Hey there readers. Just a quick heads up for anybody currently reading either Tears of Gaia or Kindom Come. I'm currently working pretty hard on a college project, my final project fo the year, so I've got alot less spare time. I'll try to do chapter updates whenever I can, but I can't make any promises on when I'll update.

Also, I'm afraid there'll be even more delays on Kingdom Come. I've submitted it to Equestria Daily and I'm currently waiting on their response, so I'll save updating it for after I get a response.

Not much of an update or any earthshattering news, I know. Just so you guys know I haven't abandoned the stories or anything.

Hey guys and girls. A little deviation from my usual posts, I'm in need of a little assistance with a project I'm working on in college, which aims to explore the relationships between an artist/writer/animator/other, and the characters they create.

So in short, what sort of emotional connection do you have with your characters (If any)? How do you as a creator of these characters, percieve your characters? Extensions of yourself? Role-models to aspire towards? Props to be exploited and used? Some sort of family member, perhaps even offspring of some sort? It is a bit of an odd question, yes, but hey, it's an odd project I'm working on. I'm an art student, what are ya gonna do?

Naturally, this question only really applies to those of you out there who have either written fairly extensively with an OC character (Human, pony or otherwise) or have also written original stories outside of fanfiction. So if you have an interesting answer, either reply here or even drop me a PM. Any information would be useful, not to mention it may help get my project a bit more credit for including primary-research.

Hope to hear from some of you soon!

Just a heads up, the next chapter of Tears of Gaia is quickly on its way. I should have it done and ready by the end of this weekend. Speaking of which, I have gone  back to chapter 9 and made a small adjustment, for the sake of the future story. Please go back and reread that particular chapter if you would, because otherwise there may appear to be a continuity error in the next chapter, to do with which ponies are still free and which have been captured.

Anyways, that's all for now, so I'll get back to writing the next chapter. Hope to get it published soon!

Well, now that the season finale has come and gone (With my personal Badass Stamp of Approval, if I may be so bold), it's back to writing for me. With all hope, I can get back to Tears of Gaia and start writing the first chapter of Book II this weekend. So fret not, my beloved readers, you'll find out where Twilight, Pinkie, Rarity and Starswirl go next, and what has become of Fluttershy, Applejack and Rainbow Dash, soon enough!

But another reason I want to post, is because me and a small group of my friends have begun plans for a new project. I can't say much, but I will say that it will be dramatic, epic (In both scale and length), dark, violent, and extremely extensive. We're talking multiple stories just to cover the entire saga.

Given my current work on Tears of Gaia, however, it's unlikely that anything will get written anytime soon. And if it does, it won't be written by me, it'll probably be one of my fellow writers. Just watch this space.

And if there are any aspiring writers who want to contribute to this project, either by writing one of the main stories or one of the side stories, drop me a line and we'll talk. Until then, we watch and wait. For maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday, the Kingdom will Come.

Well, I thought I may as well put up my personal opinion on the whole Twilicorn thing, and the resultant shitstorm that to this day, still threatens to tear the fandom asunder.

First, Twilicorn itself. When the rumours and first images started popping up, I was pretty worried just like everypony. What could this mean for the future of the show? Was this gonna be the end of the series altogether? However, now that I look at it, it's really not that much of a problem. Everyone just seemed to be looking at it in a very pessimistic mindset. We seemed to look at Twilicorn and ask how it would work in a very accusatory and interrogative manner. Instead, maybe we should as a whole look at it with less accusation and condemnation, and instead with curiosity. That's how I look at it. Instead of deriding it and asking sceptically 'How will they pull this off? This is the worst thing ever!', I look at it with intrigue and excitement, asking 'How will they pull this off? I can't wait to see!'. It was only a few minutes ago that my brain just sort of clicked and... lo and behold, I just accepted that it was gonna happen, and the best thing I can do, indeed that we all can do, is just roll with it and see how it pans out. Save the fandom-ragequitting for when the episode has actually aired, why don't we? As the fandom-mantra is quickly becoming: Trust the writers. They've pulled crazy stuff off and taken risks for the show before, and thus far it's worked well enough. If nothing else, I commend the writers for being willing to take a risk with this show, even if it was an executive decision. First and foremost, this is a merch-driven show for little girls, no sense in denying it. It's no that it isn't a merch-driven girl's show, it's just that it's a very well done one. We have to accept that, and accept that execs will pull the strings every now and then.

But most importantly, I was worried about how would the fandom would react as a whole. That was the big worry for me. To be perfectly frank with y'all, this fandom is like a second family for me. A very bizarre and dysfunctional family, but family nonetheless. Every one of you guys who has commented on one of my stories or talked with me at meetups, conventions (If you go to any of the London meetups or to BUCK, that is), or just over the intertubes, you guys just make me so happy. So naturally, I was worried about what would happen to the fandom as a whole when the confirmation broke? As you can imagine, I was pretty pissed off when the drama began, with people practically deriding it as the coming of the fucking Anti-christ! I almost experienced fandom burnout right there and then! So, I took a break from the community side of it all and took shelter on other sites, including creative-brony-sites like here.

And now that I'm taking a deep breath and diving back into the community side of it, I am glad to see that the fandom as a whole has apparently calmed down a touch. At least I can go on EqD and look through the comment sections of the more recent posts, and not be treated to a comment section of nothing but nerdy arguments that would quite frankly put ancient nerd debates such as Kirk-vs-Picard and Edward-vs-Jacob, to shame.

However, if the fandom is ripped asunder by this finale, maybe that's a good thing. Let the ragequitters ragequit. It might make our fandom shrink by a few thousand, but it'll leave more room for those of us who still want to be fans of this great show. More room for us to appreciate the show without the whiners giving us a headache.

