Feathered Hearts - Continuation & Chronicles: Introductory Blog

Greetings, one and all! Whether you're a long-starved reader of the original story, or a new one just coming in, this is your starting point for Feathered Hearts - Continuation and Chronicles. In it, I will try to anticipate likely questions and explain myself, as to both why I've chosen to do this, and in this manner.

[Adult story embed hidden]

So what is this new story?

Exactly what it says—the continuation and chronicles of the old Feathered Heart story by Demon Eyes Laharl, though it will take a while yet to get to the former. The continuation will be, of course, picking up where the old story left off and eventually completing it, detailing the course and conclusion of the Great Cloven/Griffon War, to say nothing of the eventual fate of all our favorite characters from Marco to Gilda to Fortrakt to the Marines and everyone else. The 'Chronicles' part will be basically bonus material; original chapters that get inserted earlier in the story to fill in gaps between existing chapters where time jumps exist. Chapters 6-11, for example, are all-new content, while Prologue-Chapter 5 are heavily edited and expanded chapters of the original story.

Uh... isn’t it against site rules to publish someone else’s content to your stories, even off of abandoned accounts?

It is indeed, normally. But in this instance, 1) the account is long abandoned and 2) I’m not just reposting the chapters without changes. They are very heavily updated, edited and expanded to the point that they’re about 60-80% different depending on the chapter. In any event, I’ve cleared it with the mods, so I do indeed have permission. At first, they denied me permission on the grounds that readers might get mad, so I posted the edited chapters offsite to google docs instead. It was a little awkward asking readers to shift between them to get the full story, but I had to at least until I could see if the story became popular enough and also attracted enough interest to the original that I could ask the mods for an exception. It did, and in turn, they did.

Dunno, this seems kinda disrespectful to the original story. Did you try to contact the author?

Yes. Many times, over a period of several months. But Demon Eyes Laharl (DEL for short) hasn't been on fimfiction since April of 2017, so there's no point in PM'ing him. I have an old Skype account for him, but he doesn't reply to it. I pulled up an old Google Doc of his I helped edit, knowing that replying to his comments there would send them to an unknown email account that belongs to him, but there was no response. I even got myself a fanfiction.net account to try to PM him on his existing account there, but once again, he didn't answer, and he isn't been on that account either since late 2018.

In short, I did everything I could to reach him, wishing to ask him if I could take over the original story to finish it, to no avail. Whatever happened to him, it unfortunately seems that he's gone for good.

Okay, but why redo the original, which everyone loves? Why not just write the continuation as is?

Several reasons. But let me say first that I'm not 'redoing' it, I'm just updating and expanding it. I promise that all the original plot points and characters are present; I'm just generally fleshing them out a lot more. The best analogy I can give is that I'm doing the same thing for this that I did for Turnabout Storm a few years ago.

As for why I want to, well... there are several reasons for that alone, but foremost among them is that it needs it. 2012 was a long time ago (groan), and quite frankly, there are some notable issues with the original, both in terms of editing and even a few plot holes/pacing problems.

It's not a slander of DEL, who I still immensely admire, it's simply that he wasn't as good an author at that point. Hell, neither was I; I look at stuff I wrote back then and just wince for all the problems I see now. But here in 2021, I've got nine years of additional writing experience under my belt, and as well a great deal more lore, both show and headcanon-based, that I can incorporate. So why not avail myself of it?

As for headcanon lore, that basically means my Firefly series, which are easily my highest-rated stories. It's fair because Feathered Heart in fact inspired Firefly. Perhaps readers of the original will recall the former mentioned that there was a Great Pony/Griffon War in the distant past? Well, the Firefly stories describe that war, and borrows very heavily on the griffon lore of Feathered Heart to do so. So basically, this is me paying the original back for all the inspiration and material it gave me.

I think the original is just fine. Do I have to read the new version?

Nope. The continuation will be written so that it works with either version. I can't say the same about the bonus content, though. That will use the new version of the story. So I'd encourage you to at least check it out.

I haven’t read the original. Do I need to before reading this?

Not at all. The new version retells the story in full from the very beginning. But I do encourage people to check out the original version, in order to pay homage to it and the original author.

So what's different in the new version?

