So yeah, you people seen today's episode? Quite a hoot, non?

So yeah, when the synopsis was first announced, we all probably made the same quip: "This will burn at least a thousand fanfics to ashes" or something along those lines. I personally wasn't worried. Dude, We're Ponies (supposedly, but don't take my word for it) takes place between season 2 and 3, so as long as nothing too drastic happens that changes pretty much everything ever, it would be just fine. Or at least, so I thought.

What happened is that today's episode snatched a scene from right under my nose. A pretty important scene at that. It was supposed to be character-defining, move the plot somewhere interesting, basically be the entire foundation for what I had in mind for the rest of the story. And it got snagged, pretty much word-for-word.

Well, that will teach me to be a bit more productive. I had this scene in mind for more or less two weeks already, but hadn't sat down to properly write it yet. Serves me just right.

Doesn't make it any less annoying though, because I need that scene, and now I will have to "steal" directly from the show itself, which I think is a little gauche for a fanfic, especially this shortly after the airing. So, the chapter has already been ruined before I have even properly written it yet, and there's not a thing I can do about it because I need that bloody scene. In short: FUCK!

Dude, We're Ponies will return sometime this week. Probably.

Fuck.

Oh, hey, I actually managed to squeeze out a chapter with the usual strategy of "pulling an all-nighter with bloodymindedness and chocolate." And I actually kinda like it.

Apologies to Letedwend for not showing it to him first, since he's actually the pre reader and all.

Can't think very properly right now, but I sure hope you like the chapter, since next chapter will be more of the same. I think. At least, I think I think.

I can't think right now.

Very well then. First of all, I am very sorry. I really wanted to get it done, but it was a bit harder than expected. The thing is, I need to move on from establishing conflict, and start working towards resolutions, and I'm not really sure how to handle that. I really need to expand my skill sets, which means that progress so far has been way slower than I want it to be.

Honestly, how do other people do this? Stephen King used to be a pretty poor writer himself when he started out, but wrote 2000 words each day until he became one of the more successful authors alive. All I can do when facing my own work is walking around my room in circles, pondering and chipping away at doubts until I've finally formulated the perfect sentence, which I then type, delete, and then start all over again. How can people work that hard towards a goal that they might never reach even with all the hard work in the world? How can they look at their lacking work, and believe that they can actually get better? Is greatness really predestined? Is my subconscious trying to tell me that this isn't what I'm supposed to be doing?

I'll just keep slugging on. I won't make promises again, since I have a very nasty habit of breaking them (really, ask anyone that knows me in real life. I am not a very good person). I will tell you this however:

I am always working on it.

If I'm not working on it, I'm thinking about it.

If I'm not thinking about it, I'm feeling guilty about it.

I want to get this done far more than anyone would ever want to read it. I want Chance and Midnight to reach home, wherever that might take them. I want to die in the knowledge that, no matter how much I've failed in my life, I managed to at least see this through to the end.

I'll get back to my work now. it should be done within days. I am very sorry.

I got a laptop with high speed internet on my desk, a Red Bull and chocolate bar in my hand and a Discworld novel fresh in my memory. From my lips to God's ears, there will be a new chapter of Dude, We're Ponies in the next 24 hours.

I take it that, whoever might be reading fanfiction about a girly cartoon series must be some kind of 'internet person'.  As an internet person, you are probably familiar with Duke Nukem Forever, and you may have heard how some stores accepted ten year old pre-orders, basically giving the game away for free because they were just that nice. That kind of thing sort of happened to me just now.

As you might recall, back in April, Dude, We're Ponies was conditionally approved to be posted. Because I didn't understand what 'conditionally' meant, and decided to disappear for several months for little reason, it was never actually posted. Quite a few things happened back then, most importantly a change in rules for submitting fanfic to ED, namely the whole "no bronies, period" rule, so logically, I missed a pretty good opportunity back then.

Of course, this kept bugging me. It's like winning the lottery, go around buying stuff, only to discover that by the time you try to cash in, the ticket is no longer valid. So I did what any sensible person would do: reapply with a half-hearted argument about how this story is "technically brony in Equestria, but...", with the intend of getting rejected, so that I could finally move on with my life, with a new lesson learned about how you can't expect that everything will be as if nothing happened after you get lost for half a year.

Of course, that argument didn't fly, but I got a very nice reply, saying that I should be rejected outright, but because I had already been approved long before the rule change, they are willing to to send it to the pre-readers "to see if the story is good enough to make an exception."

