Two announcements and a Feathered Hearts teaser · 9:28pm Nov 23rd, 2021
First, I have a new Feathered Hearts - Continuation and Chronicles chapter in prereads, but even when the edits are in, I’m not going to release it yet. I promised before that I would not release more until I got the story written to the start of the Cloven War, at which point I’ll release the chapters in rapid-fire, one per day or every other day. I expect that to happen by Christmas if not sooner. Consider it my Xmas gift to readers, if so.
Second, I’ve begun work on the new Equestria Girls M-rated story I mentioned getting a commission to write, which has the working title of Harmonic Resonance. You can find the details in the previous blog, but I do intend to release the first couple chapters by month’s end. As I have this week off, I have plenty of time to write. As usual, without even meaning to I find myself writing a story around it, one that will have some surprising tie-ins to other stories I’ve written. I know that annoys some people, but I do like being a little self-referential in my works. Helps tie everything together and sometimes it even scares up some interest for other stories.
Don’t worry; the references will be no more than fleeting, and I honestly haven’t decided at this point whether this new story would be canon to, say, the Unleash the Magic series. If it is, it would take place in the future of it. As things *currently* look, the new story will begin with a short T-rated prologue for which I will not charge not the commissioner, then go at the rate of one chapter per Humane 7 member at around ~6k words each, describing their very sensual ascension to basically the same goddess form as Daydream Shimmer (with individual twists) in turn.
I’ll try to have at least one preview of it later. In the meantime, since I don’t plan to release the new Feathered Hearts chapter immediately, it seems only fair that I offer up a teaser for it. Usually I share a lead-in to something, but this time? I’ll show you the aftermath of a scene instead:
Gilda was still seething as she walked back down the hall towards the improvised gymnasium located near the center of the second floor, and the presence of two armored and unsmiling Marines escorting her didn’t help her mood.
Though Captain Moran couldn’t order her to do anything, he could order her shadowed wherever she went; the clearly unhappy escorts told her tersely when she asked them to leave that they had instructions to accompany her and deny her access to any sensitive areas.
She wasn’t sure how that changed anything, given she and Fortrakt hadn’t been allowed entry to the Marine ready areas or wherever they monitored their cameras before. But there also wasn’t anything she could do about it short of lodging a formal protest with the human Ambassador, whom she worried was now going to use her confrontation with Captain Moran as the excuse he needed to finally expel Marco.
Crows take it… she thought again, wondering if the other Marines were going to follow the Captain’s lead and start treating her with far more hostility—and worse, treat Marco badly if they believed the pile of droppings Moran was spouting about him giving up information to her for sex.
As if in response to her unspoken worry, Stafford caught up to her when they were halfway to the suite the Marines were using as a workout area, presumably out of the Captain’s earshot.
“Listen, Decurion—I know you’re upset with the Captain right now, but please understand where he’s coming from. He’s trying to juggle political and military concerns, and believe me when I say he’s had some really bad experiences with trusting locals in the past. I’ll try to talk with him after he’s cooled off a bit, but for now, please don’t antagonize him further.”
“That’s up to him,” Gilda grated out. “I don’t care where he’s ‘coming from’, you don’t ever ask a griffon to betray their mate, or their own side!” she all but snarled out the words.
“I’m not saying you shouldn’t be pissed. But you should also understand he was deliberately provoking you. Trying to see from your reactions if you were really a spy.”
“Then he succeeded,” she answered with a low trill and freshly ruffled feathers. “I am beyond ‘pissed’ right now, Staff Sergeant. I don’t care what he thought he was doing, there was nothing honorable about his words or actions!”
“He’s a good soldier and officer, and trust me, he’s no coward—he’s seen his share of combat,” Stafford said. “He isn’t doing this just to make you mad. Put yourself in his place—how would you react to the news that one of your civilians was sleeping with a foreign soldier of a nation you already knew was trying to gain intelligence on you?”
That made her relent, if only very grudgingly; she had to take a deep breath and exhale it slowly before she could speak her next words. “Point taken.”
“Thanks for understanding. Look—he may not like you, but speaking for the rest of the Marines, we do like you, Decurion,” he reminded her. “We don’t want to lose you or Gletscher over this, even if we don’t get why you’d like Lakan.”
She gave him a look. “You don’t have to ‘get’ it, Staff Sergeant. You just have to accept it. And make sure your Marines understand that from here on out, I will take an attack on Marco Lakan as an attack on me...”
The chapter is currently coming in at a crisp 8500 words, pending prereads, and I’ve thus far put down the first 1200 words on the new Equestria Girls story. More updates will follow by week’s end, but the meantime, I wish a very Happy Thanksgiving to all my US readers.
looking forward to new chapters! yay also happy thanksgiving to you too!
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Appreciated, thanks!