Well, let's see... just in the first five chapters:

1. Ranks are now much more in line with the griffon military in the Firefly series. You can find their rank structure here.
2. As they're basically Roman, the griffons speak a variant of Latin that mixes in avian sounds.
3. Gilda's initial promotion is not as sharp—I can't justify jumping her all the way to sub-Tribune, which would take her from basically nothing to commanding a cohort (~500 griffons). So I give her a starting rank of Decanus (basically putting her in charge of a squad, which seems reasonable for her time in the griffon military), and then jump her two ranks to Decurion (which is more or less equivalent to a Second Lieutenant in the US Army or Marine Corps). That's not to say additional promotions can't follow...
4. There's a lot more references now to the pony/griffon war and a lot of additional lore added regarding various races of Tellus we didn't know about back in 2012, including at least one of my own invention. Some of the lore is from the show, others are from either my personal canon or other Gentlemanverse canon, including most notably that of AJ_Aficionado (the Caleponians) and Denim_Blue (Changelings).
5. Certain references are updated to more topical items for modern times. You might even see a fleeting political reference or two.
6. Dialog is rearranged in places, and much more explanation is given to certain things, such as why Gilda was promoted following her attack on Marco.
7. There's a fair amount of foreshadowing regarding what I'm planning to do in the continuation.
8. There's also hints of a second romantic pair forming! Hence the plural on Feathered Hearts...

What if, by some stretch, Demon Eyes Laharl returns?

Then I will be overjoyed and very happily surrender the pen back to him. In that case, it's his story, and his choice what to do with it; he can then use or not use my new content as he sees fit. But for now, I'm informally taking the story over because I think my qualifications as a successful Gentlemanverse author who also writes well-reviewed war epics makes me the ideal choice to do so.

Put another way, I truly believe I'm the perfect choice to update and continue this. If I don't do it, it's not gonna get done, and I think we all want to see this magnificent story finished.

So the story is now M-rated...?

Yes. As of November 2022 with the release of chapter 29, I updated the story from T-rated to M-rated to allow me to put in explicit scenes that I felt belonged in the main narration. Before that, I sprinkled in the occasional PG-13 or even a rare R-rated moment, but I didn’t want to be limited any longer.

Since then, I’ve added additional R-rated and M-rated content to certain earlier chapters while keeping the original T-rated ones for those readers who don’t want clop. To that end, you’ll see links at the ends of the chapter preceding them offering you a choice of content: T-rated or M-rated. And each M-rated chapter will have a T-rated counterpart for those who are only here for the gun and battle porn instead of the more literal kind.

Understand, however, that this does NOT mean that there are sex scenes in every chapter, or even every other chapter. Only an occasional one where I think it’s appropriate and fits naturally into the story. This is war thriller with clop, not a clopfic with combat, if that makes sense.

Okay, so what’s with that companion M-rated story I see called Feathered Hearts - Eros?

Unlike this story, that one is a pure clopfic, meant to hold the adult content that doesn’t belong in the main story. Originally intended to hold all the sex scenes while the story was still T-rated, it contains extended sequences of wall-to-wall clop that would badly disrupt the narration to include in Continuation and Chronicles. It’s basically an anthology of erotic human/griffon scenes (which in my view is a neglected niche on site) including but definitely not limited to Gilda and Marco.

[Adult story embed hidden]

If you’d like to know more about it, check out its introductory blog as well. It is canon to the main story and sets certain things in motion, but I won’t spoiler that here. If it’s not your thing, don’t worry about it—reading it is NOT necessary for the main story, and the events of it are (mostly) not well-remembered, anyway. But they definitely do have an affect on things, and factor prominently into the plot at times.

Think of it this way: you’ll see an occasional 2-5k word sex scene in the main story generally comprising no more than a quarter to a third of a chapter, but in Eros, it’ll be the entire chapters filled with it and those events are canon to the main story. As to how that’s possible, don’t worry—you’ll see, and I promise that it not only makes perfect sense, but serves as a means to introduce some serious intrigue and a brand new race.

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Well, that's about all I can think of right now. If you have additional questions or concerns, feel free to ask them below or PM me separately. In the meantime, welcome back to the Feathered Heart saga, and I very much hope you enjoy the ride and my updated take!

EDIT: Updated on 9/15/2021 with new information as the mods allowed me to start posting updated chapters from the original story directly to my new one.

EDIT #2: Updated on 5/31/2022 with additional information and content advisories on the occasional PG-13/R rated moment in the story, as well as an explanation for it plus a reference to Feathered Hearts - Eros.

EDIT #3: Updated on 12/12/2022 to reflect that the main story is now M-rated.

Comments

[Chillean]

Ok, so having read the original already, restart with the Google docs keeping in mind expansion, and then continue to the newly published chapters on this story?

