Dialogue are hard · 10:30pm Apr 24th, 2015
Chapter 23 is going at a crawl because as I've said, Fancy Pants comes in.
In and of itself, that's easy. The Royal Summit ends on a troubling note, but that's wrapped up nicely. The not easy is getting an underlying feel for Fancy Pants and his personality. While I've gotten a good sense of the personality styles of almost every member of the aforementioned squad already, Fancy Pants has been difficult to put together so he comes out the way I'm wanting. Heck, I even have something planned for Derpy and how I want her to be, but Fancy Pants is just stuck on some foundational cue that hasn't sorted itself yet. Most characters, this has been an organic process that springs out of the woodwork. Putting Fancy Pants together in a way I like, less springing and more like squeezing the moisture out of the wood. 
Once I get that missing bit sorted, it should be swift again.
Beyond that, I'm doing a fair bit of musical research of sorts, searching for songs that fit into the core of a character or the relationship between characters. That includes everything from romances all the way to Vojin and the Big Evil still unrevealed. And just because, even if anyone figures out who that is, there is still what they are in this story to figure out. All I'm going to say is something caused a major change in their approach. cough Anyway, thematic songs are more important now than they were before. Heck, just look at what Extinct did for Ch 22 with how that one came out! I also have plans for more music to be present in the story itself. Whether emotional aids for a romantic confession, or a character in contemplation, or a musical gift Vojin shares on occasion, or even one moment I have planned much later when Vojin cranks up some southern rock before breaking down a door and causing a big distraction while his team slips in for a rescue (I like this moment so much, can't wait till I get there!). Another thing is having a musical theme set also helps me get into the right state of mind when I'm writing something for a given character. Currently, I haven't figured out one for Fancy Pants.
I made the mistake of putting something out when it didn't feel right once with the original version of Ch 15, which no longer exists.
I will not make that error again. 
In the meantime, I actually updated my other story, Through Pictures, with plans for at least one more after that but wide open to infinity. For some reason, I have the occasional itch to do some Pinkie/Human romance in a fairly Slice Of Life sort of approach. It's also a "Blame Twilight's Magic" reason. Oddly enough, while it is entirely separate from Protecting Harmony, different verse and all, there are parts of it that feed ideas back across the gap. If nothing else, it will help me writing Pinkie's scenes later.
