(Attempt at individual chapter descriptions below the break, because I still haven't figured out how to control where the break is.)
Yes, after over eight years on the site and I don't know how many words put down in comments over that time, I'm finally putting up an actual story. Well, "story". I do occasionally write, or more often imagine and not bother to write, various pieces of fiction, and this I expect to be more a collection of them than something that ever has much of a "chapter" to "chapter" cohesive narrative. The first five of the six "chapters" I'm planning to post at the start have already been blog posts (though with some reformatting and such)... but the sixth, I've not posted anywhere before. In the future I might dig through my past for more old fragments, and there's a chance that perhaps having this "story" out will encourage me to actually write more.
No idea how often this'll actually update, though. Also, not sure how much the things in here will be edited; despite how much time I've spent editing other people's stories, I have little enough successful experience writing that I'd rather focus on getting down what I can. Base level shouldn't be too bad, though, knowing me.
Also, I'm surprised to see that apparently no one else on the site has used "Ostraca" for a story title. Eh.
(Also, rating this Teen just to be safe. No idea if that is or will be needed (I am, again, very new to this story-posting thing), but it seemed prudent given my uncertainty about whether it's needed or not.)
Chapter guides(?):
-O- Actually Something Story-Ish! (Blog 2018-07-09)
Does it matter if Thorax is a changeling?
-O- Story Idea Snippet (Blog 2018-08-31)
Purple prose taken literally and run with... if not very far.
-O- Vision of a Discord and Draconequus!Fluttershy Apocalypse (Blog 2019-10-27)
...Not sure how to describe this, but I'm still kind of boggled that FanOfMostEverything called it "Magnificent stuff." back in blog form.
-O- Random Old Fallout Equestria Thing (Blog 2019-12-14)
Zebras and pegasi dogfight at the end of the world. This is probably the first chapter that "Dark" tag is needed for.
-O- Well, Cold Spike said I should write something... (Blog 2020-05-12)
The three tribes each had their own way of migrating to Equestria...
-O- Camping by Lake Mead
Robot Friendship Unicorn Twilight! Also, probably another one wanting that "Dark" tag, and the first one "Human" was added for. (Also, Fallout: New Vegas... crossover?, if that's important to you.)
-O- Third Most Powerful
Princess Luna has a private chat with a high government official, to lay out a few things.
-O- Optimalverse Pottery Shard
If I'd finished this, it'd have been a contest entry. As it is, it's an incomplete fragment with an author's note about the same length as it is sharing the chapter -- but I still think some of the ideas are interesting.
-O- An Old Alicorn Problem
Complete? Also mostly unedited, because inspiration struck while I was supposed to be doing something else and I wanted to get the inspiration down in horsewords before it went away.
-O- Wedding Remarks
Cadance, her new wife beside her, has a few things to say to some special guests on this perfect day. AU recursive fanfic of Darkstarling's Royal Peanut Butter. Complete, I think, though it could be extended and/or expanded.
-O- A Tale of the Twilight of the Twilit
Someone old explains some things to someone young.
Inspired by, at least as the trigger, a post from FoME linked in the author's note, itself about the start of the G5 comics. Complete, I think.
Okay, this was fun.
10516795
Thanks; I think it did come out pretty well. :)
I liked this sketch, it reads harmoniously.
10655732
Oh, thank you. :)
Though while I think I get something of a general impression, I'm curious what you mean, more particularly, by "harmoniously". No worries if you aren't thinking of more specific words, though, and no obligation to reply; I certainly know this sort of thing can sometimes be difficult to describe.
10656944
It may sound strange, but I've always thought of Discord more as a character, forgetting that this is the spirit of chaos. Therefore, for me your sketch sounds "harmonious": it put in place those things that I did not think about, thank you. It is also well written, so I would like to see it's development.
But I misunderstood one phrase a little: "...if they win, they too will be overcome, and he will be saved". Perhaps I am missing something obvious again and would be glad if you explain it to me, why he will be saved? :)
10658441
Oh, thank you again, both for the explanation (which I think I understood) and the compliment. :)
I'm afraid I don't considering it very likely I'll develop this further, though. I mean, not saying I definitely won't (I've actually already gotten a possible seed of an idea from thinking about this sketch again from your comment), but, well, as you can see, my total writing output already isn't exactly high; sorry.
(Though if you want to take inspiration from it or something, feel free!)
As for that phrase, let's see...
[reads a bit]
So, it's been a while, but my understanding of that bit is that he'd be saved because none of those creatures could defeat him permanently, and anything less than that would see Fluttershy restore him when, bereft of his role as counterbalance, her nature defeats the creatures that defeated him.