[Firesight]

5480451

You got it! Hope you enjoy. I'll be very curious to hear your opinion about the new version versus the old.

[Starlight Nova]

Where should I start reading on the old story before I jump to the new one?

[Firesight]

5488438

Where should I start reading on the old story before I jump to the new one?

As it says in the blog, the current posted chapters take place between chapters 3 and 4 of the original story, and updated/expanded versions of the original story's earlier chapters can be found here:

Feathered Heart v2.0 - For Readers

The blog also explains why I had to post them to Google Docs instead of Fimfiction. So you can read chapters 1-5 on Google Docs, and then jump to chapter 6 (and now 7) in the new story. Or just keep reading out there, since I posted chapter 6 and 7 to Google Docs as well to have at least one place where the entire updated story could be found.

EDIT: This is no longer necessary as the mods have permitted me to post the full story to fimfiction. No more Google Docs required! Just read Feathered Hearts: Continuation and Chronicles and you’ll get the full story.

[rikithemonk]

I am so freaking confused.
The origional was 20 chapters.
You have P-8 for version 2.0
then you have continuation and chronicles which is 6-9

So what's the reading order? I am so lost it's not funny

Monk
"I understand killin’ but I sure as hell don't understand you sheltered bastards.” -ThePhoton

[Firesight]

5528701

Good morning. I'm actually going to thank you for this comment, for two reasons.

First, I realized when I read it that I had neglected to upload chapter 9 to google docs. So I've taken care of that now. The second reason is that I'm going to use your comment to take another run at the mods to allow me to post the updated chapters to the main story, to hopefully show them that working within their rules is causing needless reader confusion.

As to your question: Google Docs contains the whole updated story that I’ve written to this point, including the edited chapters from the original story (1-5), while the main story only contains the 100% new content chapters that I've written (6-9). So the reading order is Google Docs chapters 1-5, and then you can either continue reading chapters 6-9 out there, or come back to Fimfiction to do so. I prefer the latter so you can post comments.

As things stand, new content chapters are all I'm allowed to post to Fimfiction. By site rules, and by direction of the mods, I am simply not allowed to repost old content from a different author's stories, even if that author has departed the site. Even if the old content is heavily updated and 60-80% rewritten. We'll see if I can use your comment to help sway them, especially since you're not the only one who keeps getting confused by this arrangement.

EDIT: This is no necessary as the mods have permitted me to post the full story to fimfiction. No more Google Docs required! Just read Feathered Hearts: Continuation and Chronicles and you’ll get the full story.

[rikithemonk]

5528748

So the reading order is Google Docs chapters 1-5, and then you can either continue reading chapters 6-9 out there, or come back to Fimfiction to do so. I prefer the latter so you can post comments.

Thanks

That makes a little more sense

Monk
“A spider’s got to spider.” -Scarheart

[AJ Aficionado]

5528701
Alas, El Dorado is not bending on the site rules against reposting another author's work as an edit.

[rikithemonk]

5529111
Rules are rules

[Backlash91]

This hilariously did not answer the one question I had:

Do I have to read the old version first? Or can I get the full story by reading your continuations and chronicles?

[Firesight]

5674603

This hilariously did not answer the one question I had:

Do I have to read the old version first? Or can I get the full story by reading your continuations and chronicles?

Oops. That was indeed an oversight on my part. I’ve added the following additional section to the blog to answer:

I haven’t read the original. Do I need to before reading this?

Not at all. The new version retells the story in full from the very beginning. But I do encourage people to check out the original version, in order to pay homage to it and the original author.

So no, you don’t. But as the original story and author inspired so many of my own words including the Firefly series, I invite folks to check it out in order to honor it.

[Backlash91]

5674615
THANK YOUUU!!!!!

I'll be honest, im not a fan of HIE stories....BUT IT HAS GILDA. FRICKEN BEST GRIFFON> as the main character....AND ITS A ROMANCE>....AAAAGHHHHH!

I must read it

[Firesight]

5674648

THANK YOUUU!!!!!

You’re very welcome.

I'll be honest, im not a fan of HIE stories....BUT IT HAS GILDA. FRICKEN BEST GRIFFON> as the main character....AND ITS A ROMANCE>....AAAAGHHHHH!

Sounds like this pushes some buttons of yours. And don’t worry—technically, this isn’t an HiE story, since the Gryphon Kingdom isn’t actually in Equestria.

I must read it

Enjoy! And let me know what you think.