MLAABQ distant future preview · 10:53am Sep 10th, 2016
Alright, the poll is in with 33% against the idea and 66% in favor. So here we are, a blog-post with some-things-that-MLAABQ-is-probably-gonna-end-up-containing-and-some-things-that's-less-certain.
At first I was thinking that it might be a bit like a trailer, but a trailer is usually cobbled together from an almost finished product, so it might be more like one of those concept-trailers that game-devs put together so that everyone involved has a clearer image of what they should aim for.
I realize that this might make the story seem very adventure-like, but as I've stated before: We now have the first chapter in Part 2 of the story, which will mostly be made up of slice-of-life, with some foreshadowing for Part 3 in there. Part 3 is what I plan to be an adventure, so those of you who doesn't like adventure should be totally fine with the entire of part 2, and who knows how long that could go on?
I guess the reason why this seem adventure-like is that most of what seems to make my story work comes to me spontaneously as I write, and I'm finding it much easier to plan the adventure-plot points (maybe because I'm familiar with adventure-stories, so they kinda fill themselves out).
Oh, also, here's a picture of Gabe for those of you curious about how she looks (unhandicapped... 'abled'?). I've never felt the need upload pictures on this here internet since 2005 or something, so I don't know any good hosting-sites, but hopefully this one should work (cred to General Zoi):
*Dramatic words, single bass drum-beat, and cool-looking font*
We stood on a hill, overlooking a vast landscape before us. Some distance away, the unassuming plains we were standing on suddenly and abruptly gave way to landscapes of captivating beauty. There, beyond a border that it seemed like you could touch, the land and air turned so lovely that the there are no words to describe it with. The flowers grew in abundance, the air being filled with their tufts and petals, forming entrancing shapes in the wind. I felt a sense of great relaxation almost gnawing at me as i observed the fair gentleness of the softly rolling plains, and their meadows and brooks beyond.
“The Winsome Wilds. A place of danger and awe inspiring beauty,” the pony to my left said, and turned to me with a determined look. “You must be careful, and push on to your destination. A true philistine feels nothing in this place, but the rest of us are easily distracted by the naturally magical properties. The unwary will be distracted, and perhaps even find themselves trapped in a state where they might never wish to leave.”
I looked down at the beautiful landscape again. “Well, cynical thoughts then,” I said,.before steeling myself, adjusting my cloak, and simply nodding in determination. “Let’s go.”
*BANG!*
I looked up into the big eyes of the great, wisp-like shape in front of me. They looked both sad and frightened by my presence, and I couldn’t help but feel like I had kicked a puppy simply by being here. Despite his great size, he seemed to want to curl up and hide somewhere, and he looked at me with hesitation and worry in his eyes as he rubbed his smokey appendages together.
“Mmmwruu,” he somehow managed to slowly mewl with his deep voice. “You smell like… him.”
*Disorienting montage of action-scenes and explosions*
As I bent down and reached, a grey hoof touched mine just as mine touched the dropped quill. I looked up into the face of the grey-coated colt from before, the one who seemed to have trouble controlling his wings as I stood and introduced myself by Cheerilee’s desk.
His eyes were wide and his wings slowly unfurled as our eyes locked. If his face was a toaster, his cheeks were the heating coils.
I gave him a smile that probably didn’t seem very genuine.
Hmph! Well I think my new eyes looks good up close, I thought wryly as the colt finally whipped his gaze away from me.
*The villain loos smug despite being imprisoned*
I felt the familiar presence of my dream-benefactor, but this time I stood in the dark void of my dream realm, and actually watched his dark presence with unprecedented clarity.
He exuded a sense of both great calm and anticipation, then simply said, “It’s time.”
*Blue laser shooting into the sky!*
The hooves adorned in silvery sandals fastened my cloak around my neck, and made sure that the scabbard at my side was attached properly.
She walked in front of us and tried putting on a determined face, her entire being clearly heavily burdened from what she was about to proclaim.
“Your quest will not be an easy one. Your opponent is strong and cunning, and have all the wit and martial might of the great champions of old. And though I wish nothing but victory for you, I am burdened by what it will bring, for you are setting out to battle an extraordinary survivor of an extraordinary people. A great hero, my friend for so long, and the last of the Silver Phantoms.”
