New Fanfiction By Chris

Break Away: The Alicorn Amulet Collaboration

Cadance and Twilight have discovered something about the Alicorn Amulet. Whenever someone rejects its promises of power, it weakens the Amulet's magic. In theory, if enough ponies should be tempted by it and reject it, it would destroy the amulet forever.

They summon the help of volunteers from across Equestria, in the hope of destroying it for good.

*****

If you haven't been keeping up with cleverpun's collaborative project about various ponies trying to resist the Alicorn Amulet's lures... well, you should be.  First off, I'm in it, and my chapter's just gone up.  But also, there are a variety of authors, from the famous to the relatively new, who've offered up a wide variety of takes on the same core idea.  Collectively, they make for a fascinating range of interpretations, and with the collab currently under 20,000 words, now's a good time to jump in and start reading before it gets too long (don't worry, all chapters are already written).

So go click that picture/title above and read it!  And when you're done (or before, if you prefer), come back here and head past the break, where I'll talk about my just-published part in the collab: chapter four, the Carrot Top-centered Relevance.  Find out more about what I wrote, below.

A REAL Blast from the Past

The hype is real!  Go check out Logan's Carrot Top-centric fic reviews!

Over here, on the other hand, we'll be doing something a bit different from usual.  While helping my parents move some boxes, I came across a book I wrote in fourth grade.  I give you... The Magician's Apprentice!

As you can see, my art skills were "on fleek" from an early age

See, at my elementary school, there was this big thing every year where the fourth- and fifth-graders got to write a "real book."  The teachers would spend the better part of a month helping us plan and write drafts (at least four, IIRC--like I said, it was a big deal!) and stuff, and at the end of it, you got an actual blank hardcover book--sixteen 8x11 pages--on which to write your text and draw some art.  We spent time studying how real books looked, put in the dedications and "about the author" pages, all that jazz.  I was just getting on the D&D train at the tender age of ten, which probably explains the my story's fantasy bent.

Now, I didn't have more than a vague recollection of what I'd actually written.  So, for your reading pleasure, I've typed up the complete text of The Magician's Apprentice, presented with page-by page commentary as I read it for the first time in... oh, at least two decades.  Now, although the art is really... really something, I'm not going to take pictures of every page--you'll have to make do with the words.  Even at that age, I was a verbally-oriented person, so you aren't going to miss anything important anyway.  So without further adieu, enjoy a glimpse at what an overambitious young boy thought a quality fantasy story might look like, below.

Another New Fic By Me

A White Hearth's Warming

A young Sunset Shimmer, spending her first Hearth’s Warming in Canterlot as Princess Celestia’s personal student, comes to the terrible realization that there’s not going to be any snow for the holiday.

She decides to do something about it.

*****

That's right, the seasonal story I promised I'd clean up and post (you do read the above-the-review blurby bits of my posts, don't you?) is here!  I'm very happy with the way it came out, thanks in no small part to the excellent editing and advice offered by Pascoite.  Muchos kudos!

If you're interested in a short story about Sunset and Celestia's first Hearth's Warming as student and mentor, give it a look!  And please, let me know what you think, either here or in the story comments.  And, if you want to know a bit more about how this story came to be, check out my "how it got made" post on FiMFiction.  I hope you enjoy!

A New Story From Me

Relinquishing

On one day each year, Celestia and Luna turn control of the sun and moon over to a group of the most powerful unicorns in Equestria. Twilight is finally old enough to take part.

But she can't.

*****

This is the story I wrote for the Princesses Not Included minific writeoff.  I was planning to put it in my minific collection, but a funny thing happened when I started sprucing it up: it grew!  And eventually, it ended up over 1000 words (actually, it ended up close to 1200 words, but after I went back at it and cut out the dead weight which I invariably let creep in if I'm not judicious with my pruning, it was much closer to 1000).  And, since that put it over FiMFic's minimum wordcount, I decided to go ahead and publish it separately.

If you haven't read the story yet, give it a try if it sounds interesting!  If you already read the writeoff version, this one is fundamentally the same--the tone and purpose of the story hasn't changed, and there aren't any new scenes.  What's been added is mostly smoothing out dialogue, and expanding on why this event is so important to Twilight.

Regardless, I hope you enjoy, and if you have any comments or criticisms, please let me know!  Here or on FiMFic, I deeply appreciate quality feedback.

Twilight and Applejack at the Ponyville Cowcus

Today's the Iowa caucus, and in honor of that, I wrote a story!

...Well, "story" might be a little strong.  I wrote a 1500 word scenelette about Twilight learning a little bit about the ineffable wonders of representative democracy, firsthoof.  What's described is actually closer to how Iowa democrats run their caucuses, despite me using republican names (they make for better name puns, it turns out).  If that doesn't sound completely awful to you, check it out below the break!

