Author's Note

So, what was all that about?

Here I'm going to steal yet another page from Schorl Tourmaline's book and end everything with an unedited cooldown explaining just what's been going on in my head this whole time. This is partly for you, to get a sense of where I've been going with all this, and partly for me as I try, well, work out where I've been going with all this.

The first Reign of Mares chapter was posted *checks watch* four years ago. It was a direct reaction to the Fall of Equestria universe - specifically, the more negative aspects of it - and was created out of a need to somehow balance out the universe by creating an equal opposite. What we got was not quite that, which I'll touch on in a moment. Largely, then, Reign of Mares comes from a place of... let's call it disgust. Disgust and a desire to transform that disgust into something positive.

I've touched on this before, but I don't actually dislike the Fall of Equestria universe - at least, not inherently. In the right hands - that is, hands that at bare minimum acknowledge that the caribou are the baddies - it can make for compelling stories centered around sexualized female submission. But other stories are written with what seems to be at least part misogynistic glee, actively reveling in the glorification of rape and violence against women. And look, I don't care if that's your fetish, there are some lines that you just don't cross in the name of good taste. That's the aspect of Fall of Equestria that I was actively rebelling against, whether it actually shows up in Reign of Mares or not.

So, if I consider Fall of Equestria at its best to be a horror story about sexualized female submission, then it follows that its spear counterpart would be about sexualized male submission. This is something which Reign of Mares explores, most notably through Rarity's segments, but on the whole the story took a different turn because of some fundamental differences in male and female sexuality. Basically, it's more difficult to rape a stallion than it is a mare.

By the gods, I am not saying that men can't be raped, let's not even go there. But the dangerously pervasive myth that men always want sex is one of the central themes of Reign of Mares, and the very thing that kicks the whole story off. In this story we examine various approaches to the "problem" of stallions being insatiable horndogs and their effectiveness or lack thereof. In that sense, instead of being a horror story about male submission, Reign of Mares is a horror story about male sexuality.

We view this story through the eyes of a "normal" stallion, with what seems to be a perfectly normal sexual appetite. Because of his sexuality he is made a pariah, seen as a potential rapist, and various attempts are made to determine whether he's safe to be around. The collar system is deeply flawed, as it paints every stallion with a healthy sexual appetite as a potential threat. Scanning minds turns up far too many false positives - we've all had some dark thoughts in our time. Next comes an attempt to "satiate" his violent urges, which leaves our hero weak, trapped and violated. Then he is cast away into a world of harsh labour and control, alternately beaten into submission or attempted to be converted to harmless homosexuality. Finally, his ravenous sexuality is fully embraced by mares, who use him for their own pleasure.

At the same time, Lucky has to accept that the mares kind of have a point. Rapes are happening, with seemingly normal stallions perpetuating them. Doing nothing is simply not an option. On his journey, Lucky sees plenty of evidence that stallions really are as sex-obsessed as mares claim, finding himself a party to would-be rapists and murderers, and deep down he wonders if he might be part of the problem. This is seen most in the final chapter, in which he muses over not feeling violated over his gang-rape by mares, then finally has sex with Coco and in doing so loses her forever. Lucky considers himself to be normal and healthy, yet it's his sexual desires that are the cause of every problem he has.

Ultimately, the conflict and horror of the story comes from the problem, found in both fiction and reality, that there's no reliable way to tell if a man is a predator until he acts. Everything the mares do is what seems to them a sensical and necessary precaution against those who would do them harm. Even Lucky himself toes this line, having sex with mares under questionable circumstances while considering himself morally in the right. While in his heart he's opposed to rape and violence, he still follows his penis when perhaps he shouldn't and is ultimately punished for it by losing the only mare he ever truly wanted.

As for the effect this has on the mares, you need look no further than the Mane 6 to see the hints of societal breakdown. Rarity and Applejack, the villains of this story, are both lashing out to disguise their grief at their careers being taken away from them. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie are overworked to the extent that they are incapable of having fun anymore, Fluttershy has turned from a sweetheart to a stallion-hating monster, and Twilight Sparkle... has been implied to have not come out of her palace in a long time, opening me up for a sequel if I ever decide to do one.

So, that's the premise. How do I think I did?

Well, ups and downs. The biggest problem with the story as a whole is that it's easy to read as an attack on feminism, which, no. It's not. The story begins to lose its structure toward its end, which makes a certain sense, given the massive breaks between updates. Honestly, I only finished the story just to get it over and done with once and for all, since I hadn't written anything in a while and this is, frankly, a story I don't care about very much so I didn't mind being rusty.

The structure of the sex scenes needs work. There are four main sex scenes sprinkled throughout the story, two of them interspersed with exposition and two of them crammed in right at the end. There's a conflict between sex scenes existing in their own right and exploring more of this strange and interesting world that I've created, and I think committing more to one over the other would have been to the story's benefit - either bringing the porn to the surface right away or letting more of it just be implied. As some of you have noted already, there's plenty more that could be done in this setting, and this was only ever intended to be the story of a single day. Plenty of plot hooks if I ever do that sequel that's probably never happening. I think on the whole I'm proudest of the middle chapters, when sex and exposition finally marry each other just before I dropped off the face of the earth for two years and completely lost my stride. Oh well.

For those of you who've stuck with me, hey, thanks for going on this journey with me. Ya weirdos. I'm open to suggestions as to what I should write next.

Yours unfaithfully,
enne