10658441
(I remembered after leaving my reply that one at-least-hypothesis I've heard for one reason FIMFiction sometimes doesn't notify people of comment replies is the reply being left on a different chapter. So just in case, here's a comment that's just a notification that a different comment (10658663) exists. :))
10658663
Unfortunately, I had little interest in Discord, for me he was a character in a specific universe with specific goals and actions. This view of mine led to the fact that I didn't think about what universes he could face during the long journey of the spirit of chaos. Here is one more piece explaining the "harmony" obtained by me from your sketch :)
And thank you very much for the explanation of the phrase from the sketch!
As for the inspiration ... yes, I think your little stories contributed to that, without exaggeration.
I came to this site to thank the authors whose stories I really liked. And in order to upload a translation of my friend's fanfiction. A very long time has passed, we have not communicated for a long time, but I feel that I must translate at least one chapter to the bitter end.
And seeing how you laid out your ostraca after a long time ... I want to add mine :)
10659468
Well, I'm not sure I fully understand how you were thinking of him before, but I'm glad you like the way this expanded your thoughts on him. :)
And you're quite welcome!
And I'm even more glad that this small collection of words did indeed inspire you to some creative work of your own! :D
Good luck with that translation! And any other writing you may do. :)
10660315
Thanks for the kind words
10660695
No problem. :)
By the way, it looks like this story attracted three downvotes somewhere. Huh.
I really like the dynamic that you have between Luna and Cozy Glow. It seems far more in character for Luna than the actual series finale. Which is to be expected - you've got depth between them that you don't normally find in children's cartoons. Adult Cozy has mostly overcome her anger management issues and learned to play the long game. But Luna's been playing the game a lot longer than the pegasus upstart, and Cozy's still got tells when playing, while Luna's as unreadable as a blank slate.
Also, kudos for your worldbuilding. I like the background details.
10732241
Ah, thanks for the compliments! :D
...I'm slightly puzzled why you're leaving the comment here, though, rather than on the chapter itself. I didn't accidentally disable comments or something, did I?note: I'm leaving the above for historical reasons, and to explain anything that slips through I don't notice or the like, but some of these comments are being copied over from a conversation accidentally started over here. AlwaysDressesInStyle very nicely proposed putting the comments individually over here instead of just having me mass-quote or something, so here we are. :)
And yeah, this is, as I expect was obvious, very much an alternate universe from show canon, and while I don't know exactly what this Cozy Glow's whole backstory was, I suspect part of her making the progress she has was the lack of any target as tempting as the School of Friendship in her youth (also, no... whatever it was that led to show-her being pen pals with Tirek, who I'm not sure existed in this world anyway). She couldn't have played for stakes that high if she wanted to, so she dealt with smaller temptations and was tempered by them instead of overreaching, failing, and having a fast, hard, and bumpy trip down. And since this is also an Equestria with a position in government second only to the Princesses themselves, that's attained by winning a popular election, she had a visible if somewhat distant point to work towards -- and once she made it there, well, maybe that'd be good enough, but if something were to happen to one or both of the Princesses, guess who'd be the natural person to step up and take charge in the crisis?
And in the show we see that Cozy Glow even as a filly is extremely competent and charismatic, and quite capable of doing things to benefit others on the way to her own benefit. Give her time to sharpen that further and gain more experience, instead of dangling the big prize maybe-just-in-her-reach when she's that young, and she can grow into quite an impressive figure indeed, I think.
But, of course, as you say: she is remarkably skilled at this for someone even ten times her age... but Luna has an order of magnitude more still.
I'm glad the characterization worked to show that sort of thing! :D Though I'm honestly not sure how much I was keeping that in mind consciously vs. running more black-box models during writing.
And I'm very glad to hear that the background details and worldbuilding worked; thank you! I was worried I'd ended up in a bad spot on the spectrum between "There appear to be some scraps of story here, in between the massive exposition blocks of the author's worldbuilding." and "What? What's going on? What does that word mean there? Why is none of this explained?", but at the same time I didn't want to just try and gloss over all the details, for multiple reasons.
(The original spark of inspiration for this family of universes, by the way, came from a Victoria II pony mod. I've expanded things quite a bit in my head (and to a lesser extent in my own fork of the mod) since first finding that years ago, though.
