What should I write next? · 11:44am Mar 31st, 2016
So, hey. It's been a while. Recently, I published two new fics, The Devil's Dues and A Word With You, My Friend? Both of them got an okay reception, but neither of them really exploded like my duo of Discord dark comedies did a while back. Not surprising, but it does highlight the fact that people aren't always necessarily interested in what I write. Well, since I've now cleared out most of the stories that I was close to publishing, I had a thought. What if I let my followers decide what I publish next?
Below the break, I've listed the description and some extra details for everything I have in the works right now that is reasonably solid and which I'm unlikely to throw out. Most of these already have snippets written for them, but not all of them. I'm putting it up to a vote. Take a look at them, and tell me which three you'd most like to see me do next. Now, I can't guarantee that the winner is actually the one I'll next release, because my muse comes and goes as it pleases, but this will at least give me an idea of where people's interest is.
Oh, and also, no votes for already published ongoing stories. I'm aware of how long it's been since some of them updated. I don't need a reminder. They'll get updated when I'm ready to write them.
The King Machine:
It's a disorienting thing to wake up somewhere unfamiliar. Waking up in a crashing airship over a distant foreign city is worse. And after all that, well, the amnesia is just another problem among hundreds, isn't it? This is Daylight, where the sun is bright, the ponies are angry, and the violence is downright gratuitous. Currently embroiled in a civil war after the death of its resident god-king, Daylight has become the number one place to avoid for anybody who isn't a mercenary or crazy.
But it's also a really nice summer vacation spot, so what's the harm in staying a while?
This is the new version of Secopolis, which I wrote about my plans for previously. It will also be a sequel to Agent Redwood. Redwood is going to take the role that Meticulous Planning played in the original version. The premise is that she shows up in Daylight, this city in the pony equivalent of Europe in a country called the Valley of Eden. The city is tearing itself apart after its king, Lord Second, recently died under mysterious circumstances. One faction wants Lord First to succeed his father as the new King of the Valley, and the other faction wants to abolish the monarchy altogether in favour of democracy, because Lord Second wasn't exactly a popular king. Equestria gets involved, of course, and everything somehow goes downhill from there. I envision this story as a light-hearted action-adventure, but I'm not sure yet whether it'll be an outright comedy or not. And yes, Silver Vein and Third will also be in this.
Careful What You Wish For:
No description available.
Okay, this is a sequel to Just Dodge! I don't have a final description yet, but the gist of it is that it's an alternate timeline sort of deal where Lyra actually manages to work out a legitimate means of beating Discord's game and tricking out the Elements of Harmony. When they return to the present, Discord makes good on his promise. Lyra, having gone completely crazy in the course of playing, wishes to become a master of chaos herself. And from there, everything goes horribly wrong. This'll feature a lot of time shenanigans as well, but it won't be a comedy like the original. It'll be more of a character drama.
No Rest for the Wicked:
On the Day of Discord, a creature returned to the world after a long exile and caused great chaos for many ponies. I wouldn't know anything about that; I wasn't there when the worst of it was going on. Months later, he was in the news again, free once more, but they say now that he's an ally. They say that the great and mighty Discord has given up on his evil ways, and now serves only the common good of Equestria.
They're wrong. Discord is here with me now. Every day he torments me, and he will not stop until I'm dead and rotting.
This story is inspired by old fanfics written around season two, back when canon was still vague enough to support the fanon interpretation of Discord as a total irredeemable monster. It's basically one big love letter and send-off to that fanon villainous Discord of old, and as such, it's dark. I'm not kidding. The plot is that Discord follows a random guy around for months and tries to see if he can drive him to suicide. So if you like radical reinterpretations of canon, or you're nostalgic for those old kinds of fics, you may like this.
Something Cosmic:
Twilight and Discord are a long way from home, and have to journey through a realm of madness and chaos to get back to Equestria. Fortunately, this is Discord's speciality, so Twilight is in safe hands. Less fortunately, all the local gods want him dead.
This is a straight adventure story with Discord and Twilight, obviously, and it's very heavy on the worldbuilding. It's set in the Borderworld, which most of you probably know by now takes heavy inspiration from Norse mythology, and our two heroes are here adventuring through the Nine Realms together. Along the way, they fight all manner of gods and monsters, learn things about themselves and each other, and make decisions that will have great consequences for the larger world around them. Human fans may also like to know that Sliske of Seven Hundred Souls is a minor character in this one.
