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| The Veins Run Deep | |
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| Writer(s) | Thunderblast |
| Date published | 6/1/14 |
| Words | 73,951 |
| Status | Completed |
| Type/genre | Dark, adventure, AU |
| Featuring | Bloodvein/Night Shadow, Skywatcher, Midnight |
| Story link(s) | |
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Summary[]
Bloodvein is a pegasus born into a bat pony family, and the first of his kind. When he begins school, he is bullied and pestered, being called an Equestrian as if it were a bad thing. He later learns from his father, Skywatcher, that due to a war that broke out nearly a millennia before, much of the bat pony race was wiped out and what was left went into hiding across the land for decades to come, and the remains of the race now lay scattered and anonymous to Equestria.
Over a year later, Bloodvein still finds himself being bullied by fellow classmates but is saved once again by his father, feared to many as he resides as a high-ranking soldier in the army that protects the colonies, known as Fang Legion.
One day, Blood's class sets out for a field trip out of their colony's cave, only for him to be split apart from the rest and getting lost. He continues walking, searching for them, but comes across the Legion's main base and is taken in by two soldiers. He feels down, realizing just how badly things had gone but remains in sight of the soldiers until his father can arrive. He is left alone with some others, who scare him into thinking he will be locked away, and Blood runs. As he does, he comes across a strange looking young bird. Back at base, Skywatcher scolds the soldiers for losing his son.
Night realizes the bird is a bald eagle, rare in its kind. He befriends it, then begins the long journey home.
(More coming soon).
Characters[]
- Bloodvein/Night Shadow: The main protagonist of the story. He is a dark grey pegasus with normal bright, gold eyes, a two-shaded purple toned styled mane and tail. Despite his outward appearance, he is a full-blooded bat pony with the fangs, night-enhanced eyes and hearing. Later on in the story, he changes his name from Bloodvein to Night Shadow to sound less intimidating.
- Skywatcher: Bloodvein/Night Shadow's father. He is a tall, muscular dark grey bat pony with a purple, wind-blown messy mane, and dark blue eyes. Skywatcher is the lieutenant in the colony's guardians, known as Fang Legion, a combined military created by the Governor of their colony that defends all bat pony colonies across the land. He plays a major role in the story.
- Midnight Dusk: Bloodvein/Night Shadow's mother. She is a shorter dark grey bat pony mare with a dark silver mane, orange eyes. Not much else is known about her, and in the story, she seems to be a stay-at-home mother.
- Dawn Blossom: Bloodvein/Night Shadow's younger sister. She is another full-blooded bat pony and is very close to Night. In the story, she does not play much of a role.
- Thunderblast: A grey pegasus royal guard living in the city of Canterlot. He was assigned to train Night Shadow when he enlisted in the guard. Thunder has a jet-black mane and blue eyes and is known to be just a couple of inches taller than Night. They quickly bond over time and become the best of friends, and later, they team up to thwart a threat to Equestria. Like Skywatcher, Thunderblast plays a major role in the story, despite coming in towards the end.
- Sharpblade: A unicorn that Night Shadow befriends and a sergeant in the Royal Guard.
Reception[]
The Veins Run Deep has received outstandingly positive criticism and is currently the author's most popular and well-received story, beating a one-shot he released after the first few chapters of this one by a large number of views and likes. However, the story is highly criticized for its pacing.
According to Thunderblast, the great reception it received to begin with was not expected at all, and due to it, he decided to continue with a short side story that takes place just after the final events of The Veins Run Deep and later on, a full-length sequel. A second side story, titled Deceitful Royalty, was published on October 1st, 2017, and is expected to conclude the series itself as a whole.
To date, The Veins Run Deep has 88 likes and 12 dislikes on FIMFiction. The story currently has 1,814 views and over 25,200 total views.
Sequels[]
The Veins Run Deep currently has one side story with the name of An Old Friend's Return, and an official full-length sequel following the events of the side story, which was published on June 1st, 2016 and completed on March 24th, 2017.
The official sequel, The Veins Run Deeper, is 36 chapters long, 6 longer than the predecessor. It has proven superior to the first story in terms of writing style, pacing, and word count per-chapter. When completed, it ended 67,000+ words longer than the first story.
Thunderblast later confirmed a second side story to come also in late 2017, titled Deceitful Royalty, which was published on October 1st, 2017. Along with the second side story, he plans to write a non-canon story set in one of the alternate timelines created in the Season 5 finale with Bloodvein/Night Shadow as the main character.
Trivia[]
- The backstory of the bat pony race in the story is a headcanon developed by Thunderblast that is meant to depict why bat ponies are not seen in the show, despite the story being alternate universe.
- Since completion, the story has undergone major revision. In the near future, he plans to rewrite the chapters entirely, or change them majorly to where the pacing is not nearly as rushed.
- An eight-chapter side story named An Old Friend's Return was released just under two months afterwards after the author saw just how well-received the story was.
- A direct sequel named The Veins Run Deeper was later published on June 1st of 2016, the two-year anniversary of The Veins Run Deep's release.
- Thunderblast did not originally plan a series, and only decided to go through with continuing into a series after unexpected praise was received by The Veins Run Deep.