Silver Glow's Journal, complete · 4:05am Mar 8th, 2017
The day has finally come, friends, when we must part with our favorite little pegasus, at least for now.
There are still some things that I have to say, but not now. Now my heart is still raw with saying goodbye; as many of you have, I, too, have traveled with her for the last year.
Just as she has changed, I think most of us have changed a little bit as we followed her adventures, and I'd like to think that we're the better for it. I know that I began reading poetry again for the first time in far too long.
Thank you, all of you, who have taken this journey with me.
I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.The last scud of day holds back for me,
It flings my likeness after the rest and true as any on the
shadow'd wilds,
It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk.I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun,
I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.
--Walt Whitman, Song of Myself
I have to admit, I fell behind a bit on account of your RABID update pace. Now I need to catch back up, but even without reading the final chapter I'm a bit choked up that it's over.
I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed Silver's story, and believe me, you'll be getting an earful when I finally do catch up
I kinda wanted to read this, but it has over a million words now... I don't know if I'll have time.
I'm in the same boat as Plotbuster there. Between writing my own long story and such, I've fallen behind.
Still, you deserve so much credit for crafting such a detailed, amazing story. When I have a chance to sit down and catch back up on Silver's journeys, I look forward to finding out how the rest of her year went.
Many kudos to you on completing this epic, daily project.
Who did the first image? That is sweet and I kinda want to use it as my avatar on this site.
So nobody dies of influenzapneumoniacancerAIDS, then?
I hold you onto this Admiral, I hold you onto this.
I understand why you put yourself a time limit (one year) but I can't really get why you had to choose a such "restrictive" universe for this story, that inevitable make it ending on a such sad note (I mean of Silver practically not going to earth or seeing her friends maybe even for all her life for what we know).
I can't be mad at you of course after how many times this story made me feel good or start the day on a warm note in a life full of hardships and stress.
Apart for that, I'm just gonna repeat what I said in the last chapter
Saying goodbye to Silver Glow feels like saying goodbye to a good friend. It's sad, but I'll hold her in my memory and my heart as one of the best things this fandom gave me.
Thanks Admiral for this little piece of warm and love.
4447615 If you look at the bottom of the picture, you'll se the word "source" highlighetd, it's a link that send you to the author of the picture.
Finished? Cool! Now I can start reading... holy cats! A MILLION words?!
Wow. Well... through calibre to the kindle... this may take a while.
I have sooooo many (over 100) chapters to catch up on.
Silver Glow was what I looked forward to during the most miserable year at my life at Ole Miss Law.
Thank you.
Whenever a thing ends I think of this.
I think congratulations are in order. It was always great knowing that I'd have a chapter of good pony fic to read in the early afternoon.
I'm looking forward to seeing your next project.
4447614 Mark me 3rd, but thankfully I have 2 short stories, that are on hiatus because the muse is lazy... but in the end I did ketchup to SG's journail, ending up suffering the daily dilly dailing...
but yes Silver Glow will be missed
This story was always my first to read when it was updated. (It was even better earlier, when I could wake up to a new chapter.)
I'm left wanting to write my own take on the concept, from the perspective of a pony in Equestria getting a human roommate.
This story is an amazing achievement. One story, published (nearly) everyday for over a year, totalling over a million words. But that would be meaningless if the story had no substance. Silver Glow has become a fully realized person to us with her own virtues and faults and reading her interact with others and experiencing life, learning, making mistakes and changing those around her has been a pleasure.
As well as a story it's also a travelogue of Kalamazoo and environs. I think there's quite a few of us that have been following Silver's travels on Google Maps. In addition, we've also learned about poetry, climate science, anthropology (yay!), astronomy, math, philosophy, thermodynamics and the Bible. I know I've learned a lot.
I hope you feel proud of what you have created and that you will revisit Silver and Co. in the future. For now, let me just say thank you for all the enjoyment that this story has given me.
I'm going to miss constantly correcting you.
Probably not going to be able to get to the chapter right away. It's going to be weird not seeing this update daily anymore (although hopefully I can start making progress on my read later list now lol). I'm looking forward to reading your other major fics once I get through my read later list.
Boy I'm going to miss this story. Even when the daily updates where late, I still felt like I lived along her. I really, really hope that you'll write a human-in-Equestria version.
One ride ends, others begin!