And my final thought is thus: What is one of the first things any brony will tell a non-brony when first exposing them to MLP? 9/10 times, it will be to watch the show with an open mind and not cast judgement until they've seen it for themselves.

Call me crazy, but maybe... just, just maybe, we should actually practice what we preach? Maybe we should save our judgement for when the episode actually airs?

Anyways, I've rambled long enough, and I'm overdue for my shower. Long story short, chill out guys. Let's wait until it's aired before we cast judgement. Keep calm, trust the writers, let the ragequitters ragequit (Means the pubmeets and conventions will be a bit less crowded at least!), and even if it does turn out to be a dud of a finale, we can at least look forward in hope to Season 4.

In the immortal words of the Blue Lanter Corps:

In Fearful Day,

In Raging Night

With strong hearts full,

Our souls ignite.

When all seems lost in

the War of Light,

Look to the stars,

For Hope burns bright.

Well, fillies and gentlecolts and variations thereupon, I just wanted to throw this out there to my followers and readers, in particular those reading Tears of Gaia. I just wan thank you for giving my story a chance and bothering to actually pay it any attention. I guess this is mostly bcause, in case you could not tell, I put alot of effort amd preparation into this story. Not just the story itself, but the background for it, different languages, settings, new characters, an I tried my best to give as much life as I could to them. And right now, Tears of Gaia is my most popular story in terms of followers, views and rating. It's also my first fic that has actually gotten its own fanart.

Thank you, so much for all this. You guys are all awesome. I don't honestly write my stories for people to read, or for recognition or fandom-fame or any of that bullshit (Heck, I only put this story on EqD bcause one of my local brony friends insisted I give it a shot). I write them for myself, and for my own personal gratification. SO, to see that so many people enjoy something that I write... words cannot describe, man.

However, you're probably wondering why I'm saying all this. Well, it's because the story is reaching a pretty pivotal moment,  an ending. Not THE Absolute Ending, but AN ending. And when it does reach this ending, just a heads up, I will be taking a short break from writing so that I can not only get on with other things in my life (Because to be honest, this story has been taking up quite alot of time, both in terms of writing, preparation, translating, etc), as well as working out what will be happening next.

So stay tuned readers, and look out for the next chapter. Because the Blight is on the approach, and something big is in store for our seven intrepid adventurers.

As the title says. It's just coming up to 1am and I just got back from the midnight mass. I just wanna wish you all out there, whether you read my stories or not, a very Happy Hearth's Warming Day, and a merry whatever-it-is-you-celebrate, be it Christmas, Krambus, Xmas, Yule, Kwanza, Hannukah, Eid, Solstice, Steelmas, Dudemas, or anything else I might have missed. Any drama and creepiness aside for a moment, you bronies are all awesome, no exceptions, and this fandom is the best in all the world.

This day is yours, so make it a good one!

Hello out there my fine, fabulous readers!

Well, Tears of Gaia is steaming along nicely now, andI may as well say it now, the first book of the story is nearing its end (Yeah, Im so pretentious and up myself that my story is separated into books as well as chapters, so sue me) Not immediately or within a chapter or two, but it's beginning to loom on the horizon. And as such, I'm sending out a little request, an encouragement if you will, to any artists out there among my readerbase. Would any of you be interested in doing some artwork for my story?

I'm afraid I can't afford to pay for it as a commission or anything, but I would add you to the credits of the story when it finally reaches its end, and I will add links to the art in my story whenever I can. And you would have my unending gratitude as well, of course. I've already had one reader do a bit of fanart for me, and as simple as it was, it was awesome to recieve.

So yeah, artwork. All kinds of stuff would be cool: character designs, locations, moments, creatures, etc. Just getting to see how you guys see what I've been writing. I've heard writers talk about seeing other people illustrate their stories, and it's a pretty interesting thing to do.

Not much more to say than, if you're interested, thanks in advance, and if not, thanks anyway. I'll see you guys at the foothills of the Crystal Mountains for the next chapter.

Hey everypony.

Just a quick blog post to say that the next chapter of Tears of Gaia may be a bit of a while coming. Y'see, I'm trying to get it on EqD, and I just got back some feedback from the pre-readers. It would seem there is quite a bit of editing to be done. Nothing major, just, and I quote:

- Punctuation mis-use (semicolons)

- Run-on sentences

- Inconsistent formating/paragraph separation

- Fragmented sentence construction (without due cause)

- Repetive phrasing

- Awkward internal narration and inconsistent narrative voice

So quite a bit, but nothing I can't do with a good couple run throughs with a fine-toothed comb. I'm going through it currently and making the necessary edits, so you might notice little changes here and there. But to keep my workload down and keep everything simple, I won't be publishing a new chapter until the story makes it onto EqD or is permanently rejected after 3 strikes (I'm on strike 1, so I need to tread carefully), whichever result I end up with.

Also, if anypony would be willing to help with the editing or proof-reading, drop me a message. It would just be good to get a third-party opinion on this.

Redback signing out.

Hey out there, to anypony who actually reads this.

If you aren't aware, throughout my story DownFall, I have been putting in little links to illustrations on DA. Now, I have done this for every chapter except the first and the last. I was intending to   the illustrations for the final chapter, and possibly the first one as well, but then I had another idea: How about I collaborate a bit?

So, this is an open request to any good pony artists out here who would be willing to do illustrations for the final (and the first, if they want) chapters. Nothing too hugely fancy, just in a similar vein to the illustrations I already did.

I'm afraid I can't afford to pay you, should you choose to take this up, but you will get full credit and I will advertise your art when I can. If you are interested, then PM me or reply to this, and I'll  contact you with the kinds of things I would like.

So yeah, hope to correspond with some of you soon!