It's Not You They Fear

When I first started on this story, I really had no idea how much worldbuilding would go into it. Every time I ran into something else that works in our modern world, I needed a pony version. It started with MACH turning into ‘boom-by’, and then turned into all sorts of things. Here I have provided a list of OCs and their descriptions, Equestrian months, the Royal Guard phonetic alphabet, and table of pony scientific units, all with their human equivalents. Equestrian military ranks do not quite equate to any modern military rank system, but I have provided them all here anyways. All of this is provided in the odd case you care enough to look, or you want to borrow it for your own story. At the very end is my final author’s note for the story. And for those of you who don’t wanna read it, TLDR is ‘yes, there will be a follow-up story, if not two.’

Characters:

For the number of names and nicknames I give (and will be using again), here is a list of characters I use the in the story (grouped by category, rather than order of appearance). They will be described in the following format:

Name, ‘Nickname’, Gender, Species, Coat color/Mane+Tail Color/Eye Color/Hoof color (if applicable). If left blank, that character has not yet entered the story. And of course, if you recognize a canon name, that character aint mine.

Wonderbolts:

Tameless, Male, Pegasus, Brown/Black/Blue/-
Night Flyer, 'Buzz’, Male, Pegasus, Midnight Blue/Gray/Purple/-
Fleetfoot, Female, Pegasus, Pale Blue/White/Green/-
Spitfire, 'Spits', Female, Pegasus, Yellow-Orange/Orange/Brown/-
Soarin', Male, Pegasus, Pale Blue/Navy/Green/-
Rapidfire, Female, Pegasus, Yellow-Orange/Orange/Red/-
Double Dare, 'Iron', Male, Pegasus, White/Brown/Red/-
Twitchy Hooves, 'Twitch', Female, Pegasus White/Lime Green/Magenta/-
Aces High, 'Ace', Male, Pegasus, Yellow/Emerald Green/Blue/-
Valkyrie, Female, Pegasus, White/Yellow/Blue/Black
Sidewinder, 'Snake', Male, Pegasus, Tan/Brown/Black/-
Falcon Cry, Male, Pegasus, Brown/Gray/Blue/-
Skyline Spirit, ‘Spirit’, Female, Pegasus, White/Black/Blue/-
Endless Skies, 'getdownheredammit!’, Male, Pegasus Tan/White/Brown/-
Rainbow Dash, ‘Dash’, Female, Pegasus, Cyan/Rainbow/Purple/-
Eagle Claw, Male, Pegasus, White/Gold/Brown/-
Arc Thrill, Male, Pegasus, Blue/White/Yellow/-
Auroria, Female, Pegasus, Yellow/Blue/Green/-

Timberwolves and Guard Related: (Without later promotions)

Captain Dive Skyward, 'Dad', Male, Pegasus, Light Gray/Blue/Yellow-Gold/-
Lieutenant Shadow Wing, 'Hunter', Male, Pegasus, Pale Green/Navy/Gray/Almost Matte Black
Stable Sergeant Storm Crasher, 'Crash', Male, Pegasus, White/Gray/Blue/-
Sergeant Wild Wind, 'Chaff', Male, Pegasus, Black/Navy/Blue/-
Sergeant Razor Wings, 'Savage', Male, Pegasus, Red/Gray/White/-
Colonel Argent Fire, Male, Earth Pony, Red/Orange+Gray/Blue/-
Refract Ray, ‘Ray’, Male, ?, ?/?/?/?
Sure Splint, ‘Mama Wolf’, Female, Unicorn, Gray/Brown/Yellow/-
Commander Constant Vigil, ‘Goliath’, Male, Pegasus, Gray/Blue+Gray/Gray/- (Thanks for letting me borrow your OC, Tavor-212)

Musicians:

Riff Runner, Male, Unicorn, Midnight Gray-Blue/Blonde/Light Brown/-
Sable Scratch, Male, Unicorn, Brown/White/Brown/-
Vivace, ‘Viv’, Female, Unicorn, Red/Yellow/Purple/-
Double Kick, ‘Kicks’, Female, Earth Pony, Green/Purple/Blue/Black

Other/Supporting/Background:

Blazemane, Female, Pegasus, Yellow-Orange/Red/Brown/-
Shiny Platter, Female, Earth Pony, Yellow/White/Brown/-
Cracked Mug, Male, Earth Pony, Tan/Brown/Green/-
Ever Dark, Male, Earth Pony, Black/White/Blue/-
On Record, Male, Earth Pony, Brown/Tan/Blue/-

Months:

January - Wintertide
February - Iceglow
March - Greenwaft
April - Downpour
May - Blossoming
June - Aestatia
July - Sunfire
August - Summertide
September - Autunox
October - Sableleaf
November - Nivalium
December - Moonfrost

Phonetic Alphabet:

Autumn
Balloon
Cherry
Diarch
Element
Friendship
Glow
Harmony
Igloo
Jewel
Kumquat
Lemon
Moon
Nuzzle
Opal
Potion
Quip
Ruby
Sapphire
Tide
Uke
Vapor
Whistle
X-ray*
Yam
Zap-apple

*You have no idea how hard it is to find a word that is two syllables or less that sounds Equestrian, and doesn’t sound like anything that could be an objective or combat related. After going through a couple of dictionaries and only finding biology techno-babble, I decided to steal this one from the USA phonetic alphabet.

