Major revisions pending. · 4:58pm Feb 1st, 2014
As you may have seen from the changed description, A Trusted Friend in Science and Ponies will be undergoing some major revisions. In the most recent chapter posts, I have been receiving numerous complaints about decreasing quality of the story. And for the most part, they're right. The biggest problem is that there is too much unneeded filler that doesn't do anything to advance the plot. This is particularly evident in Chapter 14 and after. So, I've had a trusted friend re-read the entire story (pending chapter 17) and go over its strengths and areas that can be improved on.
With some minor revisions, the story is pretty much solid up until Chapter 14. In Chapter 14, that the dialog is way too drawn out, making it seem like a bad anime fight. The problem with 15 is pretty obvious: there is way too much text for not much happening. This can probably be cut in half and possibly merged with the next chapter (or just be a shorter chapter) It should also get a name change; I hate the current name. Chapter 16 is mostly okay, but it does contain a little filler, and I will be adding an additional scene for it that will help with the issues that people have raised regarding Celestia's decision to forgo her immortality. (It will still happen, but I will make her action justified). And as for Chapter 17, it is at this point unreviewed, but I will apply any necessary changes to that as well.
After these changes are made, I can get back to writing new chapters. The story is not near its end, but hopefully, after I make my revisions, it will feel much less drawn-out with the right amount of building action. Going forward, I plan to get to that very important point in the story I keep taking about within the next two chapters. I apologize for the confusion and inconvenience that this rewriting will cause, but this is still a work in progress, and I hope to make it a solid final product. Thank you all for bearing with me during this turbulent time.
It's true, there are some places in the story where it seems the dialog is stretched to an extent, but hey, I somtimes to it when describing things in my story