Subject is Sedated:
No description available.
This is set in an alternate timeline where Chrysalis was captured by the Equestrian Intelligence Service, the agency that Redwood works for, although Redwood isn't the protagonist. The story is about the EIS experimenting on the changelings and trying to discover how they work. So it's got a lot of changeling worldbuilding, but the main thing about this fic is its format. The story is told entirely through journals, reports, logs, internal memos, and letters, and is almost just as much about the inner workings of the EIS as it is about the changelings. I also have plans for a sequel to this one which will be a much bigger, more epic story, spanning all of Equestria, but I'm not getting into that before I get this one finished.
On the Road:
On a lonely road in the lands between the territories of the Three Tribes, there is an old inn that sees not much custom. One miserable night, it hosts an unintended meeting of three ponies.
This is a character piece about a unicorn, a pegasus, and an earth pony, who run into one another in the middle of nowhere and finally have a chance to let out all their bottled up anger. It's essentially a story of how the Three Tribes viewed each other, and why it is that they hated each other so much before the windigoes showed up. But it's also a story about these characters in particular, and their own frustrations with themselves and the world around them. Lots of shouting in this fic. Lots of conflict.
Ragnarok:
Before alicorns lived in Equestria, they lived in Asgard. Before the reign of Princess Celestia, there was the reign of Odin. Before we knew of Discord and the Tree of Harmony as they are today, we called them Loki and Yggdrasil. And before everything else, there was a war. It was a war for all the heavens above and all the Earth below, and it ended just as the old legends say.
A dragon came, a kingdom fell, and chaos reigned...
Another Borderworld worldbuilding fic based around Norse mythology. This is simultaneously an interpretation of the love poison tale from Hearts and Hooves Day, an origin story for Discord, a prequel to Something Cosmic, and a lead-in to the Reign of Chaos. It'll be a pretty grim and downbeat fic, but I don't yet know how violent or bloody it will be. That's still up in the air, because there's multiple ways I could play this one.
The Warlord:
Equestria is gone, nothing a dream of the past. What once was a bountiful land is now a realm of madness. However, in the absence of order, ponies will try to create it. In the northwest, there is a petty kingdom, a place known as the Greenlands, from whence rules the King in Green. He is one warlord among dozens in what remains of Old Equestria. He tries to keep the peace in his region, fighting the chaos from within and without. He will fall. It is inevitable.
The question is, who will be the one to take the crown from him?
I can't say much beyond the description without spoiling this one, but as you can see, it's set during the Reign of Chaos, and it's about one pony's futile quest to rule a kingdom in an age where kings are eaten alive. So it's worldbuilding stuff again.
When in a Wasteland:
In a land ruled by chaos, the mad can thrive. One particular mad pony navigates this ruined world with a purpose. He intends to find the Lord of Chaos and kill him, for he desires revenge. Not an uncommon sentiment in Equestria under Discord. Except that this pony does not seek to avenge his fallen kingdom, nor his lost family. It is the loss of his teeth to sugary rot that spurs him on.
As far as the other mad ponies are concerned, this is perfectly reasonable.
Another story set in the Reign of Chaos. I'd describe this one as a dark random comedy. It's about a bunch of crazy people coming together to do insane things in a time when the whole world was mad. This is a oneshot, and will feature Discord, as well as one of those chaos cultists like the one from End of Empires, if you ever wanted to see more of that guy.
Brothers Quarrel:
No description available.
A oneshot slice-of-life about Shining Armor's first meeting with Spike after Twilight brings him home. Probably the closest I will ever come to writing a "feelsfic."
In the Cold and the Dark:
The Frozen North is a barren land, devoid of life and civilization. Nothing lives beyond the Crystal Mountains either, as far as we know. Yet despite this, the Royal Guard have kept a constant vigil here for generations. Even stranger, the rail companies have just finished constructing an entire train station out here, in the middle of nowhere, supposedly under orders from Celestia herself. Among the guards, there are whispers. What does the Princess know that we don't? Why are we out here, and what are we watching for?
We weren't ready when he returned.
Sort of a horror fic? I guess? It's about Sombra's initial return, and what happened to Royal Guards who first encountered him before word got back to Celestia. Not a gory story, but still a dark and creepy one. The feel I was going for was "atmospheric and unnerving." If you like The Winter, you'll probably like this.
