Diamond Tiara. In effect, this story ended up replacing a number of events from canon - Twilight Time and one of the major events for Crusaders of the Lost Mark being the big ones.

It also laid out Quiver's backstory, which I'd expanded upon since writing An Act of Random Kindness. There's more tragedy in there than I'd like, and it went into fairly dark territory, but dang it, it felt like it needed to be told. It also had what I felt was a strong message to it - that horrible things can have a terrible impact on those around you, and can mess you up in ways that don't result in you becoming a threat to Equestria (I'm looking at you, Starlight Glimmer). And in consequence, it ended up being one of my strongest stories, if not my strongest story.

Consequently, this story also let me begin to bring in pony versions of human characters, and present backstories for them that I felt were consistent with what we've seen but different from what the fandom's spun around them - so far, specifically, that covers Sour Sweet. As a result, she's turning into my favorite of the Shadowbolts. It also became the start of what I've termed the Reunion Trilogy, which thus far has been my most well-received arc. Not bad, all things considered.