To My Readers
I want to say thank-you.
Thank-you for reading this story while I was writing it. I think you all can guess where this is going already, so I'll cut to the chase. For now, I am done, completely, with A Stranger Among Them. I understand this was probably not what you wanted to hear. Or read. You're probably wondering why this was so. "Rytex, you were just getting to the good part of the story! Why stop now?" For a few reasons, actually, so I'll list them and elaborate.
1) As I was writing the story, I noticed that I started to lose interest in it. Part of that had to do with me writing it when Season 3 started to air, and part of it has to do with point number 2. and as a result, I kinda got distracted by the show's canon. It didn't really put too much of a dent in my plans for the story or anything, because after all, I could just go "Alternate Universe!" and magically wind back the clock to post-Season 2 and continue.
2) I got distracted by another story I have finished writing. At first, I only started writing this story for when I got tired of writing A Stranger Among Them. A little bit of creative stress relief, so to speak. After a few chapters, I just got caught up in writing it, and I decided that it could make a good story, so I fleshed it out and set to writing it. Once that happened, I just sort of dropped this one. Now, this story is not on FF Net (yet). It's actually on FIMFiction (same author name), and it's called The Apprentice, the Student, and the Charlatan.
3) As I continued writing, I noticed Flare never went through any development. From the start of the fic to the end where I had it planned, he didn't change. I mean, look at him in the beginning and compare him to the end, and really, all that changes is that he gets slightly less vulgar. When I write, I like to have characters overcome issues in their personality as much as in their world.
4) It really did sort of turn into wish fulfillment. Much as I hated to admit it while writing the fic itself, it really was wish fulfillment. Flare is a human in Equestria, he falls in love with Princess Luna, he lives in the Castle, yadda yadda yadda. Oh, and let's not forget he's black and red with a flame cutie mark. I've done better about that lately, and even towards the end, I was starting to shy away from this aspect of him, planning a gimmick where he would change his colors, but ironically, that involved even more wish fulfillment.
5) Straight up writers block. I hit the latest chapter, and I just ran out of ideas on how to get past that point. I knew where I wanted the chapter to end, but I just got lost trying to get there, and I had literally lost it.
Now, two more things.
1) This does not mean that I am completely abandoning this story. Who knows? I might decide to revise it, bring it up to canon, and then rewrite it in a much less wish fulfillment-y fic. However, seeing as how FIMFiction has an actual rating system, as opposed to this site which has none, I will be posting the rewrite there (assuming I ever do it), just to see how people like it, before I ever post it here. As much as you guys like it, I don't know how many people don't.
2) You guys deserve to know how it was going to end.
From where I had ended it, at the Grand Galloping Gala, I'll let you know how it was supposed to end.
Flare attends the Gala, where he and Luna have a dance. Tenebrae, the cockblocker, shows up, announces that he's threatening Flare to surrender to him by destroying Ponyville, and then flies off, prompting Flare to chase after him through the air. Cue aerial battle. Aequivalere, Tenebrae's and Lux's father, shows up to punish Tenebrae, and then alerts Flare to the fact that he is losing power and that sooner or later, Tenebrae will defeat him and destroy the balance that exists between him and his sister. Well, after a couple of months, Lux summons Luna, Flare, and Celestia to Tenebrae's castle, where they witness Tenebrae kill Aequivalere. End of Act II.
Act III opens with Tenebrae invading Canterlot Castle a week or so later. He banishes Celestia to the sun, teleports Luna away somewhere, robs Flare of his pony form and hurls him from the castle. Flare flies for several minutes until Luna saves the day by catching him with magic. A pulsing wave of magic flies from the castle, and it completely disables Luna's (and Equestria's) magic, prompting her to physically catch him. They take a headcount of the ponies that had escaped from Canterlot. Eleven Nightmares are accounted for (guess which one is unaccounted for), and they watch as Canterlot Castle is transformed into something dark (a la Johnny Rancid from Teen Titans). They fortify Ponyville, as they know Tenebrae will send armies of shadow creatures after them, which he does. Leading the charge is, surprise surprise, Nightmare Frigoris, having gone over to Tenebrae's side, since he believes that he is doing Luna a favor in getting rid of Flare. Flare and Frigoris fight, and Flare manages to drive him off, leading the armies to withdraw back to Canterlot and wait for another assault. Flare decides to take the offensive, and enlists the aid of Luna and Doctor Whooves (remember, he's part of the story too).
The Doctor takes them back to Earth, where Flare and Luna, in human form, head to Flare's old flat, where he gets his motorbike as a quick transportation to get from Ponyville to Canterlot via train tracks. On their way to the flat, however, they run into Rory (see Chapter 6), Ross, and Kent, who are drunk for some reason. In their drunkenness, Rory attempts to er... have his way with Luna, which prompts Flare to defend her using pegasus combat attacks. They quickly flee, get Flare's motorbike, and get back to Equestria. For want of a better weapon, Flare takes up a sword. With everything ready, Flare, Luna, Captain Squall, and the Nightmares all take off, following the train tracks to Canterlot. Flare is forced to drive further ahead. He makes his way to Canterlot Castle, where immediately, Luna is taken prisoner by Tenebrae, who taunts Flare to find him. Naturally, Flare goes looking. Before encountering Tenebrae, he encounters Frigoris, who he finds has been brainwashed. He manages to beat Frigoris by knocking him unconscious with a blow to the head, which breaks the brainwashing. He continues up to fight Tenebrae. Tenebrae taunts him for a time while holding Luna captive. Meanwhile, Captain Squall wakes up Frigoris, who knocks the captain unconscious and dashes after Flare. Tenebrae then fires a magic beam of death (literally) at Flare. Luna jumps in the way and takes it for him. Flare dashes to catch her in his arms while Tenebrae tries to fire off another one, but Frigoris knocks it off target. He proceeds to burn through Tenebrae's defenses with lightning magic, while allowing Flare to say goodbye to Luna. Luna has a sad, romantic goodbye with Flare before dying in his arms. Frigoris is knocked unconscious, but Flare leaps at Tenebrae in a bloodrage and throws lightning punch after lightning punch at him. Flare completely pwns Tenebrae, but Lux intervenes before Flare can kill him. She throws Tenebrae out into the far reaches of space, brings back Celestia, restores Luna, restores the rest of Equestria to as it was, and then vanishes again. Epilogue, special ceremony where Princess Luna appoints Flare as the captain of the Nightmares, on the recommendation of Nightmare Frigoris.
Once again, thank you all for your support when I was writing this.
Final regards,
Rytex
