Good God Celestia, it's been a while.

Yes.

Exactly.

It's been a very long while, and I'm more than sure those of you who still care would like some answers.

I'll try to make it short, simple and laconic.

Life happened.

That is to say, my studies are, not to be too boastful, considered one of the few courses on the University I attend that are made to make you work your flank off, hard. Additionally, we work on a semester-by-semester basis. It's the 3rd, and my finals are going to start on the 25th. Add to that the fact I managed to failed a subject last semester and the fact suddenly most of the professors decided that right about now would be a great idea to see all those assignments and lab reports... I think you see where I am headed with this.

Of course, I am not going to throw all the blame on my life, of course not. I may or may not have involved myself with a roleplaying group on Twitter, the Twitterponies (do check them out, they're awesome), and this too has been eating a considerable amount of my time and effort. What can I say, roleplaying is a drug to this pony author of yours, and now that I finally got my fair share, it's hard to stop. Frankly, moreover, writing this fic was a way of letting me get at least the bear minimum of another fantastic world experience. A new experience, a very much solo experience, but an experience nonetheless. Still, I am filled with a considerable number of great ideas and generally a much happier person. The community is awesome, and people there really deserve recognition. Some of them even dipped their hands over on this site, so there's that.

Rants and banter aside, now comes the good news.

I may or have may not mentioned this before, but I've been suffering from a bit of an art block recently. Feathers already have a rather well-defined plot, the next chapters, Mac's dealing with his [REDACTED] and everypony's share of the deal. However, the trouble was putting it down on paper. Finally, now, I managed to break it down and the next chapter is slowly crawling its way from the abyss of my wretched mind to your eyes via this site and my cold fingers.

Additionally, all of the previous chapters have been proof-read and fixed. The last chapter as of writing this has been checked, but the changes have not yet been applied. Personally, I am slowly reconsidering my wish to be featured on Equestria Daily. Perhaps it's a stage, perhaps its the realization I will most probably never achieve it. I am not sure. Still, what matters and makes me content is that you, whatever my readers may you be, are enjoying this little hack of a story.

Thus, those were my few many words. Dark days are coming, but after them comes sunlight.

Stay crispy!

In short:

* I was buried under work.

* I still am buried under work.

* The exams are unrelenting.

* The exams will be unrelenting.

* That hiatus seems much more accurate in hindsight.

* Work goes back full-force mid-week.

* ohgodmyeyes.

"Crew"? "Welcome"? What is this, some kind of a ship?

Well, no. I'm not going to get romantically involved with anyone, and neither will they with me, hopefully. You see, I've been asked by Equestria Daily, not so subtly in fact, to find myself a worthy editor. Funnily enough, I already had two of them behind me, neither of which, unfortunately, holds any account on the site nor wishes specifically to be credited. Mind, this does not include the pre-readers I'm regularly pestering with quality control of each new chapter.

Now, however, I'd like to take this blogpost to credit a friend of mine for his eagerness to aid with the story.

So yes, everypony, say hello to Mr.BigMac1011, for he'll be joining us here in this little endeavour to make make this fic worthy of being posted on That One Blog. Hope you'll trust him as much as you trust me (that is, if there's any trust there to begin with), and I heartily recommend his own stories for you to read.

And now, I shall proceed to drop myself in my bed as it is almost 2am over here an my eyes are bleeding blood.

Dennet out.

You may be wondering why did the story suddenly go on hiatus, eh?

The point is - it didn't. Or rather, it didn't in the usual manner.

I'm still working on Feathers, a lot even. Thing is, when I open up FimFiction, all I can get myself to do is write the next chapter (spoiler: starring Caramel) instead of working on the backwards ones like I have promised. By applying "on hiatus" tag to it, I remind myself not to be stupid and fix the olden parts of it. You can already see the first two have been given a substantial facelift. This will carry on, obviously, until I reach Chapter VI or VII, which I feel are finally up to par with Equestrian Standard™.

As a side note, Happy Easter y'all!

...or I'm still swarmed by work and requests.

Either way, I've noticed I'm blessed with less and less inspirational periods per day. Normally I'd get juiced on a thought going through my head, work on it and expand it. From there, it would linger and brew before spilling onto the computer screen via proxy of my fingers. Usually. Sometime it would take more or less time, but the result was always.. well, felt.

Now, however, I'm finding the latest chapter hard to write. There's something impending me, and I can't quite put my hand on it. Perhaps I need to give it a break and sit down, brainstorming on a story seriously. I'll see how this goes.

Have some spoilers:

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"So, Twilight's been asking how you're doing today?"

No response came from red behemoth, only a simple nod.

"Well... I am here with a little something-something! Sewn it myself!" he said before lunging back behind the door, dragging a rather large bag placed right in the centre of a bright-crimson cart.

Quickly, he scurried over to it and unfastened the belt, drawing forth a large cloak. It was rather plain, and the little details were crude and childish - a single yellow thread lined the outer edges. As the dragon was unfolding the whole thing before Mac, the stallion noticed it also had a hood. That, and the fact the entire piece of clothing could cover him almost twice over.

"Y'know how t'sew?"

______________________________________________________________

The Most Painful Week (trademarked) finally passed. This means I can get down to writing the story in full force! The incoming distractions are going to be little compared to what I had to face the last time. Hopefully deadlines aren't going to chain up together in a similar manner any time in the future.That was honestly brutal and I don't feel like living through it again.

On the brighter side, I managed to hack a considerable amount of text recently, I'd share you some. In this episode, arguments for and against!

___________________________________________________

Slam.

Mac sat there alone, in the living room. The cozy fireplace was beginning to wane, the red flames already finished consuming their most recent wooden foe. Celestia's sun was beginning to shoot its morning rays through the eastern windows. The crimson colossus had his wings bent in an awkward angle - the left on hanging limp from his side and the right still cradling an object no longer present. His mouth was slightly opened, his eyes blinking occasionally at the empty  space before him. Finally, he shook his head, smiling at his defeat.

Clever mare...

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First of all, let's begin this with something right off the bat...

HERE'S TO BEING EXTREMELY SORRY FOR NO UPDATES FOR THE NEXT TWO WEEKS OR SO !!

*cough*

Now that we have the apologies done, let's get into detail.

Basically, University is catching up to me. Electronic circuits aren't going to measure themselves, and those resistors get really wonky under the weather. Laboratory reports from this, combined with such bores like Assembler or Linux commands by heart are efficiently and effectively eating my time to a near-null value. That said, I would normally still try to sit down once in a while and just hack out another piece of a chapter for relaxation's purposes.

Except this time I'll be doing something else.

You ponies remember the time back when I submitted this fic to Equestria Daily, aye? Well, guess what. I got rejected. Obviously. I never hoped to get there anyhow, but this rejection kinda stung me in a positive way, so to speak. I'm more determined to get this fic featured than ever, and I'll adhere to their critique and rewrite this large pile of letters to The Equestrian Standard™. What does this mean? This means you shouldn't expect a new chapter for the next two to four weeks. Instead, pay attention to the already posted ones. They'll be slightly shifted verbally, words added and removed, punctuation fixed.

The general progress of the story will remain unchanged, however.

So yeah, this is all. Hope you ponies can bear with me!