Table of Units:

Hoof: 4 inches
Length: Meter
Stone::kilogram
Toms::Newtons*
Flare::Joule
Flicker::Watt
Ray::Horsepower
Spark::Volt
Zap::Amp
Square::Bit
Cube::Byte

TBD
Magnetic Flux
Luminous Intensity

*Couldn’t help myself with that one. What? It’s named after a famous equestrian physicist, not a rock, I promise!

Equestrian Military Rank System and Insignia

You’ll notice there are fewer grades for each bracket. That’s because the Equestrian military is small, and promotions are much harder to come by. By this logic, E-3 in Equestrian rank is more equivalent to something like E-5 in the United States military, O-2 more like O-3, and so on and so forth.

Enlisted Grade:

(Buck) Private: One Star
Corporal: Two Stars
Sergeant: Three Stars
Stable Sergeant: Four Stars
Senior Sergeant: Five Stars
Command Sergeant: Six Stars

Officer Grade: Additionally, number of stars indicate grade (years rank has been held). Blank is Grade One, one star is Grade Two, and so on.

Lieutenant: New Moon
Captain: Crescent Moon
Commander: Half Moon
Colonel: Full Moon
Branch General: Half Rising Sun
General: Full Sun

Extended Setlist:

Format: Song Title, Artist, section of story applied to.
This is mostly for what I listened to when I wrote it and/or what I would have liked to add, but didn’t to avoid seriously over-musicing my story. If you’re the kind of brony that likes to read everything to music, this section is for you. Those chapters which I hand-wrote were mostly in class or in other situations where I couldn’t be listening to music, so there is no further track.

Chapter One

N/A
Chapter Two

N/A
Chapter Three

N/A
Chapter Four

N/A
Chapter Five

‘Warrior’, Disturbed, If the first song in-fic finishes

‘Undaunted’, Adrenaline Mob, see above note

‘Warrior’s Call’, Volbeat, see above note

‘Bulletproof’, Five Finger Death Punch, see above note
Chapter Six

I wish I could record each and every one of those songs they play...the last one I have written into a song, but only an acoustic version. If anypony is interested, I might record a campfire version of it?
Chapter Seven

‘Haze’, Device, Spitfire leaves for the theatre

‘You Think You Know’, Device, Spitfire argues with Shadow

‘Walk Away’, Five Finger Death Punch, After Spitfire leaves until they reach Olive Grove
Chapter Eight (all are for before the first text break, unless otherwise noted)

‘My Heartstrings Come Undone’, Demon Hunter

‘Silver’, Woods of Ypres

‘Shards of Love’ Woods of Ypres

‘4 AM’, Avenged Sevenfold

‘I Will Fight by Your Side’, Bagpipe Brony, While Flying to Base
Chapter Nine

‘The Warrior Song’, Sean Householder, Opening Quote

‘Eagle Claw Pt. 1’, Sean Murray, First scene

Assorted Metallica, Running to the kitchens

‘Aint Your Fairytale’, Sonata Arctica, Blowing cover and clearing the guard towers

‘Absolute Zero’, Stone Sour, barricading the doors and first rounds fired
Chapter Ten

‘St. James’, Piano cover by Dadebryant

Author’s Notes:

Looking back on all of this, and turning to look ahead, writing this story has been an amazing journey in my life. I started the first planning of this story a few weeks after finishing Field Training (boot camp), putting the first roots of it a solid sixteen months ago. For the two years prior to that, I was hell-bent on becoming an Special Tactics Officer, or STO (more or less the Air Force version of the SEALs). I had trained hard for it, but never felt at the bottom of my heart that is was the right thing. I always knew that if I managed to achieve that dream, I would be lonely, for there would be no time or place for anyone else in my life.

It was a sorrow in the bottom of my soul, mixing something that felt so right, and so wrong at the same time. Out of that was where Shadow Wing was born. Most people at first assume I was self-inserting with his character, and while there may be some truth in that, it is not correct. Shadow Wing is not me, but rather who I was afraid I would become. His nature is not wrong, and he is a good pony, but he was lonely, and couldn’t do anything about it. I diverged from the road that would have led me to him over a year ago. Now, I have a very special somepony who is the light of my life, and very soon a job as an engineer or a cyber officer.