*BLAAAAAAARE!*
From my vantage point, I looked out over the plains beside Ponyville.
I walked up to the edge of the hill I was standing on, the music gently building up anticipation.
Locking my eye onto the lone cloud above and ahead of my, I widened my stance, and lifted up my right foreleg.
With an authoritative sound, the grappling-hook launched from my leg, its wire following tightly behind, and buried into the cloud as the music in my mind surged.
With a cocky grin of anticipation, I jumped off the ledge.
The music swelled as I sailed through the air, my mane and tail billowing behind me.
“Whooooooo!” I cried out in triumph as the music reached its crescendo, only for it to peter out as I started losing momentum.
I stopped, and started swinging the other way.
“Whoo?” I whooped uncertainty on the way back.
Pretty soon I can to a halt, hanging from the cloud, with my hind legs dangling a few inches above the ground.
I gave a few experimental shakes to see if I could perhaps move myself closer to the ground, but no dice.
I looked around for possible solutions, up at my leg with the wire sticking out of it, and around again.
After doing another fruitless jig in the air, I let out a sigh and deflated.
“Horseapples!”
*Cut to silence, then 'funny' quip from hero*
I had already been worriedly exhausted when I landed here, and the energy it took to walking through snow and heavy winds with the lower part of my foreleg being disenchanted and missing was taking a worrying toll.
At first I had felt great relief to find what seemed like a road, but I had no way of telling how far away from civilization I was. There were no lamps or sign-posts, no sign of agriculture that I could make out in the dark of night, just endless road across lightly forested foothills. Maybe it was just one mile to the nearest town, maybe it was thousands.
I tried my best, but there was no shelter, not even a bridge over a small brook. Just snow, darkness, a few trees and the occasional rock sticking out of the landscape.
I knew it was practically certain death, but finally, I let myself fall to the ground, and curled up. I knew it would help keep me warm, but what really worried me was that I couldn’t tell the difference from simply laying splayed out on the ground.
Maybe the wind will stop soon. Maybe dawn is just minutes away. Maybe one of these trees are dead and dry and lights up with almost no effort, and the pines have buds on them that I can eat.
… Yeah, and maybe I’ll see the ghost of Alec Guinness before a handsome space-rogue shows up and rescues me.
I don’t know how long I lay there, slipping in and out of consciousness, before I felt myself being gently rocked despite the numbness.
Okay, Universe, I get it. Drama happens to Twilight and her friends. They’re the ones who storybook-things happens to. You’ve hammered that home enough, but if this turns out to be a wolf gnawing on me, I will make sure that things will go harsh on you.
I reluctantly opened my eyes and saw the blur of a lightly lit room.
I was lowered into a bed, and a thick blanket was pulled up over me.
A blue hoof touched my cheek and gently rolled my face over.
There, I could make out the blurry form of a sky-blue alicorn with a silvery mane.
“Can you hear me?” she asked.
I slowly nodded.
“Do you have company?” she asked slowly and clearly. “Is there anypony else in danger?”
I slowly shook my head.
The alicorn let out a sigh of relief, before gently inspecting me. She reluctantly drew her attention away from my damaged prosthesis to look me over, before taking my metallic foreleg in her hoof again.
“Are you injured?”
I shook my head again.
I couldn’t fight of the fatigue for much longer, but that wasn’t any reason to not have a few more facts to ponder in my sleep.
“Who… who are you?” I managed to sigh.
The alicorn laid down beside me and put a wing around my blanket-covered form.
“You seem like the interesting one here,” she said and chuckled. “But we’ll handle questions when you’re in a state to answer them. For now, rest, and know that Bellatrix Lulamoon watches over you.”
And there you have it. You are very much invited to share your thoughts, despite when you read this blog-post... in fact, please leave a note. I put a bunch of effort into this post and I'm gonna feel like such a loser if no one responds 
Woo! I eagerly await whatever is to come. MLAABBQ has been one of my most eagerly watched stories.
Thank you for all the effort!