Through your story, Conrad introduced one last class to poetry[1]. That seems more than fitting.
As for yourself, a million words that are worth reading is a hell of a mountain to build. This is about the literary equivalent to completing the Badwater Ultramarathon. Congratulations, well done, and thanks for taking us on the trip.
[1] Have you or anyone compiled a poetry reading list from the story anywhere?
Well done. I have typed this filename over three hundred times, now, because of you.
My tablet never did learn how to simply update a story... And now, this one is complete.
After I finish the last few chapters, I think I may set out on editing it for errors, printing it out, and binding it to sit, physically, on one of my bookshelves with the sole other pony story I've enjoyed this much.
I was somehow hoping that you would keep your word on the "14 more" promise, so that I would not need to leave my final comment from a smartphone. Typing like this is hard, even more with that stupid auto corrector trying to change evrything with french words...
But what can we do?
And I still get to read one last chapter of Silver Glow. That still count as something positive in my book.
4447673
Same.
/) Chapter buddies?
Not nearly enough barbaric yawps in what I've read thus far. I can only assume you'll fix that dearth in the remainder.
But in all seriousness, congratulations. This was a truly massive undertaking, and you followed through to an incredible degree. Thank you for this, Biscuit. I'm surely going to miss the daily update from a pony who may just be my second favorite background pegasus. (And considering who she's up against, that's saying something.)
Oh where has the time gone?
Congrats for writing a million-word fic. o.o
Now to never read it ever. :B
Yes, and now to speed through it during my spring break! It's too bad, but all good things come to an end eventually
Ahh, still so much to read. I look forward to the rest of her journey.
The only story I could not keep up with all the time. I'm happy I still have some ways to go before the end :)
Just echoing what myself and others have said in the last chapter comments. Thank you so so much for this literary work art you've created. It is a story that will forever be in my heart and mind.
4447684
Whenever someone talks about Death, I think of this.
i.imgbox.com/u8vgK79Q.jpg
Death is not proud. She's peachy keen!
4447913
Just read it on your phone like I do, it'll only take a year or so to complete
4448202
My phone is not the sort that can connect to the internet. :B
4448315
Tablet story then
I'm scared of reading the ending.
4447608
It was a bit insane, wasn't it? I was crazy for thinking of it, and I honestly can't believe that I made it all the way through.
4447613
The best way is to take it one chapter at a time, or maybe two, in my opinion. Read it at the intended pace.
4447614
My RiL list got a lot longer over the last year, let me tell you. Found a bunch of stuff that looked amazing, but didn't have time to read it. Heck, I got Fawlty Towers for Christmas, and I haven't had time to watch any of that yet.
Thank you! And yay! Silver Glow had a good year on Earth, overall.
4447615
LINKY
(I tend to put sources in really tiny print under each picture, if I can find the original)
4447622
No, not even the angry man at Walgreen's (although he kind of deserves it).
4447625
Well, I liked the idea of an exchange student, and the opportunities and structure that afforded, which was most of why I chose that setting; and it also fit logically with the one year format. I think that in the future of the universe, Silver Glow will be able to get a visa and go back and visit her friends, perhaps even spend some time as a flight instructor on Earth, or work with the tornado team next tornado season. After all, she's probably got more experience with Earth weather than anypony else, at this point.
I promise you that it was immensely difficult for me, too. Of all the characters I've ever written, I've spent the most time with her by a very large margin, and a lot of times when I was writing it was like she was dictating the story to me.
4447665
Yup! I'm as amazed as anybody.
I personally suggest reading only a few chapters at a time; the story was meant to be read a piece at a time and not all at once.
4447673
It's worth it, but take it slowly.
4447684
<hugs>
I think that a lot of readers really enjoyed the stability of Silver Glow. I know I did--even though sometimes it was super stressful to hit a deadline, or find just the right poem, or any of the little things . . . but I don't regret a moment of it.
I had a few poems in mind, as well. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, The Old Whim Horse, and The Ballad of the Absent Mare, mostly.
Endings are hard, but we can always hope that they lead into a better new beginning.
4447695
For right now, it's going to be updating OPP and A Gift from Celestia and finishing Stained Glass, and I've also got my annual April Fool's story to write.
And after that, I've got another one-shot that's set in this universe, a little bit further in the future.
4447717
Lazy muse is the worst muse. Sometimes I've found that the best solution is to just write something else, to get the muse working again.
