Cannon? I Hardly Know It - Rising Omega is here, but it Hits Different · 2:43am Oct 21st, 2021
With Book 3: Rising Omega officially out and off to the races, I wanted to take a second and clarify for any new readers (hah! As-if I have any of those this late in the fandom's life-cycle) or readers who might just be confused in general, something that matters to the whole trillogy, hence tagging the first book for this post;
I stopped watching FiM at the mid-point of season 4, and my stories only count the episodes of the show, Seasons 1 thru about the middle of 3, as part of the Hegira universe canon.
Nothing else from G4, EqG, comics, etc is counted as hard and fast canon. I had some inspiration from some items in the comics that I caught glimpses of, but have never actually sat down to read any of them. If it fits, you are free to imagine it sits. If it doesn't? It didn't happen.
While Twilight is destined to be an Alicorn in my universe, she hasn't gotten there yet. The events of the collision between Earth and Equestria interrupted the show's progression somewhere in Season 3 (I haven't worked out/settled on where yet).
I should also note that any resemblance between some of my plot points (*cough* reformed Changelings *cough*) and the show's later 'innovations' is/are coincidental, because I planned 99% of the critical plot points and story 'bones' of Hegira out back in 2012, including that one, and the vast majority of all main plot relevant events and lore.
I have planning documents and charts in GDrive that were created, and last modified, in 2012, with almost everything that makes up the main plot of these stories still sitting in them.
Yes, I really have been writing this thing on and off for almost ten years, no I will not apologize.
So if you're curious as to why, especially in Rising Omega as we finally start to hit chapters soon with very big overall lore/plot answers, those answers don't line up with anything in FiM after Season 3?
This is why.
Personally I think my explanations for the Nightmare, Sombra, Crystal Ponies, the Elements of Harmony, and the way I tied them all together with the events that created the Hegira timeline, results in a more satisfying structure than what the show gave us, based on what I've read.
And no I won't apologize for feeling that either, I'm too old and tired to bother with containing my ego anymore. 
Oh, and when I say Rising Omega 'hits different?' I mean *dark.* Yes I wrote some warning/disclaimer text about that in the story's foreward author notes, but if you haven't dived in yet? Or if you have, but you're reading this before you've made it to Chapter 20 or Chapter 20 is even out?
Just... Know that I cried at the keyboard writing it, and I've only done that four or five other times across the fast-approaching-million words of this mess of a trilogy.
I also seriously considered deleting everything I'd written for 20, and starting over with something that would soften some of the blows, and I felt physical disgust when I saved the actual contents into Fimfic, and decided to go ahead with it. I've never had that hesitation for a chapter before. I've never been quite that brutal to my characters before.
So you've been warned... It's shortly fixin' to get very very depressing, and full on Lovecraftian horror up in this. Big finales call for big stakes.
Everyone complains (and I agree) that latter FiM didn't take things as seriously as early FiM? Well if you ever wanted to see what happens when you spill way too much serious into the mix, instead of too little, you came to the right place.
>>(hah! As-if I have any of those this late in the fandom's life-cycle)
eheh, hi there : )
I still haven't checked it all, but it was in my to-read list for way too long.
5598419
Well, it's very nice to meet you, and to know that new interested readers are still stumbling across this little slice of mayhem!
Have you read any of the books yet, or are you starting at Option Gamma, completely new to all of it?
5598420
Nah, new, but was intrigued by the descriptions for a long time : ) So it looks like I'm in for a long journey : )
5598428
Waiting to start might have been beneficial for you; I just finished some clean-up re-writes on the first two books a short while back, and I'm finally a pretty good ways into book 3, so your timing is impeccable.
Long journey is right though. I never can seem to write anything short. Every book always seems to be significantly longer than the previous one. I think that's an expression of my own frustrations with reaching the end of books or series that I loved, and feeling like they were far too short.
I'll be really interested to see your thoughts!
I'm so looking forward to this... just as soon as I finish rereading the second story. I should have gotten started on that sooner.
5599633
Well, look at it this way; You have an extra buffer to get through, and more of RO will be out by the time you get through ED. Always a silver lining!