That OC colour, though. Oversaturation is kind of an eyesore. Still, that hair really is funky.
I skimmed over the preview because I'm afraid of spoilerers, but it seemed like the crazy shenanigans you'd expect in adventure stories. I can tell you had fun writing it. I think. Oh, and a lot of us wonder about that last tag. Some stories appear to be never ending.
WTB!!! Trixie becomes an alicorn?!
4202611 And thank you for the kind words. I hope It'll live up to your expectations
4202613 Hmm. Would lessening the color-intensity help? I'm using f.lux, so colors tend to look soft on my screen. I really like the color-contrast
I don't think you need to worry too much about spoilers. I tried making it so that it's all taken out of context, and very few details are included. The only one that reveals anything significant, I would say at least, is the one in the snow.
Is the story gonna be never-ending? Eeeh, well... I'm currently having a pretty good time with writing slice-of-life right now, and I'm gonna plan on sneaking in some foreshadowing and establishing some things for part 3, the adventure. Now, part 3 is gonna have a definite end, but it's not so bombastic that slice-of-life can't continue afterwards. So if I get more ideas about what Gabe can experience after her grand adventure, I guess I can keep writing some. So, the current planned ending: has a story. Anything that happens after that: No plans.
4202677 Or maybe she always was one
Keep reading (for a really long time) to find out. Or PM me if you want more spoilers
Little blue horse is grumpy about horrible haircuts.
...honestly, I'm not sure I have much to say about this. It's all so far removed from where the story is at right now that I have no idea how it might ever even get there. Some of it looks really interesting, but I also don't really have any more of an idea where the story is moving than I did before.
Does have some pretty nice comedy moments, though, not gonna lie.
You need to find an artist that can draw you a picture of Gabe sitting in a wheelchair and make it look good. I think I already said it before, but that looks like a bad oc. The colors are just all over the place.
4202970 You did say that you didn't want it to spoil too much, and that hairdo is awesome
I know how it's gonna get there of course, but revealing the scene where that happens would definitely be a spoiler. Let's just say that one or several of these ones might be fairly close to that, chronologically-wise.
I've never held it a secret about where the story is going to people who ask, though.
4203038 I did make a thread in the Art For Fanfiction-thread, but no one seemed interested. One guy responded with how a picture completely unrelated to the story would be interesting to draw, though
I'm pretty sure that when I sent you the hex for Gabe before, you said she looked cool, and those colors are supposed to be complimentary. Is it the colors period, or their intensity that's not appealing?
Edit: I also brought up in an idea for a cover picture in a previous blog-post, but again, no one expressed any sort of interest.
More edit: And hey, she kinda is a bad OC
4203091
I think you mean "complementary," not complimentary. In color theory, this means they are on the opposite end of the color spectrum - purple to yellow, red to green, orange to blue, that kind of combination. When combined, you would technically get black, in a "perfect model" situation, or white if you're talking about colored light. It's actually the color that it clashes with the most because of that.
4203108 Yes, that word. And I figured that would fit perfectly in Equestria. I thought they were nice, but hey, wanna complement your opinions with some suggestions?
4203123
Well, as a general thing, light colors as a base and offset by darker tones work best for this kind of thing. I assume you want to keep her blue, so I'd go for a lighter azure blue and make her mane the color her body currently is. The orange is still difficult to bring into there, but anything on the spectrum from light pink to dark blue-violet could work in combination with that, if you want her to have highlights in there. Green is also an option, but personally, I think green and blue is a bit too nature-y for her personality.
Maybe this one here for the body, or possibly even a shade or two lighter than that:
averyvinyl.com/images/A4562O%20AZURE%20BLUE.jpg
I'd say anything up to Rainbow Dash sky-blue works there.
4203133 I'm not a color-expert, but I figured that a cool blue could represent Gabe's pleasantly calm demeanor, while the bright and lively orange was still large and significant enough to show that her fairly prevalent fun side.
Making her mane the same color as her coat made her look kinda bland, though, but I'm gonna try messing around with the shades with what you wrote in mind. Good thing I still have the web-essentials for visual studio
*turns off f.lux* Agh! My eyes!