The Universe is Doughnut-Shaped:
No description available.
One of the two in-progress stories I've got listed on my user page right now. This is a oneshot comedy story featuring most of the protagonists of Human (Sliske and Mystic are not present, but the rest are all there) in the Borderworld. They just meet up one night just to catch up, talk about life, and share their thoughts on things, because they're already friends who know each other in this universe. It's very much the style of humour that their group had in Human, at least in terms of their interpersonal dynamic, so if you liked them in that story, you'll like this one.
I Am the Doctor:
Ever since a particularly traumatic experience as a foal, the Doctor has fought to make sense of the world around him. As Ponyville's resident mad scientist, he lives what would be deemed a quiet life by his neighbours, but it wasn't always that way. Looking back on a long life, the Doctor recalls a time when everything was so much louder. There was a time, in his youth, when every day was an adventure, and every adventure was an opportunity for discovery.
In moments of nostalgia, the Doctor remembers that life. He lived his dream. He owned the stage.
A Doctor Who crossover, obviously. But this isn't the "time-traveler in a blue box" Doctor. This is canon Doctor Hooves, from Slice of Life, and it's his life story. In this fic, he's an earth pony scientist who happened to live a really long time due to reasons revealed later in the fic, and he was born a few centuries ago. Third Celestial Era, in fact. We see him go through history, witness important events, and take part in them, all while meeting interesting people and having adventures of his own inspired by both classic and modern Doctor Who, with an appropriately Equestrian spin. Less aliens, time travel, and advanced technology, and more monsters, alternate dimensions, and powerful magic. Sliske and Explodey McGee will also be in this, and maybe other characters too.
Van Helsing:
No description available.
The second of the in-progress stories on my user-page. Van Helsing was originally published a while back, but I pulled it for revisions. The new version is Borderworld rather than Humanverse, and takes place in the highly religious Second Celestial Era, which is about two hundred years after Nightmare Moon. It's kind of a crossover with the entire vampire mythos, and with plenty of influence from others sources as well. The primary inspirations are probably Hellsing Ultimate and Bloodborne. Our premise is that in this era, the monsters that formerly made up Nightmare Moon's army are running rampant, and it's not safe to go out at night. To deal with this, Equestria has badass monster-hunting specialists to go out every night and kill them. Van Helsing is one of many hunters, but uniquely, he actually has a hunting cutie mark. The story is a biography of Helsing, with each chapter set during a different period of his life, showing his rise and fall, and the changing nature of Equestrian culture over that period. Heavy on the worldbuilding and character exploration, but also, be warned, hands-down the bloodiest story that I will ever write. This is definitely getting marked mature.
Old Souls:
With every death, the soul leaves its old life behind to find a new one. Old memories are forgotten, all debts are forgiven, and all grudges are settled. When a soul is born anew, life begins again with a fresh start. This has been the way it is for as long as life has existed. And yet, it seems that the old system has broken down. One terrible night, everybody in the world shares an experience that will change society forever.
There's a flash of light, a brief cry of pain... and then they all remember everything.
Kind of a what-if story, and the concept is obvious from the description. I don't think I need to say much more on this one.
Ruse Cruise:
No description available.
Okay, Ruse Cruise is a random comedy. The idea is basically that a whole bunch of major characters, both heroes and villains, all get together for a ride on a cruise ship. Shit goes down, everything goes out of control, the ship is endangered, and nobody has any idea what's going on. The feeling that inspired this one is "total chaos." I don't know if this will be in the Borderworld or not, and it may or may not be a collaboration with KitsuneRisu. You should definitely pester him to work with me on this either way.
The Adventures of Grandpa Hobson:
After his grandson writes a shitty self-insert fanfic and is somehow magically transported into the world of Equestria, cane-wielding professional curmudgeon Elijah "Old Man" Hobson finds himself obligated to follow in after him. His mission? Get that boy back home before his parents return. His obstacles? Back injuries, oblivious locals, and those most heinous of people, the homosexuals.
A tale of generic wish-fulfillment for grumpy old people.
Did you like When Suddenly a Manticore...? Well, if so, then you may like this. It's basically another parody of HiE conventions, about a racist old guy traversing Equestria and having an adventure. What more do you need?