A New Story from Chris

Even in Dreams

Everypony has dreams. Some dream of superpowers. Others dream of fame and respect. Still others dream of creature comforts, or of achieving long-sought goals.

But what sort of dream can stop the Tantabus?

Minific Stuff

On Sunday, I took part in a write-off event: write a fanfic under 750 words with the prompt "One Little Mistake."  Writers were supposed to have one day to work on it, but I ended up doing mine in about 30 minutes, and submitting it moments ahead of the deadline.

Go me!

Anyway, there are 21 total entries, which folks can read and vote on over the course of the next week.  Given that all the stories combined total about 15k words, that's not exactly a daunting amount of verbiage.  If you like reviewing, or if you've been looking for a way to try your hand at it in a low-stakes environment, why not try reading and rating these stories?

Also, if you're interested, I've got mini-even-by-the-standards-of-my-mini-reviews-reviews of all the fics here (and PresentPerfect's right below!).  This is actually the sort of thing that got me started on ponyfic reviewing--I used to make a hobby of reading and leaving a one- or two-line comment on every story in the compilation posts on EqD, because I felt bad that many of those stories never got any comments at all... and three years later, here we are.  Anyway, go check it out!

Wyrmlysan

Prophecy is a dangerous game; meanings which are obvious can become obscure in an instant, and fates are laid bare only in hindsight. 

After the fall of Discord but before the rise of Nightmare Moon, a dragon breaks the peace between his race and ponykind, and Princess Luna flies to mete out justice.

*****

Yes, I've written another story--and it's coming out only a few months after the last one!  I must be on some kind of role.

Wyrmlysan is my entry into Augiedog's Luna story contest, and my own take on the ambiguity of prophecy.  Like everything of mine seems to these days, it went through several incarnations (of varying but mostly minimal completeness) before arriving at its final form--a final form which, by the way, Pascoite was very much a part, coming through at the eleventh hour with some great advice and editing assistance.

Anyway, read the story here!  And if there's anything that stuck out to you (in a good or bad way (or both)), please let me know, either here or there--any feedback you have, I'd love to hear it.

A New Story from Me

To Make a Spark

The tale of Cadence's ascension to alicornhood.

That's right: almost a year after my last published fanfic (and after multiple "it's almost ready" false starts), I put a new story out yesterday.

I have quite a bit to say about the writing of this story, and I'll put it all into a big post on Friday... but for multiple reasons, I'd really prefer for you to read it before reading about it, in this case.  Well, for those of you who intend to read it at all, anyway; I can't exactly force you all to want to give it a look.

Still, if you do check it out, I'd love to hear what you have to think in the comments, here or on FIMFiction.  Feedback--positive, negative, or otherwise--is always welcome.  I hope you all enjoy!

An Old Story

I'd like to try something a bit different today.  No ponies in this post; they'll be back for Friday's review.  Instead, I'd like to look back at some of the time I spent writing LotR fanfiction.

My reaction to my old work is usually embarrassment--an acute awareness of flaws which seem glaring in hindsight, and a sense of disappointment for not seeing those flaws earlier.  At the same time, whenever I come across a bit of dialogue which I still like the mouthfeel of, or an emotional scene which I still think moving, I feel a distinct surge of pride.

So I thought: what would one of my old fanfics look like, if I fixed some of the more boneheaded errors and smoothed it out a bit?  Would it be something I could be less embarrassed about?  With this in my head, I went back to what I'd probably call my best complete pre-pony fanfic: The Entwives' Garden.  My goal?  To make it something I could be proud not ashamed of if I had first written it today, rather than a bit less than a decade ago.

In truth, most of what I did was fix boneheaded errors and smooth a few things out; the majority of the story I'm still remarkably satisfied with, and this project turned out to be more "editing" than "rebuilding."  Probably 90% of the original dialogue and narrative remains.  And, having exorcised that particular demon, I thought I would share the end result with all of you:

The Entwives' Garden

Merry and Pippen promised Treebeard that they would look for the lost Entwives when they were once again home.  Now, after peace has been returned to the Shire, Pippen seeks answers in the Old Forest.

A bit of fair warning: this is a LotR fanfic, and I doubt it will have much traction with anyone who's never read the books.  Even among LotR fans, it's a story about Merry, Pippen, and everyone's favorite Old Forest denizens... not exactly the world's most popular characters (people have no taste).  That said, within the context of being a LotR fanfic, I feel pretty good about it.  I don't want to spoil the ending, but I'm very happy with how I set it up and delivered it, and that wasn't something I changed at all in the revisions.  Not enough fanfiction uses preparatory quotes from the creator or source material--though perhaps I'd find it more affectatious with ponies than I do with literature.  