For instance, the original mod put Equestria where our Earth has California. And as I recall it was just kind of there, the location important for interactions with various other countries from our timeline (the USA, especially; Manifest Destiny finding a magic horse kingdom blocking its way to the Pacific drives a number of events) but not really having much examination of how that would have particular affected the country's history. And then one day I realized, hang on: These ponies are actually Native Americans. Technically, at least, but also they've been there the whole time; there was no mention of the mod of Equestria suddenly appearing there one day, certainly not in recent times. And Equestria is at least a thousand years old by the time the game starts (In my expansions, in fact, though I don't recall how much is in my mod fork vs. just my head, it's actually quite a bit older than that; as an example, Canterlot was built high on a mountain because the ponies got a bit spooked by rising sea levels at the end of the ice age, and it's been continuously inhabited since.). So Equestria may have been hidden from Europeans until about twenty years before the game starts... but what about all those other humans through the centuries before a single European ever cited the Americas? And I grew a lot of ideas out from just that realization. :))
[looks up]
...Erm. Sorry for the wall of text. :D
Probably lucky I'm a bit short on time right now, or I might have gone on longer, too... :)
But yes, thank you very much for the compliments, and I'm glad the chapter worked apparently so well! :)
10733513
Oh golly, I don't know how this poison got in your tea, princess. Again.
I agree 100%. She's not a completely lost cause.
There's always a higher mountain, a faster gunslinger, etc. In this case, Luna's the better chess player.
I may not be the best person to judge, since that pretty much describes my writing style too.
I'd never heard of Victoria II so I just looked it up. Looks like an interesting game! Especially if you add ponies.
You're welcome! I requested to hear your thoughts, and your writing style appeals to my reading style. Worldbuilding and character interactions are more important to me than flowery prose and details like the color of the carpet in Luna's room (unless said carpet color is somehow important to the story later on).
10734120
Riiiight. :)
Aye. Well, I mean, depends on the particular Cozy Glow in question, given all the different character interpretations filling in what the show didn't cover in detail, but certainly it seems to be true of many of them. :)
Indeed. Perhaps not in every way -- and this Cozy is even managing to, apparently, deceive her Celestia -- but in, among others, the ways that are important here. And since one of the most important ones is the sheer depth of her experience, well, not really anything Cozy can do to take away or steal that advantage.
...I was going to say I hadn't noticed a problem with that in your writing, but, um. Yeah, so maybe on this point, we're possibly not the best test audiences for each other? :)
Ah, yes! I've not played it or worked on my mod in a while, but I had quite a lot of fun with it -- and, of course, thoughts spiralling out from things in the game itself continue, as this story illustrates. :)
(I played a game of Railroad Tycoon II a while ago, and I've gotten so much enjoyment, and some education, out of considering details of the operation of the Grand Canadian Railway far, far beyond the scope of the game. Perhaps not a way to enjoy it anticipated by the designers, but hey, fun, brain exercise, and learning!)
But yes, Victoria II can be quite a fun game; if you ever decide to give it a try, feel free to let me know if you'd like me to share a copy of the latest version of my fork of the pony mod. It was a much earlier version of the pony mod for the game that first got me into it back in undergrad... though come to think of it, I don't remember exactly how.
(I've played Hearts of Iron IV more recently, but despite the pony mod, Equestria at War, being again the thing that got me to buy a Paradox grand strategy game, I haven't gotten around to playing the mod yet. I keep waiting for updates, and of course I'm busy with other things... So far I've just played in Old World Blues and Kaiserreich.)
Oh, thanks. :)
Sorry I don't have more up for you to read, then.
10735793
This Cozy is older, more experienced, and perhaps now so solidified in her beliefs it might be impossible for her to change. Up against Celestia who is significantly older (and who will continue existing long after Cozy is dust), far more experienced, and quite possibly blinded to the bad in any of her little ponies. That bodes the question - is Cozy that good that she's fooled Celestia, or is Celestia turning a blind eye because she's incapable of thinking any of her little ponies could possibly be bad?
I'll quote myself from one of my most recent stories (You're The Inspiration):
I know my own shortcomings as an author, and I'm not above poking fun at myself.
My strengths are worldbuilding and character interactions/dialogue. The natural back and forth between the characters can mask the lack of details, and certainly provides a plot for the story. Overly-flowery prose can turn me off a story I'm reading. That obviously influences my writing style, and not necessarily in a way that appeals to the masses.
10739223
"This Cozy is older, more experienced, and perhaps now so solidified in her beliefs it might be impossible for her to change."
True -- but even if so, it's still possible that she might adjust the expression of those beliefs, still believing herself to be the best but seeing the cost-benefit analysis now pointing towards a different (and less destructive) way of showing that.
"Up against Celestia who is significantly older (and who will continue existing long after Cozy is dust), far more experienced, and quite possibly blinded to the bad in any of her little ponies. That bodes the question - is Cozy that good that she's fooled Celestia, or is Celestia turning a blind eye because she's incapable of thinking any of her little ponies could possibly be bad?"