When I started writing, this story turned into a practice of writing ‘show don’t tell’ for me, and my end goal was to avoid writing from the perspective of the main character as long as possible. And then it grew, and grew some more. I learned how to write with this story, and I’m sure it will be an ongoing process.

Getting in character was always a huge part of the story for me. I’m not a very emotional person on the best of days, so I had to trick myself into feeling like what the character should have been. For chapters one and three, I’d always work out before writing. Four and five, I wrote as much of it as I could while wearing my ABU’s. Six and seven were done while writing and recording ‘Solus’, and boy did it ever wear me out. Oh, and if you didn’t figure it out by the end of the story, this tale was meant slightly more for the military bronies. All kinds of little stuff in there that you won’t get unless you’ve spent some time in uniform.

Something I constantly got asked while working on this story was ‘Hey, what are you working on in that notebook?’ As noted above, a great deal of this story was done by hand. It was simply easier for me to do, being a full time student. I couldn’t always get away with having my laptop out, and it was too much of a distraction. Though, one minute while the teacher is bringing up slides, or five minutes while waiting for class? That adds up over a year. Chapters one through four were completely handwritten for their first drafts, and chapters five and seven were both half handwritten. On the flip side, chapters six, eight, nine, and ten were completely done on the computer. Don’t know if there is a difference in the end product, I just saw it as a way to get more work done.

I’d like to throw in words of thanks for the small host of people who did editing on a case by case basis. First words go to Fernin, who put up with my standard-issue mary-sue self-inserting crappy fanfiction long enough to edit my first chapter. Next goes to APC, for a really honest reality check on what I was doing with Shadow Wing as a character, and making sure he wasn’t called something much worse. Then there is my friend Jenny, for explaining to me that I really didn’t need to freak out over writing female characters. Much thanks to Spangle (come back we miss you) from FOB Equestria, for checking my first two chapters for typos, and egging me on to finish my work. And of course, to my girlfriend Beth (Ash-Sheathed Shadows) for her constant encouragement and typo checks, as well as her most amusing anger at Spitfire through most of the story.

A guy who deserves his own spot would certainly be Luke, who got me into fiction writing after I got home from basic. He’s the poor soul who put up with trying to teach me the basics of fiction writing (show don’t tell, sentence structure, etc.) when all I could write well were programming codes and engineering reports. He also put up with my pony addiction and even encouraged my fanfiction writing.

For Alex, who has been the best and worst influence in my life. He got me into the show, then the fandom, then listened to me narrate the first version of this story as I imagined it for three hours while we climbed Pikes Peak together. He was the one who somehow convinced me that he liked it enough that I should put it down on paper. So I did.

My editor, Dizziestbeef, has been a constant companion and friend through almost the entire work. Constantly off topic, tangenting to things such a military life, cool technology, complaining about everything in the world that _NTJ personalities such as ourselves don’t like...it’s been great. I know most people when they first meet him come running back to me and go: ‘Sage, your editor is a jerk!’ He’s not a jerk, he’s just very blunt, and very honest. Most people can’t handle that, but it makes him the most valuable editor I could have (and there to give some very pointed instructions on various life issues too). My fondest memory is of giving him the beginning to chapter eight, and seeing his message back on skype not thirty seconds later: ‘WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?!’ It still cracks me up how we met and got working together.

At the time, I’d just started on my position as a fan-fiction reviewer for FOB Equestria, and was meeting the staff. Also new to the fan-fiction department was Dizziestbeef, a young Air Force brony like myself, who I found to be utterly interesting. I somehow seemed to annoy him by my very existence, and was determined to figure out why. At the same time, I noticed his reviews were (by my standards at the time) very harsh, and critical, so I vowed to not allow him to ever find my fan works. This turned into a challenge, and I later wound up giving him the link. He came back three minutes later with a list of things that needed fixing, so I asked if he’d read over the whole chapter. He did, and the edits were great, so I asked him to do the next...and the next, and soon it became a constant thing. Now, we’re currently working on several projects, so the stories are not gonna stop, even if he is getting shipped all over the world soon. (And I’m still jealous you’re getting TDY to Antarctica you lucky jerk!)

Now, to address the question that every author gets asked (I hope I get asked this) if they write a good story. Yes, I am planning on follow-up works! The first one is a prequel, focused on key items in the backstory of Shadow Wing. I’ve currently got two chapters written, and will start putting it out soon. I also have a sequel outlined...but it’s somewhat different, and we’ll get there when we get there.

Bonus points if you figured out the joke about Shadow’s middle name, the allusion with the colors of Timberwolf Team, and that the Harley Flock Model Forty-Seven rifle was actually that ‘HAY-K 47.’ Also, the title of the story and the chapters go together for all but chapters nine and ten, with an implied ‘it’s’ in between. E.g. ‘It’s not you they fear, it’s your tough love.’

Hope you enjoyed the read, and I hope to see you all again soon on the next story!

‘red Sage

Dominic Allen Everson