[Normal] Luna! Instant-five-stars, more like.
Author: Mr. Jack
Description: The evil force that created Nightmare Moon was purified by the Elements of Harmony, but dark magic is not so easily erased. A tiny fragment still remains, banished within the Everfree Forest, and it will do whatever it takes to get Princess Luna back.
The Lingering Nightmare Part 1
The Lingering Nightmare Part 2
The Lingering Nightmare Part 3
The Lingering Nightmare Part 4
The Lingering Nightmare Part 5
The Lingering Nightmare Part 6
The Lingering Nightmare Part 7
The Lingering Nightmare Part 8
The Lingering Nightmare Part 9
The Lingering Nightmare Part 10 (New!)
Additional tags: Long, Magic, Villain, Drama, Symbiont
235 comments:
Please don't rush it, but I love this and want more. Couldn't help thinking of this story when watching season two, how each pony corrupted and had to find themselves again.
ReplyDelete@Sun Ray
ReplyDeleteBecause Noctis is so unlikable.
It says so in his file. Unlikable. Liked by no one. Very formal. Very official.
I'm 15 pages into part 11 at the moment. I took a break from writing during the new Discord episodes so I could see if they would reveal anything I would need to take into consideration, but I'm back now. I don't believe it will be as long as part 10 was, but it's a bit early to tell. If it came between making it really long or making it seem rushed, I'd go with the former every time. I'm still expecting to get this done faster than the last part, though. As it turns out, writing for Trixie is a lot more fun than writing for Gilda (though I do still adore Gilda as a character).
ReplyDeleteMan things got taken up a notch in this last update. 40 hours isn't a whole lot of time when you're talking about Armageddon. I'm interested in seeing in how the Stranger get's whats coming to him and how the Mane six are reunited.
ReplyDeleteIf there are any artists following this story who might want to take a crack at drawing a new image for this page, I would freely encourage it. I'm not demanding it, of course. With or without an image I fully intend to release part 11 when I finish it. I just feel like the picture up there no longer fits the tone of the story and I can't draw for crap. I won't take it personally if there's no interest, though. I just figured I'd throw it out there.
ReplyDeleteI'm currently 25 pages into part 11. It would be more but I had some wicked writer's block for the past few days. Thankfully I'm over it now. It's probably gonna end up being another really long one, though.
Mmm, I'm fascinated by how it's gonna turn out for Gilda and Trixie. I can't see life being very good for them after what they've done, short of them getting a Big Damn Heroes moment to redeem themselves. And even then.
ReplyDeleteBeen checking this page daily just in case it updated without me knowing. I think the desire for an update has crossed the line from "want" to "need" at this point. This is honestly just a fantastic story with an epic plot. I just can't wait for the conclusion.
ReplyDeletetl:dr Would sacrifice left nut for an update
So, confession time. I know it's been a long time since the last update and there are probably people who think I'm being lazy or have maybe even stopped entirely. I haven't. I've been working on part 11 nearly every day.
ReplyDeleteIt's just really hard.
I already have the story planned out and I know WHAT I'm going to say, but I have become a total perfectionist about HOW I'm going to say it. I have literally deleted and rewritten the same pages over 20 times because I want to get them exactly right. Right now I'm pretty much like Rarity making a bird nest during Winter Wrap Up. I'll finish it eventually, that much I can guarantee...it's just a matter of when.
We don't think you're lazy, we just think you're slightly sadistic...I kid.
ReplyDeleteWork as long as you have to in order to make the story live up to your standards. Take as much time as you need. Just check in every once in a while so that we know you're still there. That's all I ask.
This story was one of the first fan fics I read when first getting sucked into this fandom, and Luna was emerging to be my favourite pony.
ReplyDeleteThat said, can't wait to see the conclusion to this amazing story.
It's been over a month since we've heard from you Mister Jack. How are things?
ReplyDeleteI'm still working on it but I'm sorry to say that the stress of the holidays and a few other things has seriously kicked my OCD into overdrive and I haven't really made much progress so far. I keep rewriting certain parts because I am getting really picky about the phrasing and word choice. Honestly, it probably wouldn't even bother most people if they read it, but I just notice these little patterns or imperfections that bug me and it compels me to do it over from scratch. As I said before, I already know where I want the story to go, that's not the issue. I have a detailed outline written out and everything...but I'm struggling to meet the extremely high standards I've set for myself.
ReplyDeleteI haven't abandoned this story. I can't stand leaving things half-finished so it's gonna get written one way or another. Christmas is just a bad time for me psychologically and it slows me down.
@Mister Jack
ReplyDeleteS'all good, mate. Just remember, we'll be waiting... Waiting to completely devour your story in a yummy smoothie of literature awesomeness... That just begs the question, "Will it blend?" Cant make a smoothie if it won't blend... Maybe a literature awesomeness granola bar? Literature awesomeness loaf? I dunno, I'm running out of ways to devour your story. Maybe I'll just read it.
So glad to hear it's still being worked on. Honestly this is one of my favorite fics. I even broke my do not read until complete rule.
ReplyDeleteBut the anticipation.... It burns!!!!!
Hello Mister Jack. How are you this fine new year?
ReplyDeleteNow that the holidays are over I finally have time to work on this again. However, it might still take some time. I'm about 25 pages in and I'm sure anyone who reads this knows that I tend to go into the 60+ range lately.
ReplyDeleteAfter I finish the first draft I go over it again myself, doing several rewrites in the process. Then I show it to a pre-reader, make any changes they suggest if I think I should, read it over again myself, and THEN I actually submit it.
I do admit that this particular chapter has been quite a challenge because it's fairly heavy on action, and that's hard to write. I'm hoping it will be worth the wait, though. Let's just say I'm planning on part 11 to be a very great and powerful chapter.
