Weekly update · 8:35pm Mar 9th, 2021
Well, there are several things to discuss this week, but before I do anything else, let me give a huge shout-out and congratulations to AJ_Aficionado, whose entry into the Found out February clopfic contest soared to #1 on the feature list, and took home the $200 top prize! It was a smashing success, as he played the site's meta game and won it, finding the perfect slot to submit his story in that all but ensured it took off.
I edited it, but honestly didn't think it would hit the heights it did. Why? Well, that's what makes his victory doubly amazing to me--the story was set in a private verse involving OCs, instead of in context of show canon and the far more popular Mane Six. He won 1st place on both the feature list and the contest with his own original headcanon and characters, as the contest sponsor and judge--namely, The World's Strongest Writer™ Shakepearicles--was completely blown away by it.
https://www.fimfiction.net/group/198529/incest-is-wincest/thread/463881/february-contest-winners
Make no mistake, folks--what AJA did is almost impossible to do on this site, as readers typically don't go for stories involving original verses and characters! It's an amazing accomplishment; one I'm both envious and proud of. My Padawan writing apprentice has graduated to become a full-fledged M-rated master! So if you like my adult stuff and haven't yet checked his out, I invite you to do so.
[Adult story embed hidden]
Forget the number of downvotes, as most of them are punitive, just like the ones on The Lawyer and The Unicorn for me. They are absolutely no reflection of the story's quality, which is sky-high.
The Plan
Moving on, I wanted to let everyone know where things stand with me, and what I've decided to do about my lengthy writing list. In short, to keep my load manageable and myself from burning out, I'm going to focus on two stories almost exclusively for the foreseeable future--Unleash the Magic, and Feathered Heart. The former I'm going to continue to keep (re)writing through completion, and then move on directly to attempting to finish (or at least reach the climax of) Nightmare Night by Halloween. The latter I will work on as well, editing old chapters and occasionally writing new ones.
Hiatus for Firefly
Unfortunately, this will mean that Firefly goes on Haitus for a bit, as I'd prefer to keep my focus on one war story at a time. Working on one war story and one clopfic means I can alternate between them, with sufficiently different themes that I hopefully won't burn out on either. To that end, the next chapter of Midnight Rising is well-underway, and is once again gong to be nearly entirely new content. Oh, the plans I have for Ember... 
Progress on Feathered Heart
I've also completed a draft rewrite for one more chapter of Feathered Heart, which I'll post to Google Docs after I've finished a couple editing passes on it. I've further decided that I will write a whole-new chapter for it to fill in an early gap of the story. As it will be brand new, that means I'll be able to post it to a new story, which I'll probably call "Feathered Hearts - Continuation" or somesuch. It will contain all-new bonus chapters followed by the continuation when the time comes, and also link the Google Docs so readers can catch up on the updated original chapters. I still very much wish I could post them here, but I can't. 
Warrior
The reason for the delay on this latest chapter edit was because I had to first watch a movie referenced in the original story--namely, Warrior, which is a well-done 2011 tale of two estranged MMA-fighting brothers who enter the same $5 million winner-take-all tournament, each needing the prize money to save their respective families. It was very well-done and acted, so I can heartily recommend it if you never saw it.
I needed to see it in order to properly edit and expand the section where Gilda thinks back on the movie, trying to figure out what insights she can gain on humanity from it. Which I have; that section is much bigger now and delves a lot more deeply into the movie content, as well as exploring how an actual griffon from the Gentleman or Phoenixverses might interpret it. It will be posted to Google Docs probably in the next a couple days; I'll post a blog and Gentlemanverse forum notice when it's available. I'll also see about having the first original Feathered Heart chapter ready by this time next month.
Midnight Rising
As for Midnight Rising, I'll be aiming to have the next chapter (already nearly 4k words long) ready in under a week, and be ready to see what happens when Rarity meets the dragons and Pinkie decides to make sure Ember has fun, followed by Midnight turning her long-delayed attention on Upper Crust. In the original version of the story, I glossed the latter over. Needless to say, not this time! And get ready for the full power of Rarity unleashed, folks... 
Well, that's where things stand on all fronts with me. I very much appreciate all the interest in my stuff, and congrats again to AJA! It was a hell of a score, and donating all his prize money to flying fox (bat) hospitals in Australia was a wonderful gesture. He loves bat-ponies in part because he loves bats, and vice-versa. Which I daresay is part of why he's able to write for them so well, and why his headcanon is too good not to steal for Nightmare Night and Firefly! And probably Midnight Rising as well before all is said and done...
Congrats and Eeee's to AJA
Warrior is a fantastic movie, and can't wait to see how it affects the story also!
Good on AJA to succeed in that oh so elusive and exclusive category.
For the amount of effort you are putting into Feathered Heart, do pimp out the name to get those clicks. It would be a shame that new people would miss out on such an enjoyable story. Here are a couple subtitle ideas that your news caused to pop into my head.
Feathered Heart(s)
The Lost Chapters
Lost but not Gone
Continuing Chronicle(s)
New Horizon(s)
Reborn
Shining Armor is by the far the most popular guy for incest clop and one of the easiest to ape, though all of the Mane Six are vulnerable to incest copypasta by this point.
Twilight is obvious.
Pinkie Pie has her sisters.
AJ has Big Mac of course.
Rarity has her sister and Dad, Hondo Flanks.
Fluttershy has the most cursed incest ship of all time.
Rainbow Dash has... Honestly don't know or care.
But yeah, Shining Armor gets thrown at his Mom, Twilight Velvet a lot too.
Aww! You and Shakes are making me blush now!
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Well, the new chapter is out now, so I hope you liked what you read of it! I really would like to hear some comments on it.
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Maud more than the others, who weren't seen that often. Pinkie does seem to have a fixation on Maud.
And he was a comfort horse in the Gentlemanverse! Then again, she's also got the entire extended Apple clan.
Whom we saw all of once. He doesn't really tempt me. Was way too generic, if you ask me. I consider Rarity's parents a missed opportunity in general. Rarity and Sweetie Belle? Sure, I'll do that.
Zephyr Breeze is completely unworthy of such treatment. I hate the guy on general principles just for being a total slacker and completely useless, as well as taking advantage of his parents. I'm a lot less tolerant of that than I used to be.
Her parents, Bow Hoof and Windy Whistles, who were also shown all of once. I don't find them tempting either.
Ditto for Twilight with her Dad. They at least seem okay and have a good look.
You earned it! As well as your promotion to full writing Jedi:
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Seconded. So many good authors never even sniff that success. Fimfiction is a pretty unfair business sometimes.
Consider it pimped!
Consider it taken under advisement. The new story will be launched sooner rather than later with the first of several bonus chapters.