Author's Note

I first broached the idea of a sequel to 'White on White' on April 24th, 2020, in reply to a comment. At the time, I figured it would be a one and done, two chapter clopfic follow up. I enjoyed writing the dynamic between Shining Armor and Rarity, and I wanted to catch up a few months later, maybe see where they were relationship wise.

The structure remained the same for the most part from that initial conception to the writing of the first chapter (Wrong). I was stuck for quite some time on the confrontation with Cadance. It just wasn't flowing right. It didn't feel natural. The main important piece of the narrative (that Cadance had always intended for Shining Armor to sleep with one of the girls) was the only part that really fit into the rest of what had come before. I got so frustrated that I even toyed with the idea of cutting the thing entirely. Instead of being interrupted, Shining Armor indeed gets his "post-workout snack," and then heads for the shower. Smash cut to after dinner, and he mentions seeing Cadance at the gym which would then lead to the conversation about defining their relationship and ensuing coitus.

Around this time in the writing process I started speaking to dirty little secret about his own upcoming sequel. I showed him the Cadance confrontation and he said it looked good to him. So I revised it for the umpteenth time and finally declared it 'good enough.'

(Fun Fact: DLS and I briefly flirted with the idea of releasing our sequels simultaneously. Given that he writes for a living and I... don't, this obviously didn't happen. Additionally, the fact that Flash Sentry and Sunset Shimmer are an item now comes, via a mention in 'Lily Lake,' indirectly from my story 'Surrender.' Meaning, of course, that I now have two separate EqG adult content universes. Bonkers.)

Valentine's Day approached and I felt the need to post something. Even though I had no timetable on when the next chapter would be done, I decided to go ahead and publish the first half of 'Wrong and Right.'

Fast forward to May, and thanks to some recent changes at work, suddenly I'm able to write more. A lot more. After finishing my entry into the Incest is Wincest's Mother's Day Contest (whose middling reception still confuses me, by the way) I decided to crack down and finish 'Wrong and Right.'

BLAM! I blitzed through that chapter. Halfway through I was astounded. I hadn't pumped out that many words in so short a time in ages. There was just one problem.

The story was telling me there was more to come.

A lot more.

This has happened before, of course. 'Lost in the Night' began as mere notes and was a finished story in two hours. I had no idea 'Kiss Me' would end with Mac and Cheerilee getting back together until my pen wrote the words. I knew how Cozy Glow and Flurry Heart's fight would end in 'Story's End,' but as to how the fight would go? I just let those two go at it with me as the reporter in the corner furiously scribbling notes.

The story told me that there was too much hanging in the cliffhanger with Twilight's text. This wasn't something that might wait for months, even years, until I was goaded into writing yet another sequel. This had to be told now. More than that, there were answers that needed to be found that weren't addressed in the original concept. Specifically; why was Cadance acting so differently?

It was halfway through writing 'Siblings' that everything clicked. It was like goddamn lightning. Suddenly I knew every single line of the next few chapters. I could hear the characters talking in my head. I'd find myself driving down the road and reciting entire monologues (especially Rarity's in 'Rivals.' I adore that "you want the whole fucking bakery" line.)

The words flowed out of me like a dam had burst wide open. What had begun as a simple, throwaway clopfic had ballooned into something more; a veritable soap opera of sorts. The best drama I'd written since the glory days of the Continuity. It was a joy to go to work, bang out a chapter with little to no challenge, then come home, do a little editing, and then just post it.

I felt like a real storyteller again. I was telling a story that I wanted to tell because I wanted to tell it. No contests, no requests. Just me and the written word.

Magic

Now let's talk about the elephant in the room; Cadance. Specifically my decision to combine Cadance and Chrysalis in the world of EqG and make one of my favorite characters into an outright villain.

It's been long established that before the portal got a significant uptick in use, there was little to no magic in the world of EqG. There were the Dazzlings, of course, but beyond them? Nothing. The natural follow-up to that idea is that if certain events paralleled in Equestria and EqG, how would they compensate for events that required vast sums of magic? In EqG, Vice Principal Luna obviously never became a moon monster and was locked away for one thousand years. So how would the universe balance the equation?

That was the initial thought that led to what eventually came to be. Since Chrysalis. Like most of the non-pony creatures, seemingly doesn't exist in EqG, then how could the events of a Canterlot Wedding come to pass? Simple; they couldn't. Not easily anyway.