4203167
Yeah, like Qwazers said, it's really the oversaturation that kills it. If you're set on the blue and orange, try using pale colors instead of intense ones. The lighter a color is, the more easily you can make it harmonize with other ones. The typical pony in the show is kept in pastel tones for a reason.
These two here look way better next to each other, for example:
nonstopparty.co.uk/images/_lib/pale-blue-dinner-napkins-20s-10545-0-1392294923000.jpg
images.myperfectcolor.com/repositories/images/colors/MPC00045200-2.jpg
4203181 Okay then. I've started with keeping what you said about light bases offset with darker tones in mind, and brightening the coat kinda necessitated the darkening of the mane, yes.
I kinda wanna leave the current picture in the blog un-updated for now, for reference, but what do you think about this?: 112S000100383ED1FFC49D002017F00BAUN1837104000002F1E02D003321BF27107F3FCC004CB2
I think we're all familiar with the General's Pony Creator?
4203225
Well, I wasn't. I think that's already an improvement, I think you could've lightened it up a bit more. What do you think about this one? 112S0001004C79E0EAFE9E002017F00BAUN1837104000002F1E05B193621BF27107F3FCC004CB2
I left the blue highlights in her hair the same color. I think it works well in that combination, actually.
4203235 Well, I think the color found in the code in the post just above your was pretty easy on the eyes.
Kinda makes you wonder why she has that expression. Maybe Snips and Snails came into the library dressed as pirates, wondering why she's not dressed as one anymore?
4203238 4203248 It... it looks really good, but I'm kinda in love with the original hue. I'm probably gonna cave if you keep pushing for it, like a bad haggler, but I started with simply changing the saturation and brightness, and moving her mane-color almost to what wlam's suggestion is: 112S0001004A50FEFFC49D002017F00BAUN1837104000002F1E051193321BF27107F3FCC004CB2
(You didn't know the pone creator, wlam? You must've wondered where all of these fics on this site their so very similar-looking coverpics from
)
Edit: What's that movie where these guys are editing a film-reel, vastly improving it, and the director comes in and is really insistent about keeping it in the original way because he liked this minute detail about it? I feel like that guy
4203257
I moved the hue a little because her coat color actually goes slightly into violet and it doesn't really look good anymore if you make it any lighter, which is what I was trying to do. I'd say your also works, though. I prefer the other tone myself, but at this point, it's up to taste. The important part is that it won't make anyone's eyeballs melt out of their face anymore.
4203267 Well, I've updated the post. I always thought Gabe looked cool, but It's true that she's easier on the eyes now. Thanks for the help
4203285 Thanks
How about it? You must've liked the part with the eye-locking
4203293
Dreamy coltsEdit, Wait! I don't think that emoticon was very fitting to that.
Dreamy colts
4203303 Oooh! I hadn't thought about that. I'm making a note of that
4203288
4203267
You two programmers going on about art makes me think of that Dilbert strip where he decided to become an graphical designer, and after Alice looked at his work the doctor gave her six months to live after a lethal dose of bad design.
4203324 Real artists use General Zoi's Pony Creator, that's true. Also, Gabe looks great!
And I'll have you know I've been praised for my CSS-skillz.
(I thought wlam was a chemist
)
4203324
Chemist. I changed fields a few years ago. I paint a bit as a hobby, actually, although I use oil pastels, not digital art tools. Couldn't say I'm very good at it, though.
My mind is filling in the blanks already. Looking forward to part 3.
4204588 That's good. It sounds like it's retained some element of excitement despite you knowing the general outline
Now I just hope that I don't build up the anticipation too much.
WOOOOO!!!
4205236 Were you expressing your excitement over the story, or were you whooping to cheer on Gabe as she's sailing through the air?
4205415
...
....WOOO!?
4205466 Both, then
We need an Owlowiscious emoticon
Gabe looks like she is about to hurt someone. Probably Spike... he probably set something on fire or hers or something.
4270386 Twilight: "Alright, Spike, be careful with this thing. This is a technological marvel from another dimension. It is absolutely unique to this world, and if we can harness its potential, we could help launch Equestria into a new golden age."
Spike: "Cool... *BUUURP!*"
Gabe: