A Walking Chestnut

by Netap

ATTENTION!!!

Author's Note:

Hello Readers of "A Walking Chestnut," This is your author speaking.
I am putting this chapter here to tell everyone that I will be discontinuing the story, and have no current plans on continuing it.

I believe that I have made several big mistakes in the writing of this story, and do not believe I have the talent to fix them while still keeping the story going, so I will simply be dropping this work.

It is a sad thing, seeing as I had an entire story and overarching plot, exploring the mystery of why the Human's became Pokemon? How they got to Equestria? Who the mysterious Pontiff is? What was the deal with the Legendary Pokemon (Only shown as Jirachi and Kyurem(Somewhat))? Will our MC ever get to go home? What does all of this mean for the nature of the world of MLP?

And the worst part, is that I didn't plan on it.
This story started off with me not wanting to write an MLP story, but a Pokemon story, with an original twist on the genre. I got the idea after reading several Humans turned Pokemon fics on this website, and foolishly thinking that my amateur writing skills could come up with a better story.
Personally, I do believe the story that I wanted to write is much better than most of the Pokemon fics on this site, but the product that I ended up with was so far from what I wanted.

It didn't help that this was one of the first stories I actually got invested in writing ever since I cleansed myself of the filth of writing Isekai Gamer/Power fantasies. Only to end up with a string of private messages and comments early on that called me an asshole or something for making the MC a Jewish person who's part of the IDF.

Personally, I do not find it offensive to make a character with a religious background or a nationality that some might find, how should I say this... Unfavorable?
I don't know, complaining about the MC not being a straight white guy #4421 seems kinda' racist... Just joking.

Apparently, I'm not allowed to write about Israeli people who are Jewish because apparently, it's too political or something???.
Personally, I do not believe making an Israeli character part of the IDF is in any way shape or form different from making an American character an Ex-Marine who went to church on Sundays.
People write stories about Soldiers all the time, but the moment that Soldier isn't from America/is from Israel, it's somehow too political.
Some might call it "Self-Insert"y, but the only things me and Sam have in common is that we're Dudes and we live in Israel.
If that was the case, every American Man in Equestria who is written by an American author is also a "Self-Insert" even though the author and the character have barely anything in common.
I just think it's a weird double standard, and luckily the people who wrote those comments stopped harassing me soon after.
(It's not cool to go to someone's PMs and call them a fucking moron for writing a character who isn't a perfectly sterile ball of basic fluff.)

I planned on having part of Samuel's character growth in future arcs be him coming to terms with his new lease of life, and the religious implications it would have on him since he grew up in a faithful house, until his brother died and his mother committed suicide, leaving his grieving father a mess and forcing Sam to grow up much faster than he would have wanted so he could take care of his father.
And wasn't that whole thing just a big fuck-up as well?

I didn't have big plans when I started writing this story, I only wanted to write something basic, but everything evolved from there and went to the shitter.
Sam became an angry edgy teen, The entire first half of the Caninia arc was such a drag that nothing happened, I started making chapters for bonus stories with Chandelure and Changeling because I wanted a chapter to come out but Didn't know how to write the next chapter.

It was all a mess.

Lesson learned, don't try to give an MC a backstory after you already started writing.

To cut this message much shorter, I'm dropping this story, it is being discontinued.

Maybe in the future, I will do a rewrite after I get all my plans in order and finish my other fics.
But until then, I simply don't find a reason to keep this story with the "Hiatus" tag.

If I ever do indeed make a Rewrite, I will probably change the beginning chapters of the story, Samuel's earlier characterization, and much more of the plot beats.
I really fucked this whole thing up.

I want to thank everybody who's read and supported this story up until now, And I apologize for failing to meet not only my own expectations, but yours.

Thank you all for reading this far.
One last :) for the road.
~Netap

EDIT: Even when canceled, we make it to the featured list GG 💪

Comments

[bonberjean]

Aww...

[Skyblazer9]

So sorry that you're discontinuing this awesome story and very sorry to hear that you IDF soldier is considered "racist" which in my opinion is totally baloney. *hugs*

[AliCentaur Br0ny]

Some people don't seem to understand that there is a difference between sharing and expressing religious beliefs and forcing them on others. Your character seemed to fall into the former category. Giving a character a religious background doesn't seem like a problem to me and can make the character a bit more interesting sometimes.

It's a pity that the story you wanted to write refused to be written. Good luck with things in the future.