Oh, interesting thought -- though in this universe, I think, definitely not in large part, at least, the latter. Celestia may certainly prefer to see things that way, but this Equestria's been through too much internal turmoil in the past few centuries, I think, for her to be fully blind unless she was disconnected to the point of some degree of mental illness, probably. At least she'd have to believe that ponies can be so misguided that they can act bad.
(But you are probably right that Cozy was significantly aided in her deception by Celestia wanting to see her in a good light.)
re the quote and context:
Hah! :D
"I know my own shortcomings as an author, and I'm not above poking fun at myself.
"
A very useful skill to have! :)
"My strengths are worldbuilding and character interactions/dialogue. The natural back and forth between the characters can mask the lack of details, and certainly provides a plot for the story."
That does seem like a trend in my writing here too, I've been noticing.
"Overly-flowery prose can turn me off a story I'm reading. That obviously influences my writing style, and not necessarily in a way that appeals to the masses."
[shrugs] I mean, Estee supposedly has a style that puts a lot of people off, too, but while I trust enough the sources I've heard that from to believe it, I don't see it myself in their work.
10739738
It wouldn't surprise me at all if Cozy's mind is a never-ending cost-benefit analysis that shifts constantly with the addition of new data.
This is how I've always tried to characterize Celestia too. A kind and benevolent ruler who truly cares for her little ponies.
Celestia had some of the least consistent writing throughout the series. At the time the series debuted, she was the sole ruler for a thousand years. You'd think getting her character right would be a priority, but alas, her personality was whatever the plot demanded it be that episode.
You won't hear me complain about that!
I've always liked Estee's writing style, personally.
10740846
Aye.
Right; that can vary from universe to universe too, of course, but it seems like not just a common element but pretty much a baseline.
...Though there is that too, yes. :D
Fortunately, that does provide more fuel for fanfic writers. :) Pick one and go with it? Multiple ones? Try to reconcile all of them? So many ways to take it and things to branch off from!
Heh, well, thanks. :)
Likewise. :D I mean, to the extent I notice it as a distinct thing at all, I think.
Though, funnily enough, despite being one of my favorite authors (and I mean overall), they're also about the only person on this site I remember downvoting a story of, waaay back when, on one of the first things, possibly the first thing, I read of theirs. I did leave a comment explaining my position, though, since I'm decidedly not in the habit of drive-by downvoting stories, and they then had a nice conversation with me where things were explained; I think it went pretty well. The downvote's still there, though, at this point in part for historical reasons.
(And my objection wasn't to style but events, even then.)
Huh, neat. Perhaps all the Alicorn Amulet does is bring out the inner demon of whoever wears it, just without the physical change as with alocorns.
11107184
"Huh, neat."
Thanks!
"Perhaps all the Alicorn Amulet does is bring out the inner demon of whoever wears it, just without the physical change as with alocorns."
Hmm. Well, I'd been thinking that non-alicorn ponies didn't have the sort of (now-)natural personal connection alicorns do.
But, your idea got me thinking: if some past alicorn was trying to rid themself of theirs, by imprisoning them in an artifact, the alicorn's power going with the demons sounds like a sort of trick that might be pulled. The alicorn gets what they asked for, at a cost they perhaps didn't, and the demons go from being tied to one person who knew to resist them to being tied to an artifact that lures with immense power, and all anyone has to do to be connected to it is put it on...
The funny thing is that one of the opening scenes is Hitch leading an expedition for "butterfillies" that look suspiciously familiar...
In any case, I love everything about this. Certainly more than the scenario the comics currently present. Thank you for it.
Neat stuff.
11332493
"The funny thing is that one of the opening scenes is Hitch leading an expedition for "butterfillies" that look suspiciously familiar..."
Ah! As I recall, I didn't have that consciously in mind while writing, but given that, now that you mention it, I think I recall that being mentioned in the inspiring blog post, and how soon after the inspiration the writing was happening, it seems plausible that had an effect without me realizing it.
"In any case, I love everything about this. Certainly more than the scenario the comics currently present. Thank you for it."
Oh, my, well, thank you for the praise.
And I do think it came out pretty well! Despite coming up with the content I came up with, IIRC, mostly while writing it, I think I found some good ways of explaining many of the observed oddities, while also having there be things Discord doesn't actually know about. No idea how Mysterious Shadowy Alicorn might fit into things as canon develops, of course, but this explanation at least has holes she might fit in.
11332827
Thanks. :)
Also, argh, looking back over this now, the typos I'm spotting, they grate... but I'm low on time now too, I do have the note there saying this is unedited, which I'd also have to change, and... eh. Maybe I'll come back and do that later.