Now, I'm not getting my hopes up, and neither should you. They had a very good reason for making that rule in the first place, and I can only imagine the bitchfest they'd have to deal with if this were to go through, so the bar must have been raised quite a bit. Unfortunately, Dude, We're Ponies is sort of enjoyable, but it is no My Little Dashie, no The Best Night Ever, and sure as hell no Fallout Equestria. They'd be breaking the rules for a rather average fic by their standards, which I just don't see happening.

Still, I find the fact that they were willing to give it another chance very, very cool. They are probably already swamped in fics, plenty of which are probably better than mine, yet they still take out time and risk some really nasty backlash from their readers, just because they are nice enough to honour an agreement from April (which might as well be the Jurassic age, considering that this is the internet we are talking about).

With a bit of luck, I might even get some good constructive criticism out of this.

So yeah, that's all I wanted to say. I'm not really in the loop any more, so I don't know what people think of ED these days, but whatever the outcome, I think they're pretty cool guys/galls.

Still working on the next chapter. Current wordcount: 1598.

Peace.

So, chapter 9 is out. As usual, that took way to long. I'm beginning to suspect that I'm approaching this writing thing wrong. It usually begins with me realising that it had been far too long since the last update (again). Then I procrastinate some more, and then I finally sit down in an 10 hour long marathon. This is hardly an effective approach, especially because I get sick of it somewhere halfway and yet keep chugging on, and that doesn't do a whole lot of good for the quality of my writing.

I tried working with deadlines, but that only resulted in me having these marathon writing sessions more frequently, which completely drained what little creative energy I had.

So, I needed a new plan, and here is what I came up with: every day from now on, I'll try to write at least 700 words. With the usual size of my chapters, this should result in an average of one chapter each week, which would be most reasonable. Chopping the work in bite-sized pieces like this should make the work less stressful, which means it will be easier for me to keep it up, which means that I can release more often.

I already started work on the next chapter about 4 hours ago, and the current wordcount is 842. I enjoyed writing it, and I'm pretty sure you will be pleased while reading it.

Look forward to the next chapter; I'm planning on making it zany!

Oh, man, how long has it been this time? A month? Well, I guess I'm getting better. Yeah, I really should stop making promises. I have a nasty habit of breaking them.

So, what have I been up to? Well, I've been moving. Because of my status as a college drop-out, I could no longer stay at my old address, and now I had to find a new place real quick-like. The added stress didn't do much good to my creative thinking, and I once again got suck in the vortex of self-loathing.

Thanks to my dad, I've managed to move pretty smoothly about a week ago. During the following weekend, I've recharged my batteries by rereading 6 volumes of Oh, My Goddess (truly a classic in the magical girlfriend subgenre), rewatching The Tatami Galaxy (best anime ever) and playing two rounds of Princess Maker 2 (writer and royal concubine, if you were wondering. No, I have no idea how that one happened).

Anyhow, amongst all this Japanese awesomeness, I've managed to scrape together some creative energy. The next chapter is currently with the proofreader, and I hope you'll enjoy it. I've been trying something a little different this time, so I hope it turned out well. I was forced to cut it a little short, though. This part of story would go on for far longer than I could fit in a single chapter, and this would be the only natural resting point for quite a while.

And there I go again, blabbering about my creative process, even though you haven't read the newest chapter yet. I'll be back with some more thoughts once you've actually seen it.

Peace out!

So, yeah, I got a totally good excuse.

So, I have a pretty large family, you know? My father has ten siblings, all of them married, all of them at least two kids. Quite a few indeed, and yesterday was the big family reunion, organized by a city-dwelling branch.

Now, I'm not too good with large groups, so once the formalities are done with the adults, I look for excuses for not having to talk about the many ways my life currently sucks for about a dozen times. Yesterday, as usual, that excuse ended up being looking after and playing with the younger children.

Now, see, my family are traditionally farmers (dairy farming, no apple orchards, I'm afraid), and most of my uncles and aunts are still in the family business, so to speak. Now image having to look after six small kids, who are used to having entire fields to play around, and who now have to stay out of trouble on a typical city playground. Let's just say that my job involved quite a bit of active participation in order to keep them all within sight of their parents, despite my physical constitution being more suited towards sitting behind a screen and typing silly stuff.

Long story short: I couldn't work on the update yesterday, I was busy with other stuff today, and I'm neither in the mood nor shape to pull another all-nighter.

