Some notes about Mare In Motion and MLP:FiM Season 3

(12/8/2012) Today is the day Scootaloo gets her own episode! I am very excited about the chance to learn more about Scootaloo. What I'm afraid of is it is also the day that so many open ends and assumptions that make my story work can be completely undone.

I have been planning this story for over a year (since season 2 was in progress, and the general idea before it involved Scootaloo started even earlier). As soon as season 2 ended, I decided that this story would take place based off of what we know up to the end of season 2. For the purposes of this story, I am locking out further canon. Even if a revelation in today's episode helps the story, don't expect to see it show up. That means no Crystal Empire, no Babs Seed, and no rumored Wonderbolts Academy.

The fact that I will not be using any season 3 continuity for my story is not a statement about whether I like the season. So far, season 3 is impressing me greatly. The problem is all it takes is one tiny clarification or new fact about Scootaloo in any of a number of categories, and the story no longer fits canon at all. That's how heavily my story works off of what is so far unknown about Scootaloo. Even though my story still works with the canon so far, I'm leaving it locked at Season 2 so I can tell the story I have been planning and becoming emotionally involved in for over a year.

The episode starts in 12 minutes now... Time for me to enjoy a first-ever episode dedicated to my favorite pony!

Edit: BEST EPISODE EVER. It does kinda fiddle with Mare In Motion, but not nearly as much as I expected. I was afraid we'd see something that would put [SPOILER] and [SPOILER] out the window, like meeting [SPOILER] or [SPOILER] learning to [SPOILER]. This episode could technically happen during my story, but like I said, canon is locked for the story and nothing from season 3 will appear in it.

An apology to fans of Shattered Rainbow
I would like to apologize to fans of Shattered Rainbow and its sequel Picking Up The Pieces. A few of you have PMed me asking if there was going to be a third installment. I replied to many of these confirming that a third story, "Never Alone" was near completion and I would likely publish it soon. This was far too long ago.

I was telling the truth about having the story near completion, at least in some interpretations. It is fully written, but I am not proud of it. I was very disappointed in the overall quality of the story, and this is why I did not release it.

I did get it pre-read by a few friends, who helped me clean up some inconsistencies in Applejack's speech, but that was about it. It wasn't until I gave the revised chapters a read that I realized there was no useful character development, and there was no real point to the story. All the story does is answer questions raised in Shattered Rainbow that I originally wanted to leave up to the reader to figure out. All the answers I provided were through characters I hadn't taken time to build properly even in my own mind.

I decided not to publish it out of embarrassment, but I have changed my mind and will begin uploading the chapters of "Never Alone". If you are satisfied with the resolutions already given in the stories you have read, you may want to ignore this one.

This will be the third and final story in the Shattered Rainbow timeline. I am no longer motivated to extend on this idea and it was done to death before I tried my spin on it. I will continue to write, but the next story you see will have no connection to the events of Shattered Rainbow and will be a completely separate continuity.

Again, I apologize for stringing many of you along with hope for this story. I hope uploading it, even after this long delay, will prove to be a good decision overall.

-TuxRug

--Update: I have uploaded all seven chapters of "Never Alone".

My Little Pony:FiM -- Non-FFN favorites (These are stories I wish were here just so I could favorite them properly. Most are featured on Equestria Daily)

My Dream Mare by Lysis - I normally avoid shipping stories like the plague... This one is incredible though. Very tasteful, very emotional, and very well-done. Seems to have inspired at least one song, too (and I'm not surprised). If you like shipping, read it. If you don't like shipping, see my first sentence.

The Party Never Ended by ButterScotchSundae - Again, a shipping fic that defied my expectations. Very tastefully done, and with an adventure element as well. A few things struck me as off, such as a complete lack of M/F pairings, and one scene (only one) reminded me of why I don't usually like shipfics. Other than that, definitely worth reading. Warning: it drew tears in almost every chapter.

Painless by Anonthony - You can use colored fonts appropriately in a story? This is the first time I've seen it. This story offers an incredible look at the inside of a troubled mind. This one kept me up til almost 6AM on a workday (Luckily my shift starts at 1:30PM or I'd have had to call in). I'd call that a huge compliment.

My Little Dashie by ROBCakeran53 - Rainbow Dash in real life. WHY DID I WAIT so long to read this? I want to hug Dashie now. I'm tempted to squeeze the heck out of my cat right now.