Enjoy, and if you have any comments or criticisms, I'd love to hear them.  Fixing up an old work was a new experience for me, but in this case at least, it's one I feel pretty good about.

A (Very Small) Bit of Writing from Me

The Tour de France is underway!  For three weeks, it's 6:30 am mornings (earlier on mountain stages!) full of rolling countrysides, grueling endurance competition, and some of the greatest long-form suspense and drama in sports.  I'll be chugging coffee on the couch while alternating between wishing I lived in a more convenient time zone and staring in rapt attention at the TV.  Who knows, maybe I'll even get a little extra fic reading done during commercials.

For now though, I've got a few bits of doggerel that I've been sitting on for a bit.  At one point I'd thought to do a bestiary entirely consisting of blunt warnings that horrible, horrible things happen to foals who go into the Everfree Forest, but I didn't get very far; I only put together three complete poems before I lost interest, and I haven't come back to them since.  Still, if you like simple poems (I envisioned the completed product as something Twilight might have checked out as a foal from the whatever-the-pony-equivalent-of-the-Victorian-Era-is wing of the library and read to herself, before locking herself in her room for a week so the Timber Wolves couldn't eat her), feel free to click below the break.  I put all three there, for you to peruse (or not) as you please.  As always, comments and criticism are great, but in any case, I hope you enjoy!

Plastic Men, or: Present Day Chris Reviews Middle School Chris

Having already written the blog post requested by Present Perfect, I now turn my attention to the one which WTFHIW generously bought through the Las Pegassist auction.  Here's the message he sent me:


On an article topic for you, Chris, how about this: Take a trip down memory lane by digging through your personal story archive and write a review of an old story of yours—be it years or even decades old—and take the opportunity to consider your own growth as a writer as you’ve both aged and gained more experience. The older the story the better, and if you stumble across one that you were particularly fond of back in the day but had practically forgotten, that’s better still.

Well, I found some of my middle school-era creative writing, and... well, let's just say it's a good thing WTFHIW paid up front and that I have a healthy sense of obligation, because I'm really not looking forward to sharing what I've unearthed.  Click below the break if you dare.

Another Story from Me

Going Up

This is the story of a very ordinary pony's extraordinary day. Carrot Top and Derpy are good friends indeed, and sometimes friendship can lead to wonderful surprises. It can also lead to arguments, frustration, and general grumpiness, of course, and this story has all of those things as well. But mostly, this is a story about the day Carrot Top learned how to fly.

You may recall me mentioning the Hearth's Warming Care Package a while back; if not, it was a fanfic-writing event for which the goal was to write a story for Kiki, a seven year old girl who's fighting cancer and who likes MLP.  This was my entry.

I'll spare you the suspense: I came in sixth place, out of 25 stories submitted.  Not what I'd call a terrible result, considering the quality of the other top entrants.  You can check those out here, by the way.  And now that the contest is over, I've posted it for all the world to see.

So here it is: my go at writing an irreverently whimsical yet sincere bit of friendshipping suitable for all ages.  If that sounds like something up your alley, why not check it out?  And if you do decide to read, I'd love to hear your comments, either here or on FIMFic.  Feedback, whether positive, negative, or otherwise, is always appreciated.

Update:  Now on Equestria Daily!

Believe It or Not, I Still Write Stuff Sometimes

Letters from a Senior to a Junior Changeling

A series of notes sent to a young changeling in the field by her superior, and a glimpse into the minds of a race whose views on friendship and love are at once totally alien and disturbingly easy to recognize in ourselves and those around us.

It's been a while since I wrote anything worth mentioning fanfiction-wise, but I've got a new story out, which I've linked to above.  I was a little hesitant to post about it here, as I don't particularly like excessive self-promotion (my own or other's).  But hey; what's the point of having a fanfic-centric blog if you aren't even going to mention your own fanfics?

Anyway, those of you wondering what my own writing looks like now have a chance to see for yourselves.  And in the unlikely event that anyone who frequents this site belongs to the "If you don't like it, let's see you write something better!" school of literary criticism, now's your chance to determine what stories I am or am not qualified to have an opinion about!

Okay, snarking aside, I hope you'll give this story a look if it tickles your interests.  And if you do decide to read it, I hope you'll enjoy.  Many thanks to Pascoite for his exhaustive editing/pre-reading/reviewing/whatever-the-fandom-is-calling-it-these-days, and to Nelvakre for letting me use the image above as cover art.  And if you want to comment on the story, feel free to do so here or on FIMFic; either way, I'd love to hear what you think.