I'll have it done Wednesday 10 PM (GMT+1), but for now, I wish you a good night.

In other news: opening of the new Doctor Who season wasn't exactly what I was hoping for. Let's hope that the rest of the season is a bit better.

Dang, my head feels so heavy right now, I'm starting to wonder how it still stays on. Last night was quite a bit of a pickle. Remember how I said that last time that chapter 6 was only part of everything I wanted to write? Well, in order not to completely screw up the episodic structure, I had to pad out what might have been only third of a chapter into a full chapter. Which is all fine and dandy, until you start to get all these great ideas for new pieces of padding while writing a different piece. I can assure you it takes quite a bit of extra time. Anyhow, time for a few personal thoughts:

I'm not too sure about the result. The whole thing just didn't feel right, you know? I probably could have been a bit funnier in places, a bit more descriptive in others. I blame lack of sleep for that one. By the time Fluttershy dropped by, I was already in quite a sorry state and just phoning it in to get it done. I should really start working on the this a little sooner than Monday evening, but if I could get myself to do such a thing, my therapists would be out of a job.

But I suppose the whole chapter was a bit more serious than usual, and now the plot is actually moving into what seems to be a direction. Well, that's pretty good I suppose.

You know, sometimes, I feel like I should be writing a comic instead. I'm sure that my prose isn't particularly bad (as compared to most of the drivel that finds it's way to this site), but I think that sense of humour would certainly benefit from a more visual medium. Can't do too many expressive faces and poses in prose, you know? Or at least, I can't. Maybe I should learn to draw one of these days.

In any case, we are getting close to what appears to be the finale of this first arc. This took a whole lot longer than I wanted it to, even discounting my hiatus, but I suppose you sometimes don't actually get to choose what's going to happen in your story. I just hope I can manage another amusing arc after this, since I haven't really but much thought yet in the things that are going to happen between the end of this and the final arc. It's really weird, whenever I try to think about it, my mind just goes fast-forward to all these awesome things I could pull at the end, even though it seems to have no ideas on how to get there. Eh, I'll cross that bridge when I get there. For now, Let's just have a little fun with what we have,

I wonder if, at the end, I should actually write a friendship report? It would be pretty cool if I could pull of a genuine-like, but it's pretty hard to do so.

In other, unrelated news: I'm not angry, I disappointed.

This night, at 2 AM, I did the impossible. No one expected it to happen, no one believed it was possible, that it was only a legend. I successfully posted chapter 6 of Dude, We're Ponies.

Man, I'm sure that must have been crazy. You guys didn't hear from me in... what, four months? And then suddenly "btw, update tonight, kthxbay". I'm sure most people thought it was some sort of joke. Now, I could explain in detail why I have been gone for so long, but it's a long story involving loads of angsting emo self-pity, so I won't bother you with it. Let's just say that I spend most of my daytime as a walking job dispenser for various therapists and leave it at that.

Well, I just finished editing the new chapter according the Letedwend's suggestions, so I guess it's time to list a few personal thoughts on this chapter.

As is unusual for my kind of personality, I was actually pleased with the result. I thank the deadline business for this. Having an overly liberal 'ship it!' mentality might have it's negative side-effects, but it sure helps making you look past minor flaws and get stuff done. Of course, there were some pretty embarrassing mistakes as well (Galileo), but hey, taking the good with the bad.

In order to keep this going, I'd like to state that from now on, every Tuesday morning at 2AM (GMT+1), there will be a new update. Take note and kick me in the nuts if I slip up again..

In order to get back into the story, I've also reread all of it up to now. I concluded that there were still some pretty fundamental problems with it, and I still don't get why you guys love it so much, but whatever floats your boat and keeps me busy is fine, I suppose.

The biggest flaw I noticed was how similar Midnight and Chance have been up to now. Honestly, I could have switched around their places in the story and it would still be pretty much the same thing. I should make both characters a little more divergent in the future.

This chapter was supposed to be quite a bit longer, but deadline happened. I didn't like cutting off the story where I did, but I didn't have much of a choice. I guess that's good when it comes to teaching myself valuable life lessons, but I had a nice episodic flow going which now lies in shambles. Sure hope I can salvage it a little.

In other, unrelated news: on the same day I declared my return, a different long-awaited sequel has been announced. This is both a funny coincidence and FRIGGING AWESOME!

Thanks for reading. Glad to be back!