author note
“Nothing much happens without a dream. For something really great to happen, it takes a really great dream.”
-Robert Greenleaf
“Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous…”
-T.E. Lawrence
November, 2019-
This story has been a part of my life for the last seven and a half years. Thinking about it, it kind of blows my mind that I’ve had eight different addresses in that time. I even wrote the last part of season 2 while living out of the back seat of a Dodge Ram in the Florida panhandle.
As the opening author’s note indicates, Valiant started out as a self-insert. Somewhere in the last half a million words he gained a personality of his own and things just kind of took off from there.
As you’ve probably gathered, a lot of planning went into this story. Many plot points were set up, or at least thought of, in the season before they actually appeared. I kept a couple running Google Docs filled with ideas and reminders of what I had already set up. I’m notorious for just writing without any prep and by the seat of my pants, so this story was good for my personal growth as a writer, because I learned how to plan ahead. I even started writing this author note in October 2018.
That kind of planning, I have to admit, almost became apart of the story itself. I successfully predicted my exact final word count in a blog post wrapping up Season 8, published December 2018.
One of my big regrets, however, could have been solved by even better planning. In the later seasons, there were a couple of soft reboots, usually explained by resetting the universe. Every time Valiant got a little too god-emperor, I had to knock him down again to keep the struggle real and the story interesting. I should probably take a little personal heed, but also find a better plot device. Plus, this is still a pony story, so rearranging the plot let me get back to more canon events, especially because it seems like many readers had eventually stopped watching the show itself.
I selected the above quote by Robert Greenleaf like four years ago, until suddenly stumbling upon the T.E. Lawrence quote in May 2019. I struggled for a while to figure out which one to use and eventually just did both.
Despite the volume of swearing, I generally held off on really good ones, just so I could have that little bit of room to escalate should it be required. “Fuck” was said exactly seven times - three of which were to Discord’s face.
Getting down to the end here, I'm feeling things and I want you - yes you - to know that I appreciate your patronage. Couldn't have done it without you.
-totallynotabrony
THE DREAMS MASTER INDEX
Even with 540,000 words in the main story, there were still dozens of related tales that add up to about another 350,000.
Side Stories
More Dreams (random chapters)
Wet Dreams
Sir Win's Hellish Beverage Brewing and Infernal Event Planning
The Adventures of Trixie if Her Father Was a Badass Alien
The Adventures of Crackhead Limestone Pie
Science, Steam, and Beer (by mines5, Altoid, and totallynotabrony)
The Pointless Adventures of Guinness (cancelled)(by Altoid)
Spinoffs
The Vampire Cheerilee series
- The Adventures of Vampire Cheerilee
- The Night Shift
- Murder on the Mind
- Fiends of Manehattan (written by Skrive Flip)
- Luck of the Draw
- Weakness of the Flesh
- The Hunted (cancelled)(written by Thegodhand)
- Dark Operations (cancelled)(written by CenturionFox13)
- Turn That Frown Upside Down (cowritten by Brony Tom)
- Hearts and Hooves Day Hurts (cowritten by zaponator)
The Cyborg Braeburn series
Cover Art Archive
The original, used from 2nd Mar 2012 until 22nd Nov 2015. Made with General Zoi's pony creator and some photoshopping of the lampshade Spike wore in the first episode.
Briefly used 22st Nov 2015 until 4th Dec 2015. Drawn in five minutes on random tree screencaps.
Current cover art
At one point there was also an Ask Valiant tumblr.
And if you haven't seen it, there's an archive of Dreams-related art at my DeviantArt.
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Hey, happy to have followed you for all of these years. It's not just any writer that can keep an audience's interest for over half a decade, after all.
Congratulations on sticking to it 'til the end! This story will forever be a gem!
It’s the end of an era.
God speed you magnificent bastard.
you've joined the league of authors who actually finished their stories, I wish you luck on whatever future endeavors you undertake.
It’s always weird reaching the end on a long-runner, isn’t it?
Here’s to Gen 5 and A Dream II.
9930366
Oh shit, what if I do?
