The Magic of Love (CANCELLED)

(ANNOUNCEMENT) Story cancelled

(This is copy-pasted from my Deviantart announcement)

I'm sure none of you are surprised. I made this decision nearly two months ago, but I couldn't bring myself to publicly announce it until now. I have decided to officially cancel my fanfic/fancomic, "The Magic of Love". I know it's a real bummer after only two comic pages, but I have my reasons, and here they are:

(Skip to the TL; DR if you don't feel like reading these paragraphs)

When I began this story in 2015 (I was only 15 at the time), I didn't really have a plan. All I wanted was to create a fluff story for my recently discovered OTP SciFlash (which I still referred to as "Human Flashlight" by then), have them share meaningful moments, and... well, I might as well tell you now: have Flash earn a magical transformation as well. Think of it as the 'Daydream' version of Fire Pit: he was going to have blue fire in his head, Pegasus wings, lightning powers, and the ability to summon a shield. I was so excited by the idea at the time that I didn't realize how silly the idea was in that concept. Heck, I didn't even realize that, in order to get to that epic ending I wanted, I needed a middle part!

2016 arrived. The infamous "Legend of Everfree" came out. I knew I wasn't the only one let down by Twilight's new love interest, so I just wanted to share my story, almost out of spite. I wanted to show everyone that Flash could be a better love interest for Twilight than Timber. I published the first chapter. Still without a middle part planned. Nothing more than a couple, VERY broad and vague ideas of things I wanted to see happen. "I'll just figure it out as I go". I was SOOOOOOOO naïve.

I figured that the story wasn't moving NEARLY as fast as I wanted it to. And not only because I had little time to write. I just... didn't have ideas of what to do with the story! And well... the silliest ideas began coming to me. Midnight Sparkle being a major plot element? Yeah, I wasn't planning that to happen at all when I started. I literally came up with the idea THE DAY in which I wrote chapter three. Originally, the only villains were going to be a herd of Equestrian Monster bugs (I called them Beetlebeasts) that only showed up until the very end. I am not joking about this, that was my legitimate plan. And now that I analyze it, that wouldn't have made much sense with the course the story is going now, is it?

I also was running out of ideas for them to form a strong enough bond that, when the time to fight the... *cringes* Beetlebeasts came, he would be strong enough about his emotions that the magic wouldn't corrupt him like it did to Twilight. I began to figure that their relationship, while pretty healthy, almost only had benefits for Sci-Twi, whose moral support was Flash. What was she able to offer him that would make him grow as a person? What could I do to give Flash character development and personality? How could I prove to the world that there was more to him than being effortlessly handsome and nice? "LET'S MAKE HIM A CLOSET NERD!" 17-year-old me thought.

I was going to have this whole meaningful and vulnerable reveal about Flash actually being REALLY into science, having being bullied as a kid because of it, having completely hidden his true passion when he came to Canterlot High, even going as far as getting bad grades on purpose and never wearing his glasses, despite the fact that he still needed them (and now I realize that this "brilliant idea" of mine was 99% ripped off of "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs", of all movies). He was going to be like "Oh but Twilight, with you, I can be myself, because I know you're not going to judge me, and that's why I'm telling you this", and she'd be like "Flash don't hide your true self from the world! Your friends will accept you the way you are, I accept you the way you are because I'm sure the true you is amazing!" Blah blah blah, their first kiss in interrupted, they go in and fight the giant bugs that came out of nowhere with THE MAGIC OF LOOOOOOOVE and then they win, Flash embraces his nerdiness, they kiss, the end. I didn't even stop to thing that I was essentially turning Flash into another character completely! Not only it's not necessary for them to share ALL their interest for the relationship to work, but also, just because Flash is a blank canvas when it comes to creating a character out of him, doesn't mean I have to disregard things that are already established about his tastes and personality in order to write someone that might as well have been an OC.