These past few months have been rough. Important exams, clinical depression and other stuff in real life have given me serious writer's block, amongst other general lack of energy for pretty much everything. Luckily, the skies seem clearer mentally and emotionally as well as literally with the coming Summer. I've managed to get more words down in one week than I have for over 5 months. The chapter's coming along very nicely, so don't worry. I'm sorry it's taking so long, and it might be a little while longer with more exams coming up, but things are looking up now and there's plenty of progress made.

PS: It's fairly shameful of me to ask, but something that might speed me along faster and give me more encouragement would be some fan-art. I'd be very flattered to see some. Toodles.

This story is one of the ones that I follow that I feel are woefully under-read. It follows a young Cadence and Shining Armour as we see palace life from their eyes. Of course, they start as barely tolerating each other and only just begin to ease up. The characterisations of the two are wonderful and their roles are very intriguing. The detail put into the world-building is complex and fascinating, with original characters and relationships between the cast that are all quite flavourful. All of this is wrapped up in a steadily unravelling mystery as to what is happening with Celestia and what dark machinations are afoot in the heart of Equestria's seat of power

An absolute must-read. . It's all shaping up to be something really epic; if you like Night's Favoured Child, then you'll also love this. The story simply does not deserve the trickle of traffic and tiny readership it has so far. I'd like for everyone to at least give it a go.

The Dark Heart of Canterlot

Dear Readership, Followers, Brother and Other Cretins,

You may have noticed over the year or so Night's Favoured Child has been in progress, I update very infrequently. That is due to many factors, including my appalling natural attention span, the access to internet serving as a source of procrastination, numerous other commitments - both online and in real life - and, of course, work. Exams and studying and the need to do homework etcetera is a constant plague, as it is for many of us, and I am very prone to procrastination and mind-wandering even. So, naturally, I will work very slowly. Sometimes it is also to do with my mood; that I just don't feel like writing for a while or I'll only write a little bit.

My answer to the flood of questions regarding the status of the story and my work progress is the blog title. Also, if you would all kindly stop saying "MOAR!" (or a variation thereof) or any other cutesy memetic internet-speak implicitly (or otherwise) demanding me to hurry the fuck up and entertain you already, it would be much appreciated. After all, it isn't as endearing/funny/adorable as you think it is. You will all know this is dead if and when I make a blog post saying that I hate the story and the fandom and therefore will not waste my time on it anymore and instead focus on writing fanfic of other fandoms and hanging out in Alternatehistory.com.

The reasons for recent gaps have been all of the above, with the added stress of Christmas, January exams and spontaneous family tragedies. I would recommend ignoring my story in between updates, so you won't really notice how long its been and you won't be overcome with the urge to add your questions or demands regarding the status of the story and its progress to the many dozens of others.

PS: Also, if you could impose a limit of none to three (depending on how you space them out) emoticons in your posts, I would be much obliged. Spamming faces of a pony crying or whatever is not needed to get the point across. On the other hand, using multiple emoticons as rating scales (e.g. five Spike Staches out of five) is fine and dandy.

With Bitter Love,

Municipal Engines

Story's back, tell a friend.

I have, currently, a second draft of the next chapter from my editor. I have gone through most of the edits although there's still quite a bit more to do. I was hoping to have it finished and published by the end of the week, but there is the matter of an interview for Oxford that I need to prepare for. Once again, real life has to take precedent so this is why there will be yet another small delay.

Also, don't forget to upvote the story, because I've got 4 downvotes now and there's this Pinkie story on top.

Sweet Pony Jesus, it's finally happened!

Night's Favoured Child has dethroned Sunny Skies All Day Long for the place as the highest rated story on this website.

I couldn't have done it without you guys.

PS: I just wanted a "thank you" motivator. I know you guys don't actually turn vegetables into bacon. Unless you work on a pig farm, in which case double thank you.

PPS: More good news will follow in a while, I suspect.

I am really sorry, but it seems like this is unavoidable now. It's been such a long gap between updates that I can't do anything but this.

Night's Favoured Child is now officially On Hiatus.

This is me telling you that, no, it won't have an update for a while now. I need to get things in order in the real world first before I go back to working on this. It's an important year, what with exams and university applications and high aspirations to reach.

Sorry I failed you guys, but I promise that once I do sort everything out, I'll try and work on this feverishly and get you as many updates as I can. After the obstacles are clear, it'll all just be a matter of discipline.

Hopefully an update won't be too long coming...

An Old Mare's Tale by Realbrickwall is an incredibly well-written adventure story about the time before and during the rise of NMM. It has all kinds of moments and emotions: sad , happy, peaceful. horrifying, funny and awesome moments; action, mystical scenes, romance (well-played romance that doesn't swallow the story) and a wonderfully diverse and memorable cast with many conflicts and much development. It manages to be both sweeping and epic in the overall myth arc and plot, but still quite nicely episodic at places.

In short, it is good. You all should read it; at least give it a go. If you love my story - or any adventure stories really - then you will love this one. It is shameful how little views and comments it has, so go out there and flood him with views, comments and followers. I'll even be more focussed and write faster if he gets more views. Scout's honour.

Progress is slow. At school, I have things to do. I have little time to write, sorry.

Tiredness increases tenfold. Deadlines to be met. Material to be studied; information to be absorbed.

In the meantime, read The Age of Wings and Steel and Austraeoh. They're both very good and woefully under-read.

Need to leave this here. The procrastination is starting to get ridiculous.