@Mister Jack
ReplyDeleteI saw what you did there...
Glad to see that you still haven't gotten tired of writing this. I can only imagine how difficult it is to go through all the work of creating and editing a story of this size. Just know that we appreciate the effort you're putting into it.
Funny story...Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying has the same image (or very VERY close to it). It was the picture used for the story updates for tonight, and I thought that you had miraculously finished this in 4 days. The disappointment I felt was crushing when I realized that it wasn't this story. Don't get me wrong, "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying" is a good fic, just not as exciting as this one.
Once again, I wish you luck with the crafting of this masterpiece.
Hey there
ReplyDeleteJust checking to see if you're still with us Mister Jack
Yeah, I'm still here. Some personal issues have kept me from being able to work on this as much as I'd have liked to, but I'm still at it. I know it's been quite some time and it doesn't exactly make me look good to take this long, but I haven't abandoned it, nor do I intend to.
ReplyDelete@Mister Jack
ReplyDeleteThat's fine. It's probably better that it hasn't come out in the last 2 weeks because of finals and all. Ip hope those personal issues resolve for you.
Birthday on the 19th. If somehow you could magically make it come out that day, I'd probably piss myself with excitement. I'm kidding of course, take your time. As long as it eventually is completed with the quality of writing you've put into the first 10 chapters, I'd be willing to wait many more months for the epic conclusion.
Checking once again on ya Mister Jack. We have not heard from you for over a month. Doing alright?
ReplyDeletePaging Mr Jack. Paging Mr Jack. Code blue on this story. Needs CPR to keep it alive...
ReplyDeleteI will provide in-progress updates as they come on my progress. However, I do think I will pause until the season finale on the 21st. I feel like I had a lot less trouble with my writing during that long gap of time where there weren't any new episodes coming out to adhere to.
ReplyDeleteSorry if we seem a bit impatient Mister Jack. It's not that we are unappreciative or demanding, it's just that we really don't want it to die. There have been a lot of good fics that have died before they could finish (The Sun is Tired, An Old Mare's Tale, Tooth in Mane, and to some degree Memories of Days Long Past). I loved all of those, but they were dropped. I know you've promised to keep this one alive, but you can probably understand our antsy-ness despite that fact.
ReplyDeletePlease do not be put off by the fact that we are continually asking for updates. We just don't want to see this story die. I'm sorry if I or any of us have come off as ungrateful for your work.
I suppose that you folks are owed an explanation as to why this chapter in particular is taking so long.
ReplyDeleteOn top of not nearly having as much free time as I did when I started this, there is another hurdle I came across. I made up an outline for this story a while back, plotting out all the major plot points in advance so that I'd know where I was going. However, as I was doing this chapter, I came to realize that a certain direction I was going in worked better in an outline than it did in the actual story. I ended up deleting about 20 pages because I wasn't satisfied with how things were going. I went back to the outline and made a few changes and am going to be doing things differently than I had originally planned. The good news is that I think the new version is an improvement. Obviously, the bad news is that I lost a lot of time in the process.
I do appreciate everyone's patience. Believe me, I'm pretty mortified that it's taking me this long. I started this just as a way to fill the gap between seasons 1 and 2, but at some point it just took on a life of its own.
I doubt anybody is going to like what I'm about to say, but here goes...I'm starting this part over. I don't know why, but for some reason it just seems like I can't meet the standards I set for myself no matter what I do. The more I look at what I have so far, the more it frustrates me because I can't get over this little voice in my head telling me I'm not doing it right. I have spent hours upon hours editing and tweaking and it never seems to click with me, so I'm going to see if starting fresh will help me overcome this mental obstacle.
ReplyDeleteI'm not going to just delete what already I have so far, though. I'm going to hold onto it, and if redoing it from scratch doesn't help me then I'll go back to the old version and try to find some other way to deal with this.
The whole chapter. I realize that this will probably annoy the people who have been waiting so patiently for an update, and I really do feel guilty about disappointing everyone like this, but as it was before I just didn't enjoy writing it anymore. It had turned from a fun side project into a tedious chore that I was only working on out of a sense of obligation. It was ruining ponies for me, and I really don't want that.
ReplyDeleteThis time around I'm going to be changing the characterization, settings, dialogue...Honestly, the second version is going to be almost completely different from the first one, and part of the process this time around will be resisting the temptation to force in jokes or scenes that don't really work just because I really really want to use them.
I know this is probably still a big letdown to everyone, and I'm very sorry. Frankly, I'm rather disgusted with myself for not being able to do this more efficiently. It's an embarrassment and it reflects poorly on me. I sincerely want to entertain the readers who have been super supportive of me during all of this, but that means I can't put out something I think is mediocre.
If there's one consolation I can offer, it's that version 2.0 will have more Pinkie Pie. Originally, she was barely going to appear at all. Hopefully that will at least partially make up for it.
Unless you don't like Pinkie Pie, I suppose, but there's not much I can do about that.
Just part 11.
ReplyDeleteWell, alright then. Regardless of how long it takes, we'll be waiting eagerly.
ReplyDeleteStarting to lose hope
ReplyDeleteI think we may have to form a search party to find Mister Jack. I think he may be lost or dead at this point
ReplyDeleteThis fic isn't coming back, is it?
ReplyDeleteI understand how forcing yourself to write something is grueling. I've been there. Its okay to take a break, but please let us know. Just don't promise that an update is imminent, and we'll wait
ReplyDeleteThis fic has entered purgatory
ReplyDeleteToday is March 9th, 2013, and this fanfic is still stuck on part 10.
ReplyDeleteYep, it is officially in purgatory.