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Chapter 12,742 words
Chapter 24,615 words
Chapter 33,679 words
Chapter 44,909 words
Chapter 53,156 words
Chapter 63,710 words
Chapter 73,569 words
Chapter 85,177 words
Chapter 95,079 words
Chapter 108,706 words
Chapter 117,890 words
Chapter 124,127 words
Chapter 134,757 words
Chapter 146,429 words
Chapter 154,506 words
Chapter 166,066 words
Chapter 174,467 words
Chapter 184,598 words
Chapter 195,872 words
Chapter 207,212 words
Epilogue7,208 words
Afterword3,739 words

Afterword

I'm unsure as to whether or not fanfics should really have afterwords. Either way, I feel a need to explain some things, deliver thanks and apologies, and so on. If you don't feel like reading this, that's fine, I wouldn't want to have to read a few thousand words of rambling, either. But if you are the mood to receive some thanks or an apology, read why I did what I did with Just Dropping In, et cetera, read on.

First order of business: I have some serious thanks to deliver.

Thank you for reading my story, Just Dropping In. I cannot express how grateful I am to you, the reader, for taking the time to read this work of fiction. Whether you actually enjoyed the read or not, I still want to give my sincerest thanks.

To those of you who left a comment, giving me feedback, and to those of you who are planning to do so, thank you. Your opinions on the story have shaped how I have written it and how I will write in the future, and I can't thank you enough for helping me in such a way.

A thanks to those who left a like or dislike. Believe it or not, I like to see both. Like the feedback I receive in the comments, these are a way to tell me what I'm doing right or wrong, in a more undefined sense, of course. I always like seeing another increment added to the green bar at the top of the story, and feel like I have somehow earned a precious gift that says "hey, I liked this story". However, it's the little red bar that affects me more. Every time I see the number of thumbs-down increase, even just a little, I wonder what I have done wrong. Maybe it's overreacting, but it is how I feel. Being so, I would really appreciate it if those of you who like or dislike leave a comment as well saying why you did so, especially in the case of a dislike. Help me out, let me know what I'm doing wrong; even if it is simply "I didn't like the story because I didn't like it".

You who enjoyed the story enough to add it to your favorites, I give you my astounded thanks. I can't fathom how my story would be so entertaining so that you would favorite it, but I will not question it, only thank you.

And finally, those of you who followed the story from beginning to end, watching as I created it, thank you. Your support kept me going, pushing me to finish the story and make it better and better.

I would like to thank everyone personally, but I fear that would take too much time, as I have a lot of people to thank. Know that though this is a general thanks, I am truly grateful to you each and all.

Also a thanks to my cat, whose name is Mouse. She was by my side nearly every night I was typing this story, keeping me company very early into the morning.

Continuing on, now I feel I have some things to apologize for, whether I really do or not.

I am sorry if my story offended you in any way, be it my cursing, the conspiratorial ideas within it, et cetera. I had no intention of offending anyone, and hope anyone that was offended knows this.

Also, I am extremely sorry if you did not like my story. I apologize for wasting your time, for it was completely upon your decision to read my story, thus upon your time. I hope to make a good story, as I believe all authors do; however, I know that I cannot please everyone. So, to those of you I could not please, I apologize.

I am not sorry if you did not like my story for...immature? I suppose that would work...reasons. By this I mean reasons such as, say, it was not a clopfic (I just don't do those. I find them hard to write, and they make me uncomfortable, so I do not write them), or because Rainbow Dash was not portrayed as a lesbian (Seriously, there is a very, very large difference between lesbian and tomboy. I have a feeling most of those wholeheartedly believing she is one have never met or seen a tomboy), or because it was a Human-in-Equestria-style story (Just because some are bad does not mean they all are). I feel my story ought to be judged on how good it is as a story, and for nothing else. I suppose I can't really enforce that logic, now can I?

I think that does it for thanks and apologies. I'd like to move on now to my purpose or inspiration behind writing the story.

Before I begin, I would like to restate that I have no intentions of offending anyone, as I feel what I am about to describe may do so. The inspiration for Just Dropping In basically came to me after I figured some things out, figured out some of my beliefs in life. I was raised with the Christian faith, not strongly, though. Christianity is my religion, but I don't go to church often, I don't pray often, things like that. Kind of a slacker-believer, I suppose. Being that I browse the Internet regularly, I have come to find that there seems to be a lot of conflict between Christians and athiests. I usually try to find a center point in arguments, that's just how I'm wired, I guess. So, I began to think things through.