Doing Good or Doing Well?:
Or, Captain Goodguy V Mare-Do-Well: Dawn of Potatoday.
A crossover that nobody asked for.
Funny story. Rissie and I made a bet a while back about what would be the worst part of Batman V Superman. Rissie said the gratuitous Justice League cameos, while I said Lex Luthor and Doomsday. I personally thought Luthor was indeed the worst part of the movie. Rissie disagreed, but he said that Doomsday was the worst, so that's still a win for me. The loser of this bet was meant to write a fic about Doomsday going to Equestria. Rissie's writing his right now, I think, but I liked my idea so much that I may write it anyway. It's set in the Mirrorverse from Reflections, the Equestria ruled by the good King Sombra, and it's about Captain Goodguy (alternate Discord) as Superman, and an OC Mare-Do-Well as Batman. They fight for stupid reasons, and then Doomsday is there, as a giant potato. Because Doomsday looked like a potato in BVS.
I Who Stood Before Gods and Demons:
Who is Abacus Cinch? Her vanity nearly drove two worlds to the brink of destruction, yet she thinks nothing of it. The existence of magic didn't faze her. Her student becoming a demon right in front of her was a momentary distraction. Knowing she was responsible for it brought her no guilt or remorse. Even now, waiting in an alien court, she thinks only of maintaining her dignity and reputation as she prepares to meet royalty.
In one world, Abacus Cinch stands as an equal before Celestia. Now she meets the true Princess of the Sun.
I don't think this one needs further explaining. It's a story about Abacus Cinch meeting Celestia. It's a character exploration piece. I think Cinch is kind of a neat character. You may disagree, but hey-ho.
World War Discord:
Or; How an Actual Human vs. Pony War Would Go if Discord Came Along to Screw Up the Whole Thing for Both Sides.
...Again, I think this speaks for itself.
Well, there you go. I'll now open the floor.
And a reminder: You have three votes, so if you want to list more than one, I encourage you to do so.
Something about the title of Subject Is Sedated just sticks with me.
The warlord and On The Road both sound really interesting. If I had to pick one, though, I'd say On The Road.
Either In the Cold and the Dark or any of your Norse-themed ones sound awesome!
I vote for "I Who Stood Before Gods and Demons."
Man, I was scared until you said we have three votes, all these sound awesome soooo:
Something Cosmic
On the Road
I Who Stood Before Gods and Demons
Potatoday In Equestria
3839000
You still gotta write yours tho.
No Rest for the Wicked
Something Cosmic
The Universe is Doughnut-Shaped
DO 'EM
49.media.tumblr.com/82f80e322af52917ee5ee47317e3f6dc/tumblr_mu11rxS7g01rb5pqfo1_400.gif
Careful What You Wish For
The Warlord
No Rest for the Wicked
All of them sound good, but these stood out to me.
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I kinda just looked at what sort of thing other world-builders focused on and then variously either stole their ideas or came up with an alternative if I didn't want to steal those ideas for whatever reason. And I guess I also partially tailored the worldbuilding to the kind of stories I wanted to tell. Like, for example, part of the reason why Borderworld magic works the way it does is because I was thinking about doing a Dark Souls crossover, so I got to thinking a lot about how magic and souls work together.
There was also a lot of rewatching the show and re-reading comics to pick out small details and extrapolate from them. Like, for example, did you know that it's technically wrong to ever ponify Romeo of Romeo and Juliet? Because it is. Twilight jokingly refers to Spike as Romeo in a season one episode when after he encounters Rarity. So un-ponified "Romeo" is canon. Right now, I'm gradually rewatching the first three seasons in attempt to figure out a coherent timeline that actually fits every pre-Twilicorn story into the space of a year, as the show claims is the case. It's going about as well as you'd expect.
...Man, I swear I had a life at some point. I don't know where it went.
I liked some, I disliked others. But since I have 3 votes my picks are:
Something Cosmic: While I like worldbuilding fanfics, I like it through the perspective of canon characters
I Am the Doctor: Doctor Who fan, what else can I say?
World War Discord: It comibines my two favorite themes (Human War and Discord)
Old Souls, Something Cosmic, and World War Discord
Old Souls, World War Discord, and I Who Stood Before Gods and Demons
In order of urgency:
The Adventures of Grandpa Hobson
Ruse Cruise
The Warlord