Our job is not to give readers what they want; our job is to show them things they never imagined. --Walt Williams
After the return of the Pillars of Equestria, A. K. Yearling gets a letter from Twilight: former villain Stygian is interested in writing. Not one to turn down a request from a princess and interested in learning from somepony who lived a millennium ago, Yearling sets up a meeting with him at a Canterlot donut shop. And so the two commence on Stygian's education of modern fiction.
Takes place not long after "Shadow Play". Written for the May 2020 Pairing Contest.
Page generated in 0.237 seconds
Total duration
959 users online
492,602 hits today, 2,054,621 yesterday
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Personally I would've loved to read what he ended up writing. He sounds like he'd make a good start as an amateur.
Good story, I really love how they are bonding over their love of literature and writing. And this is something I would like to see expanded upon.
Aww, short and sweet. I like how Daring forgets what questions she had for Stygian as she gets caught up helping him. I would like to see the story he's writing, it sounds interesting.
Yearling’s explanation of why we read fiction was brilliant.
The only pun-reference I didn’t get was Koboldlance.
This is a great story and I think that interactions between Daring and the Pillars should be used more since there are almost none. Stygian's off to good start as a writer too.
10245191
It's a reference to the Dragonlance D&D setting and novels.
This is a great dual character piece, right here. Both are incredibly well written, in character, and fun to bounce off each other. The inclusion of so many puns only makes it better!
My only complaint is that it ended so early, and abruptly. I’m not asking for a whole series on these two and their writing process, but I would love to see more.
10245255
So...does that mean Koboldlance is a series about ponies riding on top of kobolds? How are the kobolds not squished?
And who are the godsforsaken kender? Diamond dogs?
10245341
It's a pun based on the Dragonlance. A weapon specifically designed to kill dragons in the Dragonlance setting.
And Pinkie Pie is the only example of Kender, or close enough, in Equestria.
10245412
I thought lots of people with Dragonlances were also dragon riders?
Pinkie can't be a kender because everyone loves Pinkie and nobody likes kender. Out of universe. Does anyone in-universe like them?
10245434
A lot do. Heck that's what the lance was kinda designed to fit.
And it's Pinkie's mentality that is so much like a Kender's.
10245451
So are kobolds big enough to ride?
Pinkie isn't a relentless and unapologetic klepto, though.
Happy to see more Stygian focused works.
Two creatives walk into a bar. The bartender joins their party.
That was a really abrupt ending, not gonna lie. Would've at least liked some kind of update weeks down the road where Yearling checks in to find out how Stygian's work is coming along.
Quite good, I must say. Especially the brainstorming part was quite interesting. It's rare, that we get a view into the creation process. Even if it's a fictional one.
Goooooood, why does it have to be only one chapter </3
This was a really good one shot. Left me thirsty for more one-author-writing-as-two-drastically-different-authors action.
I'm very glad that she did not suggest time travel stories to Stygian. If you absolutely must use time travel, limit yourself to one cohesive party of time-travelers or else you will drive yourself mad, like a Lovecraft protagonist, endlessly drawing diagrams to ensure plot consistency.
Hm
If this continued, it could've been Stygian's rise as an author.
This was very nice. I resonate with Yearling here, cause while I enjoy writing and telling my own stories, I get a sick thrill helping brainstorm and aid others in theirs.
Something about helping build, inspire, and shape another's work into something they enjoy working on and can get excited for has been probably my favorite thing being involved on Fimmy Fic.
And I agree with others, this story holds so much potential to be more.
Really lovely story! Would love more, but it felt really good contained within this bit.
Well, it's good, and I wonder what is going to happen with both Daring and Stygian and the novel itself... Maybe in a future you could make a sequel or put the novel?
I loved this! I would love to see more.
I wonder how Stygian will react once he learns one of his descendants tried to destroy as many books as possible... out of shame for what he did.
This story brings together a solid pairing, great concept, and good characterization, especially of AK Yearling. I do feel like the library scene goes on longer than I'd like and then the ending seems a bit abrupt. The tension of Yearling wanting to learn about the past doesn't feel dealt-with at the conclusion. It's suddenly deemed unimportant compared to the story Stygian is working on. This makes for a nice moment, sure, but that was addressed so often beforehand in the story that I was expecting some sort of payoff, yet I didn't feel I got one.
In a way, that basically says that I'd like to see more, which in-and-of-itself says something good about this story. Well done!
10256189 If I had to make a guess, poorly.
A fellow Artemis Fowl fan?
Considering that fiction in Equestria seems to tend towards the autobiographical, no wonder that Stygian's first novel ends up sounding a lot like a name-swapped and heavily modified retelling of his final days as a Pillar pre-limbo (though it sounds like it may end up with a happier ending than in real life!)
That aside, your characterization for Daring Do and Stygian are spot-on (and you also handle the nuances of Daring Do pretty much writing real-life stuff with enough fiction to pass off as a not-a-true-story series), and the whole point of the story (being Stygian's desire to write) is something that I'm sure more than a few of us can relate to and you pull it off well.
It's a good story! Thanks for it!
i wonder if the pony world has expies for The Hunger Games, Redwall and Warriors?
10245191
Koboldlance is Dragonlance, no?
Great story! It had such nice character interactions!
I also love the Witcher reference (it was the only book you listed that I've read:)