I know evolution exists, or at least believe strongly it does. Not mass evolution, though. Like, small evolution, slow evolution; for example, how insects will evolve to resist pesticides over time. Adaptation through evolution. I do not believe man came from monkey, or fish, or whatever else, though. In that sense, I find the logic of atheism to be flawed. It leads me to believe that there is something out there, a creator of sorts. Not just with humans, though, but with other things, large things that often seem overlooked. For example, why do we have a will to live? I don't think space dust has a will to live, so why do we? Or, why is it that only humans seem able to think in a complex manner? Animals seem like they are almost programmed, programmed to survive and populate. We, on the other hand, want to progress, invent, learn, and so on. Why are we different? What made us that way?

Basically, I don't believe everything Christianity states, nor atheism, but rather a combination of both. Many of the science aspects of atheism, like evolution, are true and present to me. But, many of the larger things seem hard to explain, like how the universe came to existence, or why there is life. And there are parts of Christianity, or religion in general, that I believe, like how there is a creator. Yet, many things also don't make sense; many parts of the Bible, Christianity's book of faith, seem too humanized. Broad topics seem to be explained well by faith, and the more technical aspects of life by science.

Anyways. I began to wonder if there was really something like an afterlife, a heaven, or a hell, or a paradise, something. It makes sense, sort of, to me; if I were said creator, I would think that there should be someplace for my creations to live out eternity without suffering. I would be proud of my creations; letting them just die out, never to exist again, would be a waste, I think.

There is a phrase used in the book of Revelations, last book of the Bible. It's one of the few I remember well: "eye of the beholder". This is used when talking about what "heaven" would be like. It means that each person would see the afterlife the way only they wanted to see it, meaning the afterlife would be no set place, or time. If there is an afterlife, I think it would be this way. For example, if someone wanted only to, I don't know, live in a fictional world filled with ponies for eternity to find love, then they would. Sounds like a pretty good afterlife to me.

See where I'm going with this? I used the opportunity of the apparent "doomsday" approaching rapidly in 2012, the year of this writing, to make the character die and go to an afterlife of sorts. I am unsure as to how difficult that was to catch on to. Taking an "eye of the beholder" turn on said afterlife, I made the idea into a story.

I suppose that might beg the question, do I actually have feelings for Rainbow Dash, fictional rainbow-maned pegasus of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic?

The answer to that is no, no I do not. However, I do like her personality. So, in that sense, I do have feelings for her, but in an asexual sort of way, if you understand what I mean. I am not attracted to ponies, only to human females, but her personality attracts me. Again, the idea of "clopping" makes me uncomfortable, so I stick to romance, where the personality basically makes the character.

Next, I'd like to share some "fun facts", I suppose one might call them, about the story or me as an author.

This is the longest work of writing I have ever created, and the first work of writing not intended as schoolwork. I think the second longest paper I have ever written, a research paper written on firearms, came in at 15,000 words. This is over 100,000 words long, if you did not know.

This is my first fanfiction. Be gentle.

The main character and narrator, who goes by the alias "Ferrum" throughout most of the story, is actually four years older than I at the time of this writing, at twenty years old. I made the character older for a couple of reasons; the first was that it helped convey a sense of loneliness near the beginning. Being able to live alone, and not with my family as I currently do, allowed Ferrum to be, well, alone. It also allowed me to somewhat more openly reveal the character's status as a brony; being a "closet" brony, I can not do things like have a small Rainbow Dash on my bedside table, or watch MLP:FiM every day, but seeing as Ferrum is alone, he can do these things. Finally, I made Ferrum twenty years old because that's about how old I believe the Mane Six are. They have jobs, are larger than foals or even teenage ponies, can drink(cider is usually alcoholic), et cetera, but do not seem aged, leading me to believe they are adults, but not very old adults.

The only times I worked on this were very late at night, usually ranging between the 1 A.M. and 5 A.M. times. That made for some very tired mornings; it is a good thing I am on summer break currently, a fact I am quite grateful for, as it gives me a lot of time to write.

