I Dreamt of Etherea... · 4:19am Jul 1st, 2021
Hello.
You've been a wonderful audience! Good night!
I'm... I'm sorry, that was terrible of me. Anyone who is still around, still waiting and hoping, still here enjoying the heck out of my pony words- What did I ever do to deserve wonderful people like you?
No, seriously. I feel like a terrible person for neglecting all this, and yet I do it anyways. I just get so embarrassed when I have nothing good to say, and so it's been a long, long time of avoidance for me. Because as I'm sure some of the astute of you have seen, I'm not gone. Just... don't want to face all the expectant faces with nothing to show, and nothing good to say.
So, it's been a long time. LOTS has happened.
One of my roommates bought a house.
We all moved into said house.
My car drowned in the street outside said house. (It was a fun first year!)
The second to last Bronycon happened.
The last Bronycon happened, and I got soooooo many pictures of people I might never see again.
Family. Vacations.
End of G4.
COVID happened, is happening.
Finally got around to decorating with all the pony I've collected.
New Bosses. New job struggles. (Seriously, global shipping shortages suuuuuuuuuuuuck!)
And more little nitty gritty than I can hope to remember in one blog.
But I am still here. I am well. In fact, I'm almost ashamed that the whole global crisis situation has so far been far too good to me. The house? Moved in before it. The job? Essential. The location? Out of the way enough to be spared, yet local enough that wealth fleeing from elsewhere moved in to keep everything plugging along merrily. The life? More stable than it was before.
If this is the work of some benefactor, then thank you. How can I ever repay you? More pony? You got it!
So I do have a couple pony news items for all you wonderful folk:
The first is an idea I like to think of as "Storytime With Shachza." In a nutshell, it's blogs. More of me. But a very specific kind of more. I have so many ideas rattling around in my head, and nowhere near enough time and motivation to write out complete stories for it all. I love my epic plotlines, but I'm no magician. These would be blogs that each lay out an idea and all the thoughts I've had around it. For the most part they would be stories, but they would be unfinished, likely haphazard, and fairly choppy. Some are quite old, and some are new, but the little tidbits on my user page just can't do them justice.
I'll never write these ideas in full (as far as I'm aware), but I also don't want to let the stories just go to waste. I feel like so much has been lost just by letting them stew in my own head while I move on to others. What do you all think?
The second is somewhat related to the first. I'm likely going to add an anthology to my story list. While many story threads have never progressed past mere imaginations, I have dribbled some words onto a few pages. These are also incomplete - certainly not full posting-worthy - but likewise, I don't want them to just languish. Additionally, and likely much more interesting to you all, is that there are/will be some incomplete AU spinoff tidbits and even side chapters of the TLaP world. Y'know... Things that could have been. Things that are, but which Alex won't directly experience.
That I'll do very soon, as I have a short chapter for it ready. TLaP 11, Low, alternate beginning...
Theoretically my story, Crazy, should be the first chapter of this, but, well... it's already been established for so long.
Another, minor note, is that to help get my typing legs back under me, I've voluntold myself into Shakespearicles' Summer Sin Celebration. I have to write a gift piece for someone now. Yay motivation! So, you'll be seeing that soon-ish. (Don't worry, it's a comparatively small thing. Not like the 10k word unfinished world-building-'gasm I turned the Father's Day contest into...)
And the moment you've all been waiting for... Okay, sort of...
To Love a Pony.
I don't have an estimate on a new chapter, though I think I'm about halfway through chapter 13's draft.
But a while back I rewrote Chapter 1, Close Encounters. A while... Heheh... Heh... Ahem! Hopefully my editors don't clarify that. (Hi, Seven! Hi, m1nt!)
Well, I posted it. Dunno' if anyone noticed while I was banging out this blog. It's kinda' new TLaP words, right? The easiest of them, I know, but chapter one really needed the TLC. Thank heavens Seven Fates and m1ntf4n are so patient with me. This won't be the last you see of TLaP either.
Pony is coming, never fear.
PS What the heck is up with that blog title? Well, we've recently been watching Aziz Ansari's Master of None. I had the distinct pleasure of watching a certain episode about the heartaches of forbidden love. This left me acutely lonely. Then I ate ice cream. Then I went to bed.
