Took long enough, didn't it? Go have fun reading or something.

Finished my final with a score that places me in the 91st percentile in the nation.

I also passed the class by a scant two points.

Ponies eventually, I need to go unwind before I throw up from anxiety.

>go to advising appointment with instructor

>she tells me that I basically have to perform almost flawlessly on my final in order to pass the class

Gonna be rough, but I've been studying my ass off -- this music has basically been playing in my head the entire time.

In other news, once my final is over tomorrow, I can get back to actually writing. The next update for 'No Light' already has about 2k words done, but I obviously want to do more than that.

First and foremost, since it's going to be the first to occur: I will be at Trotcon in Columbus, Ohio this year. It was a very small con last year, and so despite being only two hours away from where I live, I decided not to go. This time around, however, quite a few of my friends will be attending, so I'll be making the trek up to hang out with them and do whatever else. A lot of brony convention panels kinda... weird me out, so I don't plan on taking part in any of those either. Instead, I will pretty much always be in the artist alley, running errands for friends and generally spending time with them.

Almost two months after that, I will also be attending Bronycon in Baltimore, Maryland. Once again, I've got a lot of friends making the trip out there, and I have every intention of meeting up with all of them. I'll also be in the artist alley for this one.

I'll have my username on my badge at Trotcon (don't know if there's an option for it for the Bronycon badges), so if you're in the artist alleys and you happen to see me, go ahead and say hello or something. I don't bite much. I promise!

So this happened earlier:

Of course, I instantly assumed the worst and thought someone was using one of the pics I commissioned as a fic cover. I went through page after page, going all the way back to April 14th, and couldn't find anything... and then I decided to try the banners.

My batpone OC is now in a site banner. Brb laughing forever.

I know you guys have been awfully patient whilst waiting for the next update of 'No Light'. I assure you, I'm working on it when I can, but nursing school is eating up any free time I have. Until I manage to actually resume work once more, though, here's a snippet from the upcoming chapter that I managed to type up the other day.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"How do I look?"

Noctis sighed and rolled her eyes, unamused by Ferous' actions. "You're more worried about how you look rather than how well it fits? How well it functions?"

"Hey, cut me some slack — "looking good" is basically all we did up top."

She could hardly argue with that, and admitted defeat with another sigh. "Fine, fine."

Content with having won a personal victory, Ferous decided to look over things once more in the provided mirror — an armory seemed like an odd place to have one, and yet, it still made some sense. His golden Royal Guard armor had been replaced by a much darker purple set, closely mimicking that of the Night Guard's. It wasn't entirely identical, of course, as there were numerous cosmetic and functional differences that certainly differentiated it from what it had been based upon. Adorning the purple armor was a single golden stripe along the bottom edge, apparently meant to represent those who had initially come from the Royal Guard. The armor seemed a bit heavier than what somepony in the Royal or Night Guard might wear, but it made up for it with increased protection.

Wing blades had been provided and strapped to Ferous' wings, though he currently found them equal parts itchy and cumbersome. Of course, he had already been assured by Noctis that he would get used to them "in due time". Spiked horseshoes had also been given, and it was quite obvious that these were for function rather than form, given that they had been handled with a rather long set of tongs. Evidently, some members would elect to have a mace tied to their tail, though most chose to forgo it for a variety of reasons, some of which were more obvious than others. The pegasus groaned and gave his wings several quick flexes, grimacing as he did. "Agh."

"Still itchy?"

He sighed and nodded. "Very."

"You'll live." Noctis grinned and gave his flank a quick kick, as if she were testing the armor — her hooves easily rebounded off the plating, as if to prove her right. "Or you should, at least. 'tis what we tell the new recruits."

"...not helping, Noctis."

A smirk. "I know."

I know you just read that in his voice. I'm not even sorry.

Anyways, found out that I'm basically done with class by the very first weekend of May, which is... very early, as far as semesters go. Of course, that means I can get back to updating 'No Light' soon!

...soon still being over a month away, of course. Cough.

Crediting sources has always been a problem for this fandom, but as of late, it seems to be getting especially out of hand.

A friend of mine posted the following on her tumblr earlier:

And you know what? She isn't alone. There's quite a few artists getting rather upset with this site. It's very, very common for users on this site to just grab cover art where and when they can and simply use it without asking permission or crediting the artist -- or both. If you don't ask for permission or properly credit the original artist, you're essentially giving them the middle finger. In most cases, the cover art is a picture that someone else commissioned, which is to say that they paid the artist to make it for them. So the commissioner paid actual money for the picture so they'd have something nice, and you just went and used it for your cover without either asking permission or crediting the artist. Good job, you are officially a twat.

Some other art pieces are simply something the artist did in their free time -- they tend to be more lenient in regards to other people using these images for other purposes. However, some art pieces were done with a very special purpose in mind. Perhaps someone was feeling down, or there was a death in the family, or some other big event. These pictures tend to have a fairly large amount of sentimental value attached to them, and so for you to simply use it "because it fits my fic" is incredibly rude (and by that, I mean "I will smack you in the face with a flaming shovel" rude, which is really rude).

SO, HERE'S WHAT YOU FOLKS NEED TO DO:

1.) ASK FOR PERMISSION. I know this can be hard for some of you, because OH MAN POPULAR ARTIST IN THE FANDOM THEY'LL NEVER SAY YES. You'd be surprised, however. If you ask an artist for permission to use the picture and they agree, then great, you can just go on with your business. If they say no, then DON'T USE THE DAMN IMAGE. Also, one other thing: If they don't reply to you, that doesn't mean you can just use the image anyways. Silence does not imply neither agreement nor disagreement, but if they don't answer you, you should still respect the artist and not use the image in question.

2.) CREDIT THE ARTIST. Alright, suppose you went to ask the artist, and they never replied, but you really want to use the picture. You just absolutely have to have the picture because it's so damn perfect for your fic. In that case, you'd credit the artist.

Fortunately, FIM Fiction already has a box for that. Unfortunately, hardly anyone uses the damn thing.

When you go to edit or create your fic and you get to the cover art, you'll see a little source box like that. All you have to do is type in the URL of the source to the original pic -- if you found it in a reblog chain on tumblr or on ponibooru, don't provide links to those sites. If possible, try and find the original source, which will often be deviant art or some other site (sometimes it can be tumblr -- make sure you have the right URL!).

Now please stop pissing off the artists in the fandom. Thanks.

Even if I don't get to update 'No Light' over my spring break, at least I'm doing better than Varanus.