This took me, in total, something like a month, month and a half to complete. Not too long, I suppose, but not a short amount of time, either. I started out expecting it to take me two weeks; I am honestly glad it took so much longer.

I have never once, until writing this afterword, gone back and re-read any of the chapters, unless a mistake was pointed out or something was suggested for change. I don't plan on changing anything until it's mentioned, though; "why change what is already doing just fine" logic applies for me here.

Only six fun facts. What a buzz kill. Moving on, though. I'd like to start analyzing some of my choices in the story, chapter by chapter.

Chapter One. I decided to put a lot of focus on the five senses, as they make up everything about our lives. Without them, there is nothing. So, I started the story of with some philosophical thinking, a fun thing to do. Next, the apocalypse. I do not actually believe the apocalypse will occur; if it does, well, I'll be set for the afterlife, won't I? Anyways, it seemed like a good way to start the story. Don't ask me, ask that ridiculous brain of mine. I guess it worked out okay, though. I put a little emphasis on Rainbow Dash, and into the next chapter.

Two. Describing what a pony's body looks like, without comparing it to an actual pony or equine being, was quite hard, actually. Knocking myself out was fun, though.

Three. The thought process for what career to give Ferrum, as well as coming up with the name Ferrum, is basically just written down. What is written there is basically what I was thinking the whole time, with two a-ha moments resulting from it. Not really much else to explain here. As I'm writing this afterword, I'm looking back to the earlier chapters and skimming over them. I can see my writing style has changed somewhat over the past month and a half.

Not much to say for four. Yes, the Crystal Pelvis thing is a reference to Indiana Jones. But hey, all of Daring Do is a reference to Indiana Jones. I figured I'd play along with the clever writers.

Five. Tried to emphasize speed of pony recovery, especially in comparison to humans. Wouldn't that be nice, recovering about twenty times faster? Also added another slip-up by Ferrum. Rainbow Dash may lack an extensive vocabulary, but she is a very clever pony. Excuse of forgetting how to fly, unexpected empathy from Rainbow.

Six. This is kind of where I started to remember things I was forgetting, like Tank. Luckily I realized those things fairly early on. Also, a very angry Rainbow Dash. She took note of that slip-up as well, and got fed up. I have a feeling if I ever went to Equestria, I would do that, actually, slip up and say things that make me seem omniscient. Or like a spy.

Seven. Starting off with still angry Rainbow Dash. I was going to have her say "i'm going to kill you", but then I was like, oh wait, there isn't death in Equestria. Silly me. So yes, only pain. So much pain. Except it didn't happen, because I freaked her out with alien knowledge. I actually started feeling bad while writing. Lying is something I can and cannot do. To people I care about, it makes me sick to my stomach, unless I feel it is something that should not be public knowledge. To others, I seem to be able to lie quite easily, though I choose not to.

Eight. Yeah, Rainbow Dash would not be a good cook. Had some fun describing terrible pancakes. Also showing some more attraction to her via smell; I really do think she'd smell spicy, taste as well. Just seems to suit her, as rainbows share the same property.

Nine/Ten. Hearth's Warming Eve, had to split it up else it would be too long, a result of my OCD for wanting the chapters to remain four-digit. Met the gang. Don't really have anything else to add for this one, either.

Eleven. Mainly focused on getting a job in Ponyville, as a blacksmith. Pretty much had my stuff together by this chapter, got a nice relationship starting to go between the two, got Ferrum a job, and so on.

Twelve. More focus on the job. I did this so that I wouldn't have to explain it as much later, to be frank. I attempted to emphasize that Ferrum was kind of made for blacksmithing, from the ease at which he picks things up. Who knows, maybe blacksmithing is really my thing, not gunsmithing. I'll let Fate decide that one, a few years ahead.

Thirteen/Fourteen. Hearts and Hooves, and a lot of inner monologue. Figured this would be an opportune time to decide upon whether Ferrum could get past the fact Dash was a pony or not. Again, as with earlier, this is basically what ran through my head as I thought this part out. He's a pony, she's a pony, they've got human personalities, I see no problems. I used contact via a hug as sort of a landmark thing, putting emphasis on it. If you didn't notice, there was very little contact, if any, prior to that. Touch is a powerful sense.