It's always a bittersweet feeling when a series I've been keeping up with comes to an end. On the upside, we know how it ends with a *hopefully* good conclusion that ties up most loose ends, and on the downside, it's one less thing to look forward to on the dreary slog that is my life of laying in my room doing nothing of not.
9930410
By two episodes in, you’ll know you want to.
Godspeed.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2015/12/16/1045906.jpg
I fuckin' heart this story. On behalf of the entire fandom, I thank you, totallynotabrony.
It's been a wild ride.
It was a wild ride. Wish there was more, but it ended well.
Wow, and just like the show, so too has this story ended.
What a long strange trip it's been.
Stopped watching the show a while ago, this has been my canon for the last six seasons.
Huh you the entirety of this story feels almost unreal like it was all........A Dream..... holy shit
I finished it, AMAZING story, thank you soooo much!
10334989
Thank you for reading! I know that must have taken commitment.
Finally finished the entire thing and all the sidestorys. The ending was a little bit of a letdown but the Gabby arc made more than up for it.
It was a nice ride, I hope for "More Dreams".
10458329
Thanks for reading. I still can't believe people still willingly start a story this long.
Awe man you spent 7 1/2 years writing this story now I'm gonna spend the next 7 1/2 years reading it. Cheers
Whelp, I finally got around to reading through this crazy story.
I've nothing to complain about it but it's going to be a good while before I decide to read this one again.
10798131
It still blows my mind that people willingly begin half a million words.
10798135
Diaries of a Madman prepared me for long stories and your your story isn't full of countless mind numbing spelling errors.
A moment of silence for the poor bastards who sat through Whats love got to do with it?.
10863899
53 chapters in I have to bow out. It’s gotten far to ridiculous for my tastes. I can’t tell if there’s any plot anymore. Maybe I’ll come back when I need a dose of wtf.
10950495
I do not want to sell you death sticks.
Huh, FIMFiction must have changed their algorithm. The story ended exactly at 540,000 words but now shows 539,872.
11206285
Oh, you're only a decade too late.
...Fuck, I'm old.
Well, that was a ride. On to the sequel... Because there's always a sequel, even when there isn't.
11221092
Thanks for reading. I'm always impressed when people are still willing to begin a 500k story.
11212390
Lol, I just saw this comment. People never tell me they want to have my babies. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing... Is it weird I'm a little jealous? Yeah, probably a little weird.
11221122
I read the wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. Big stories don't scare me. If they're entertaining enough, I can get pretty invested, and I gotta say... This story certainly entertained me.
11218053
I did not know that. I should check how long ago that was
11221122
Funnily enough, I rather start a fic with 500k words than new fic that is slowly being written. I am a huge binge reader so I prefer fics that are long and frequently updated.
11521600
Did it fly pretty good, for a brick?
11525740
Oh yes!
You don't get in the way. It can even go high enough up to suffocate the driver. Sadly, being an atmo based craft it cannot reach 'orbit' but that is Problem Solver's job to do.
Wow, I can't believe you finished it. This fic was such a major part of my life when I was a 15-yo shitter; you don't even know. I still have that "Getting tequila instead of water is always a shock; doesn't matter if you're drinking the liquid or the glass." line stuck in my head as the best stinger I've ever read, and every so often I think of it and it cracks me up again. The wild twists and turns you took with the plotline, and your just utter disrespect for the narrative of the show, was so much fun to follow you through on this crackpot adventure through a beloved universe.
Even in the early years of the story, you got some insanely-good mental images in there and some lines that I'll never be able to get out of my head, and I'm really glad I got to experience it while it was updating. One of these days I'll actually finish the show so I can avoid getting spoiled by the rest of this series, because I can't wait to see what wacky bs the biggest dickhead of all time Valiant got up to after I fell off.
Biggest kudos to the ultimate crackfic! I can't wait to see what you come up with next.
11744417
Thak you for that. It makes my day that people are still reading this.
As to what I came up with next...
- MLP Gen 5
- Romance
- Comedy
Sometimes you have to give up on a dream. When that happens, the only thing to do is get a second dream, a new dream, a better dream where you get internet points for being an edgy horse.