[The Goddess Within] New Story · 6:08am Jan 9th, 2021
So as you can see from the November 27th publish dates, this has been sitting on the back burner for a long time. I am glad it turned out that way, though, because I think I have improved as a writer in the past month and got a better sense of what I wanted to do with this and how to put word together to make idea into other brain good.
Structurally, this is again a very strange story. It explicitly tries to subvert the expectation of an overall character arc by emphasizing the discontinuity between the Celestias in each chapter. At first I was hesitant to use this structure, feeling like I needed to shuffle things around to have a consistent rising/falling or falling/rising emotional arc, but then realized the disjointedness actually reïnforces the themes of helplessness in the face of a higher power, and helplessness in the face of mortality in general. It’s a flash character study of eight different Celestias on eight different deathbeds reflecting on the meaning and purpose of their eight different, if sometimes very short, lives. My only regret is that I did not spend more laborious time to get it condensed into eight chapters of precisely 500 words each, because I think that would have been pretty cool. Alas.
This story also let me cover several meta references and personal bugbears about the series, as well as a personal headcanon on how alicorns work, which was fun.
Also I totally feel like I’m cribbing somebody’s writing style for these posts about my own stories but I can’t figure out who or what. This isn’t how I talk in chat or in my narratives.
Ah, sorry the word count thing didn't work out.
"as well as a personal headcanon on how alicorns work"
Oh? Interesting. Well, you did drop some information on that, but I am curious for more details, I must admit. Obviously alicorns do not have to have beings like Nightmare Moon or Daybreaker present to exist, because Luna remained after Nightmare Moon was destroyed, nor do those beings appear immediately upon ascension, since Twilight didn't gain hers until later. And it seems implied that Cadance doesn't have one at all during the period covered here.
...Hm. And no idea about the writing style thing, sorry.