The funny thing about liveblogging is that it's harder than it looks beforehand. Settling in and binging a chapter of a great story is one thing, figuring out how to comment on it without doing a full play-by-play or reducing it to a paragraph of bullet points is another (to say nothing of the increased time to block off) and folks like Pannic
and Seraphem (among my inspirations for this venture) deserve a great deal of credit for doing so, especially in the face of stories they would rather not read in the first place (though that may help in a way
). I had originally planned to follow up HT with a couple other doorstoppers on my read list, but my focus soon shifted to just getting through this one and leaving it behind.
And then, I resumed another story which I had set aside for a year, one which occupies an odd middle ground of being somewhat well-known but not at the level of the fandom "classics" usually discussed here and easy for a casual fan to miss. I had left it not out of apathy but, oddly enough, because I was getting so curious where it was going that I didn't want to rush it and go back to other (self-imposed) obligations- and, eventually, because I was certain it couldn't actually match the anticipation I had let build up of just how crazy/intense things might get. Only I found the crazy was still building after all, and I still didn't want to rush it... in short, it was just fun. And I decided I wanted to share.
So, don't worry, I'll get right back to HT. But I'm also going to take anyone willing down another rabbit hole. Starting with a backstory that eerily paralleled Equestria Girls very shortly before the latter actually happened, then going off its meds and turning into a self-lampshading revenge tale that may or may not be quite Shakespearean but definitely wants to be, and introducing possibly the most hilariously delusional villainess to grace the page, I give you Scipio Smith's Vengeance of Dawn.
The first chapter is basically a prologue, mainly a glance back at the day of Twilight's exam and cutie mark. We peek in on Twilight's hatching attempt and Shining Armor worrying about her during guard training, but mainly introduces the character of Breaking Dawn, Celestia's current pupil (and yes, that was deliberate), who rather prefers carousing and roughhousing with her cronies to getting her work done but has never been called out for it thanks to the Princess's favor. Of note, she is also part of a familiar-looking circle of six ponies whom she believes are destined for greatness, though the others are only blurs just yet and only one (Razor Wind) is named here.
Meanwhile, Celestia is in a quandary, having started Dawn well down the path to the Element of Magic but now sensing Twilight's potential instead (hence the dragon egg test), and having needed to act decisively to prepare for her sister's return. If she's wrong about Twilight, she figures, little harm done and she can arrange for Twilight to take the standard exam some later time. But if she is right, and was instead wrong before, there are a lot of wrongs she won't be able to make up for....
We know how this ends, of course, and Celestia flies off to deal with Twilight's sudden magical surge (after keeping Shining and his fellow guard from rushing up themselves, and as Dawn finally hurries back to come to her mentor's aid). We know this is the beginning of Twilight's journey to friendship and greatness... but now we also know it was not without cost....
