Progress Report #2: The Sequel Is Never As Good · 11:41pm Jan 18th, 2015
Just another update on the progress of the upcoming Guilty Hornet chapters, which I thought you'd appreciate, given the things which have come up for me in the last few days.
Firstly, I had to take a little hiatus to study for mock exams last week, which delayed things somewhat, but I am now back on track and unimpeded by any impending academic doom for the time being.
Secondly: I have run into some snags with the Codex chapter, mainly dissatisfaction in the way that I wrote it, so that may be a while yet; or I may simply go back to my part-finished biology chapter and upload that first instead. Either way, it may be another week or so until that's around for you to enjoy.
On a more positive note...
Lastly, even with my short hiatus and time taken out to replan future chapters, Chapter Four is already about 1/4 done and looks to be a lot more fun (to read, and to write) than its predecessor. I hope to have it out to you two weeks from now, hopefully sooner if things keep going as well as they have been, and from there the rate of updates should pick right back up to where it should be. This has been a low point for the story in terms of my ability to reliably work on it, but we're on our way out of the pit now, and things should improve from here on out.
In the meantime, if any of you had any burning questions (or anything to say at all, really) feel free to ask me and I'll answer you as best I can without spoiling anything. Thank you all so, so much for sticking with me through all this, and I shall hopefully see you soon enough.
Don't beat yourself up too much, your average update rate is still far ahead of many of my other favorite fics.
I find I'm quite enjoying the odd relationship between the Changeling Queen and her Quisling pony (even if part of me wondered if she was Luna in disguise, early on) but it will be good to see more of the other important ponies, as you've indicated Cadence will show up and Celestia's still around somewhere.
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Thanks for the reassurance about the whole update situation; I tend to worry about that quite a bit, so that was nice to hear.
I had to look up Quisling, and I think I may have found a new favourite word. Quisling and changeling even sound pretty similar, so thanks for bringing that particular word to my attention.
Scrolls, as you've guessed, isn't Luna, although that would have been quite interesting in hindsight. I do think that what I have planned will be more significant in terms of character development than Luna-as-Scrolls would have been, but it's still quite interesting to think about.
As for the important ponies, Chapter 7 will be an interlude focusing on Luna and setting her particular events in motion; the meeting with Cadence will be Chapter 5, with the build up to it in this chapter; and Celestia will become very significant right after our little Quisling does, shortly before Luna's interlude chapter.
I also plan to fit the Bearers of Harmony in somewhere, although they aren't quite so important to the plot right now so that may be a little while.
Thanks very much for the feedback; it means a lot to hear back from my readers and it doesn't all that often happen, so it was really nice seeing your comment.
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Well, I'm glad you enjoyed the word Quisling. I'm fond of it, too, though the main reason I used it was because I had a tip-of-the-tongue moment where I couldn't remember Scrolls exact name (I was thinking "Scribe... no, that's not it"). Good to see the major players on the pony side getting some attention soon. They are both great obstacles and great tools for Chrysalis in her current position. Scrolls is quite good without being Luna though I do think her shape-changing abilities are sometimes overlooked (Luna's not Scrolls).
I won't lie, more updates would be great, but a two and a half month delay between chapters isn't too bad.
Changing subjects, did you enjoy those Foudubulbe comics I linked you to a while back? Apparently he's also an author on this site, which I didn't know at the time. I think of his story as set after the first few comics.
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/236801/wand-rocks-and-balloons
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The comics were really good, I'm glad you linked me to them. Had no idea he also wrote, but I'll check out his story later. Judging by the quality of his comics, it should be good.
On the subject of Guilty Hornet: it's looking like the next chapter will be done by next Sunday, though if it's done earlier I'll upload it then. It's 1/3 done at this point, and I'm definitely getting back in the swing of things as far as writing's concerned. I'm having a lot of fun writing this one, and hopefully you will enjoy reading it.