4447733
I always did want to get back to the morning schedule, but it never quite worked out. Mostly because whenever I got slightly ahead, something else IRL came up and I lost my tiny chapter reserve.
Oh yes, please do it.
4447738
Quite honestly (and I'm gonna go into more detail on this in the blog post) when I started out, I didn't know Silver Glow at all. So I was meeting her along with all of you.
And y'all have been really good at it, too; finding her apartment, and Aric's house in Lafayette, and of course all the things she saw on her flights. . . .
The really fun part is that I did, too. One of the things that had been on my bucket list for over 20 years was read the Bible, and now I have. And I found such a wealth of poetry, both on my own, and at the suggestions of readers.
I feel a combination of pride, relief, and deep sadness, and I don't know if there's a word for that. I'm pretty sure that there isn't in English anyways.
4447747
I'm going to miss being constantly corrected. Thank you so much! I know it's a lot of work to mark down all the errors in the comments, and I really appreciate that.
4447750
That's all right; it will be there when you are ready for it.
And yeah, it's going to be kind of strange not seeing it in the updates or the feature box . . . I wonder how many other people who'd noticed it are now wondering where it went?
4447798
At this point, I don't have any firm plans to write a HiE version (and if/when I do, it's not going to be a daily, because quite frankly that was madness). But I do want to do some more exploring in her universe, and so you'll be seeing more stories in this universe in the future, set both on Earth and on Equestria.
4447800
Exactly!
4448949 So.
About those Budweiser Clydesdales...
4447808
I think so. I think he really would have appreciated that . . . and it wasn't only me; there were people in the comments who introduced me to poetry and poets I never would have thought of.
I'm as surprised as anyone that it wound up getting that long, and that I was able to hit every milepost, so to speak.
No, although I wish I had.
4447827
I'm honored that you would! I'm still catching up on fixing typos; I'm about a month and a half behind. I'm hoping to catch up on the comments and corrections by the end of next week.
4447852
Technically, I think I said 'no more than fourteen.'
I was getting kind of fuzzy towards the end and counting was proving to be difficult.
My mom confuses gDocs all the time, because she translates on the side, from French, Dutch, and Norwegian. It doesn't know what to make of that.
4448937
That sounds like a fun way to do it, actually. A chapter a day?
4447883
She did come very close to it in one chapter. I won't say which one, because it's kind of a spoiler.
Thank you! Your first favorite is also on my Best Pegasus list, although I think that I perhaps like Silver Glow more, if for no other reason than how much time I've spent with her.
4447912
I know, right? I think for me that really started to hit in November (story time); all of a sudden, it felt like the year was rushing to the end at near supersonic speed.
4447913
But what if I convince some absolutely nuts reader to do a reading?
(There's literally no chance of that actually happening, since it would be an immensely long project)
4447918
4447922
Like most journeys, she has her ups and downs, and is a wiser pony at the end of her tale than she was when she began.
4447926
4447985
You're welcome!
Thank you again for helping make it good! I don't think that I could have done nearly as well on the Florida trip if it hadn't been for your suggestions.
4448087
Still my favorite graphic novels ever.
4448962
That was how it was written; one chapter a day for a year (and a few weeks).
4448955
Let me guess, you found some typos.
4448967 Baby, you know if I had, I would have said so.
No, I'm speaking about the sheer outpouring of "Gosh, I really desperately hope King Moriarty graces us with our divine sequel".
4448973
Oh, yeah. I am hoping for that. A lot of times I come up with good setups and then don't know where to go next, and if the muse is whispering to you I would totally love to read your take on the story.
4448979 Well, I'm currently engaged in the task of writing Principal Celestia as a warrior princess for a contest. Still, for the record, my original plan for a response to your gushing was to dub you my secretary and get you to do a bunch of leg-work in compiling a dossier of everything that could possibly figure into the rehabilitation of those horses. I decided against it on the basis that it might get perceived as bullying.
So, that should give you some hint as to the proximity of muses vis a vis my ear.
4448937 Of course it will be. Only reason I got so far behind was due the internet and computer break I did / still partly doing.
4448958
That would be quite a feat!
Your poor Gdoc, between you and pony-ism, equestrian and your mother...
4448962 just like an apple a day keeps the doctor away, a chapter a day keeps boredom away.
Try it, it is worth it and the best way to enjoy the fic.