For example, if you want to use standard EqG rules, you could tell a story wherein Chrysalis is a woman pining for Shining Armor who uses some leftover Equestrian magic to take Cadance's form and tries to steal him away on their wedding day.

For a moment, that was going to be somewhat similar to how things would play out in 'Wrong and Right.' Cadance was going to be infected by Equestrian magic, thus creating a separate Chrysalis persona (signified by the tattoo.) The only problem with that idea? It didn't feel true to everything else. If Cadance isn't in full control of her faculties, but Shining Armor was, then doesn't that make him the more guilty party in this whole situation? Wouldn't that change the entire narrative? I'd already gone to great lengths in 'Lovers' to justify Shining Armor and Rarity's relationship. Wouldn't it be disingenuous to just turn around and have Shining Armor go back to Cadance after all that? Or the flipside; wouldn't that make him just the biggest asshole if he stayed with Rarity after finding out that the woman he'd loved all his life had been corrupted by Equestrian magic?

Sorry, but I think I've had my fill of writing Shining Armor as the Prince of Sinners. I owed the old boy a happy ending for once.

Side note, but to all the folks who keep pounding the polyamory drum on these stories? It's not going to happen. Nothing against it, but I don't know enough about the lifestyle to accurately portray it.

Ultimately it came down to who this story was really about, and that was four characters; Shining Armor, Rarity, Cadance, and Twilight. If there was anything magically wrong with Cadance, then it would almost definitely need the appearance of the rest of the Main 7. Excepting the waiter at Tigano's and Timber Spruce, no character besides the featured four has a speaking line. That's to emphasize what this story's main conflict is.

'Wrong and Right' is a story of love lost and found. It's a story of forgiveness. It's a story of four broken people finding themselves again. You don't need magic to create conflict when the human heart is already so complex. There's not always a happy ending for everyone. Sure Shining Armor and Rarity got their happy ending, but they had to be tested. They had to be challenged. When Shining Armor breaks down at the end of 'Exes,' it's not just because he’s lost his fiancée. Cadance was more than that. She was his best friend, his everything. To find happiness with Rarity, he had to let go of a part of himself.

That scene, by the way, was another time where the story told me where it needed to go. Originally it ended with Rarity saying "Swell" and the two falling asleep (that dialogue exchange is lifted from "Jaws," by the way). But the story told me no. This is the moment where Shining Armor lets himself break. He wouldn't let himself cry in front of Cadance. He's got his shield up then. He can't allow her to see that softer side of him anymore. It's only when he's safe in Rarity's arms that he lets himself go.

Twilight is the least emotionally damaged of the four because of two factors; her youth and her still present introversion. I purposely made her more easily emotionally swayed than Rarity because of those two factors. This is a Twilight Sparkle still coming to terms with the ways of the world, and she definitely learned some hard truths in this story. Rarity might be just a little older, but she’s what some might call an ‘old soul.’

As with most of my better works (and yes, I do count this as one of my better works) I put a sliver of my heart inside. Cadance's reasons for cheating are much the same as my ex-girlfriend's were. We were fairly serious, and I was talking marriage. She told me that scared her and she fled into the bed of another man. I was crushed, not just because I saw the rest of my life with her at the time, but because she'd been my best friend before we started dating. The idea of this level of betrayal destroyed me, and I didn't have another relationship (excepting one notable but ultimately unfulfilling one night stand) until I met my now-wife.

Additionally, the moment where Shining Armor kisses the top of Cadance's head is a direct mirror to the final time I met with my first girlfriend a year after we last saw each other and we discussed where things had gone wrong between us. For years after, I wondered what life would have been like if I'd kissed her when she looked up at me. As the years have passed, I wonder less and less.

After I'd finished 'Right,' I made the choice to go back and remove the Porn tag from the story. 'White on White' is porn. This is not. This is something special to me now. Writing this was an experience for me. It reminded me of the joy of storytelling, and I'll be forever grateful for that.

On a final note, there is always the question of a sequel. In this case, I don't see any further visits to Shining Armor, Rarity, and their surely adorable puppy Gawain. I like that I've left them where their story began, together in a hot tub high in the mountains. I don't know how their story goes from there, but I'd like to think they still have many happy years together.

I put these two together, I put them through the ringer, and now I’m making the choice to leave them be.

It is, I believe, the right thing to do.

-Jade Ring
6-13-2021

Author's Afterword