Story preview and some general update news

While I've already stated that Sister is going to be an upcoming story in the main W-verse cycle, before we take on that matter there is a small part of the world that Wandering will be leaving behind that we need to resolve. Namely...the fate of our faithful Scout.

Going Deep

Entry #1
3rd of July, 23:10
Location: Green Swayer Inn, Hornwall, Duchy of Aurochs, Equestria

Phaetoles wasn't all too good at waiting, all things considered. She'd been berated for it several times before; both by others at the Ministry of Surveillance, and by a few ministers during her time at the royal court. She'd never actually gotten into trouble for it – which was probably why nobody had ever cared enough to report anything to the Queen – but she was fairly certain it was the reason she'd been moved from the Hermaima-Allagion office to Orion. Not that she'd minded – the flatter hierarchy of the provincial ministries suited her better, and her colleagues were a lot less annoying – but it had been a small wound to her pride.

So when she'd been drafted for the invasion swarm, she'd been overjoyed. Overjoyed, but also cautious. Royal attention meant that yes, her talent was recognized; but it also made a certain measure of patience necessary. This wasn't like infiltrating a small hicktown on the border; this was the fate of the kingdom on the line.

So Phaetoles waited passively, cursing herself for it when the invasion failed miserably because of a tiny miss she could've noticed early enough to fix, if she hadn't waited for so long. And when a strange, lanky creature came charging into swarm screaming bloody murder after they had crashed in the north, she was too out of it to do anything but wait. Which turned out to be a pretty good thing, once all things were said and done – the Hunter's timely appearance had saved the entire swarm from what otherwise would certainly have been a most gruesome fate.

And when the same Hunter finally started urging her to drop that fake act of patience, Phaetoles did. Grandly.

She'd sensed his surprise attack on the inn earlier, resulting in one of the guards getting hurled far out of her radius, disappearing into the foggy sky. She'd been a ways off, but the Scout caste wasn't called that for nothing; among the gifts they received upon acceptance was greatly enhanced sensory abilities, and that included the long-range empathy scans she had always excelled at. What was it he called them? Something about a raider. He is pretty weird, and that's not accounting for his species.

The whole development had been somewhat unnerving to her, she had to admit. Not only had he casually entrenched himself in the uppermost echelons of the swarm's hierarchy, he'd also displayed feats of power beyond what she could have imagined. That night at the lake had scared the living daylights out of her, that was for sure.

What it also had done, however, was leave her – and the rest of the swarm – more than well supplied on love to sustain themselves on. And during their little hike today she'd made sure to fill herself up on the more combat-suited energies, like anger, pride and ambition. All of those were something the Hunter was radiating constantly, and in great amounts; his own (evidently considerable) battle prowess aside, that would've made him invaluable for use on the battlefield.

So she'd thought herself more than well prepared for this little mission. After all, what was there to worry about? They had the element of surprise, and ponies were well known to be anything but nocturnal. Aside from the new princess – Luna? – and her minions, at least, and she'd have noticed if any of those were around. They felt...different from pegasi, somehow. So all things considered, her mission should have been easier than stealing love from rutting rabbits.

Needless to say, she had been terribly wrong in her assessment.

If I survive this, I really need to practice my infiltration skills more, Phaetoles thought nervously as she surveyed the room. And the room surveyed her back. Intently. She had casually trotted in through the front door wearing her Royal Guard disguise, and within moments of her doing so she had the eyes of every single pony in the room on her. Worse, she could feel their suspicion filling the air around her, a choking mattress of emotions that every changeling was taught to fear.

“You're late,” one of them finally said. “We were expecting you back five minutes ago. What do you have to report?”

Well, here goes nothing, Phaetoles thought nervously.

W-verse cycle, story 2:
RESCUE MISSION IN THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE

It's going to be similar yet different to Wandering in many, many ways - most of which I can't quite reveal yet, of course, since we've yet to finish that story, but hey. Spoilers. :)

Onto other news! Master is getting its next set of chapters down in the seaside Johto parts of the map, meaning we will - yes, it's official now - be seeing more action out of Regal!AJ and Dragonshy. Huzzah! Expect updates, well, soonish. I've got some, but not much, stuff to keep me otherwise occupied, so there. Feel free to whine at me if I'm being too slow, because despite what you might believe, it actually does work sometimes. ^^

Finally, Valere (which is what I call it because its proper name is just way too long) is now officially the next on my Crossover list, meaning we'll be picking up pace on that as soon as I feel I'm in decent enough of a position to shift over focus from Master and current W-verse works to that. Likely that will be once I'm in the closing run of Master, and don't have to do any planning ahead but just finish things up. So we're getting organized! Love you a bit of that, eh?

So here's a bit of a first for me: an official UPCOMING list for my future works. Heads up, y'all!

CURRENT ACTIVE SLOTS:
1 (W-verse reserved slot) - Wandering/Mercurial Archives
2 (Crossover slot) - Master
STORY QUEUE:
1 - Rescue Mission in the Crystal Empire; Sister; Angers of the Ministry (W-verse sidestory that I may or may not do depending on how things turn out); Project Mars (W-verse main cycle story 4, name pending)
2 - Valere; Cutie Mark Crusader Kings (name pending); Project Solid (name pending)

So there we have it. Most likely I'm going to run on this schedule or some variation of it. Feel free to throw your wild predictions at me for what you think will be seen in these future releases. Chum chum!

//ViKing AuThor