Fifteen. You know, I have a feeling the spot between a pegasus' wings is really sensitive, as well as ticklish. Like people's sides. Chapter is based on the Winter Wrap Up. I hope the song got stuck in your head, reader. It sure did in mine. I added this chapter just to see more interaction in the story and to use it sort of as a filler; I did this later with the party chapter, where Dash gets drunk.

Sixteen. Okay, cut me a little slack; what else do you get Rainbow Dash, the number one fan of the Wonderbolts? I had to throw this chapter in, it's like, required for any fic where Rainbow Dash receives a gift. I also decided to take on one of two main problems that seem to fill her life, that being the decision of either joining the Wonderbolts, living what she thinks would be the dream, or following her heart and staying loyal to her friends and town. If you couldn't tell, I chose the latter. I honestly don't think she'd find happiness with the Wonderbolts. Maybe for a little while, but I think her sense of loyalty would make it so she'd find true happiness with those she cares about (call me corny if you want).

Seventeen/Eighteen. I attempt to start making it seem like Ferrum is losing track of time more and more, that "time flies when you're having fun" logic. Like fifteen, these chapters are more filler than anything. Though, the conversation with Applejack isn't. Applejack is second best pony, by the way. I am unsure as to whether or not she is Rainbow's closest friend, but their competitiveness shows to me their kind of friendship, a look-out-for-the-other relationship. Being so, I made Applejack confront Ferrum in that don't-mess-this-up-though-I-doubt-you-will kind of way. Also, Dash gets wasted. Woohoo! I added that because I could, quite honestly. The inclusion of music I recognize and like actually has some significance; in an afterlife, there wouldn't be music you didn't like, now would there? Plus, I wanted to mention deadmau5 in a fanfic.

Nineteen. I really liked writing the last few chapters, especially this one. All dem' feels. I decided to add in the Sonic Rainboom near the end about halfway into making the story. Not to finish the story, but rather to basically push the relationship to its maximum point without the events of the last chapter. A discussion of Rainbow's second main conflict in life is also present, the appreciation thing. I've noticed she always seems to feel a need to prove herself to everyone, when everyone already adores her. I think she really needs to hear that from someone. Then again, she is just a fictional character, and I am thinking she's real again. I did that a lot while writing the story.

Twenty. I felt awesome for nailing the twenty-chapter mark on the head, and with hitting 100k words at the same time. One of the longer chapters, as I hoped it would be when I started writing it. I actually had the whole statement-of-love-cut-off-by-kiss thing planned for a while, and by a while meaning since the start of the story. Some references to earlier events in the story. Again, a lot of emphasis on the kiss and its feeling, much like when Ferrum is first hugged.

Last, but not least, the Epilogue. I began wondering if I should add an epilogue some time back, upon nearing the completion of the story. I actually tried the epilogue two times, and the second try is what is in the story. On the first try, I attempted setting it a good ten, fifteen years into the future. You might be able to guess some of the things I wanted to include. However, I found that I created too great a workload for myself; there was far too much to explain in the detail I wanted to explain it in, and I forgot quite a few things along the way. I eventually abandoned it, starting over and setting the epilogue only a few years after the events of Twenty. It worked out much nicer, believe me. I would like to throw in another thanks, as well, to all of those who supported the epilogue while it was still a mere possibility. I believe it ended the story quite nicely, and I wouldn't have made the decision to put it in without the surprising amount of support you all gave me.

That seems like a fairly good synopsis to me. If I left out anything that begs question from you, reader, leave a comment and let me know. I'll either add it into here or leave a comment in direct response.

Before I end this afterword, I have a request. If you would, have a look at a few gents here on FIMFiction. The first is Shadowflash. He is an excellent writer and artist, and deserves more popularity. Go check him out, read his blog, look at some art, read his fics, have a party. The other is EBeck, who is a user with an exceptional talent for analysis. He can take a username and make a guess (which I have found to be fairly accurate) on the personality, likes, and dislikes of the user. He's trying to get the attention of those at Equestria Daily, so go help him out by seeing if he'll analyze your username. Both I and they would appreciate it greatly.

My goal with Just Dropping In was to make it a good read, and maybe even to make you smile, reader. I hope it accomplished both. I can't thank you enough for reading it, and I truly hope you enjoyed it.

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