[Netap]

11662445
Next thing you know writing a Unicorn OC is racial appropriation because they aren't Arabian enough.
Personally, I think it's bullshit, you should be able to write whatever you feel like, it's not racist making a character Israeli, or Italian, or British, Or American, like how the Human OCs in this story were.

If I made those characters as harmful stereotypes like giving the Sawsbuck crooked teeth, making the Torkoal only speak with "Mama Mia" and make the Lycanroc a redneck Hillbilly who f***s his sister, that would be racist.

But I didn't, Each of the Original characters that I added to the story were actual Characters, their nationality was used to enhance the "Mystery" Of how the Human's got to Equestria, since they all came from differents points in space and time, which only enhances the mystique.

Picard was a ww1 Field Surgeon who has participated in many wars during the late 1800 and early 1900 before retiring, his time in Equestria is mysterious on purpose.

Tony was an Ex-Mafia whose fiance was killed before the wedding as payback for leaving the "Family", now he spends his days in a cave thinking about life and what could have been.

Sam comes from a broken home and feels like he is obligated to return to the Human World, not because he wants to for himself, but because he feels like he needs to be there for his father, who is the only family he has left.

Even Jeremy isn't some random American, he's a Miner who fought during the Battle for Blair Mountain in 1921, making him a strong advocate of Workers Unions and Safety.

None of them are simple "Haha, Human is Pokemon, Funny Pokemon Haha" Characters.
One of the challenges I gave myself when Writing the Human's in this story was to try and actually make them Feel Human.

I wanted to give them depth, to differentiate from the cartoony pastel of the Ponies and Dogs around them, I wanted them to feel like the Only Real People in a Fake world, and their involvement will slowly make other characters around them also start to become more three-dimensional, such as the Workers Uprising in the Caninia Arc.

I don't think making human character be actual Human's is racist, but I guess if I try and expand their past pass the point of them not being Ponies, or them coming from Earth, I went too far.

And I simply find that kind of sad.
If I make the MC a Human, And then I add more Humans to the story, I want them to actually be Humans.
If the character can easily be replaced with another character whose only difference from the original is that they aren't Human, then I don't think you've done a good job making a Human in Equestria story.

If the Human can be replaced with any regular Dog, Deer or Pony, without it impacting the plot in any significant way, then why make them Human in the first place?

[Netap]

11662453
Thanks.
I never planned on trying to preach religious views or Anything, I'm not even religious myself.

And I agree.
It's one thing to write a character who happens to be Religious.
It's another to make that Character a mouthpiece to convey some sort of religious superiority over others, which Is something I will never write (Unless it's an obvious villain character who's doing so, in which case it's a way to build hate towards that one character by portraying them as a total asshat)

I don't intend to, and I never will try and force my own personal opinions onto others, be they political, religious, or even what Anime is the Best.
it's one thing to write a character with similar opinions.
It's one thing to share those opinions in a calm and respectful manner.
It's another to make it seem like any who disagree with the opinions are horrible pieces of crap, no matter if it's in the story or outside of it.

The entire point of Opinions is that there's not one single answer to what's right or wrong.
I think that Pepsi Max tastes better than Coca-Cola, others might agree, others might disagree, and there is no right or wrong when using subjective opinions.

[Orderly Disassembly]

huh, I was actually waiting on this one to update, guess I got what I wanted. Oh well, was fun while it lasted.

[RandomCommentor]

11662507
Same

[coopda]

I made some of the same mistakes doing a Transformers story on Wattpad.
I felt a story needed a sequel, made an excellent pitch to the author, got the green light, made 8 decent chapters, then I graduated class of 2020 with no ceremony and my structured procrastination fell apart as did my motivation (motivation separate from the other events) Shattered Ranks has been on hold and/or discontinued for years now, and I always feel bad about it but not enough to drag out the drafting documents.

[DatGuy1st]

11662558
It took me a moment to search your story until I remembered that's the story I read 2 years ago

Those were easier times for me so thank you for your work

[DatGuy1st]

I thought writing was easy and I can make a sequel to my "Unexpected Traveler" but I was wrong

It was difficult and lacking of details that made the reader imagine more. Definitely too straightforward.

Now, I'm not sure if I can make a sequel

[ShortCaveman]

Honestly release a lot of sense but you shouldn't really stop you considering it could also be argued that the ponies can also be racist but u do u and good luck on the rest of your endeavors.

[ThunderBasilisk]

Sucks that this is being discontinued but its understandable. See you in your other stories!

[LordOfHunger]

Honestly this wasn’t a bad story small room for improvement when it comes to story structure, but overall was a really enjoyable story to read. Hope you plan to write more in the near future.