I rarely ever dream about anything coherently related to real life. For the nearly ten years I lived and breathed World of Warcraft, I think I dreamt about it once. Despite my deep dive into MLP, I can't recall a pony dream at all. Until now, of course. I don't remember much about it, just some mundane house-like setting, but what was clear was Etherea. She was there that night. She was invisible. Because of course she was. I tried desperately to convince her to drop the invisibility so we could talk. I wanted to meet her, to get to know her. She wouldn't do it. I'm pretty sure I don't need to posit why.
Woke up and stared at the ceiling for a while.
Let's just say I was very mopey the next day.
So, yeah. I dreamt of Etherea. It's honestly a big part of why I wanted to write this blog. I need more Etherea in my life as much as you folks do!
PPS Hi, Evil Paladin! 
Im glad you are still kicking. The prospect of more ponywords from you is quite exciting. I think TLaP is the story I've re read the most. If not that, then project sunflower. Hopefully you can find the fun in writing again.
YES!!! I am glad you are getting back into writing more pony words. There are a number of incomplete fics on this site that I want to see completed and TLaP is at the top. I was one of the ones who was poking you every so often about it because you wrote it so well, the worldbuilding was solid, and you left us at the start of a new arc where Alex would be seeing Etherea again. His first meeting with Luna is also something a lot of us are waiting for because Words Need To Be Said.
I hope the words come easy to you and we will be waiting with anticipation for the next chapter.
either idea is a good one i remember reading your story a long time ago
so i know that you ha the potential
i will wait for your choice
also that pony is taking a bit to literally the meaning of horsing around
I require more pony
I'm glad you're still around! I still enjoy your story quite a lot. I've re-read it a number of times over the years by now, and very much want to see it continue! It's exactly the kind of story I tend to enjoy the most, and there's so much going on in it that I want to see play out!
Every time I see you comment on some other story, I think about posting some kind of "What are you doing here? Get back to writing!" message, but I figure that would get old pretty quick.
You are the only author with the only story that I will lift my "They have not updated in 1 year so I will not be following the story" policy. Cant wait for more. Also have you looked into possibly moving said story to some other platform like Sofurry? Or Furaffinity?
Hides dream inducing Vodoo dolls of a golden blue winged horned equine and an unremarkable human figurineAs someone who procrastinates a lot I know something: The more people rub in my face my procrastination, the more reluctant I am to do that particular thing because my brain gets the connection between that thing and an unpleasant feeling more intensely.
That’s why everytime I got the urge to demand an update I proceeded to eat my hat and roll around in waiting agony.
Anyway… we all need more pony doing the pony things to Alex nobody thought about but they would absolutely do if they were a real alien equine society.
May the horse words be with you.
You better get writing, pony boy
Honestly, I’m just glad you’re still working on TLaP. I’ll have to go check out the new beginning.
I get what you mean about COVID. I graduated and got my first professional job (unfortunately in personeven though it can be 100% done remote) and moved halfway across the country.
Been hoping to see you come back, although I couldn't get my fix so I started to write my own massive world building story. Still, looking forward to seeing more of your work.
Also, dreams with ponies? I had a few. Nothing special... aside from my first one which I might as well label a fever dream for how incoherent and messed up it was.
I dare say I put wheels in motion with my devotion hehe.
Waddup my dude. still kickin
Welcome home, my man!
I’m not going to lie. I’m not really a part of this fandom anymore. Well at least not actively. I still appreciate some of the music and tidbits. But I still end up coming back to this site hoping that old stories I wanted to see completed would be updated. It’s crazy since it’s been years but… I’m so happy to hear you are getting through life and will be coming back to TLaP. Over all the years your story has just had so much attention to detail and original ideas that I simply want to experience more of this world. I look forward to it and wish you luck!
Congrats on not being dead.
Please to be making with the pony words.
If you need another editor, hit me up. I've got a bucket of red ink and I'm not afraid to use it.
Yay! So glad you're still here!
Tbh, you have inspired a few headcannons from TLaP, and I've enjoyed every time I've reread it. Really looking forward to see what you do next!