The June Update (2017) · 8:31pm Jun 14th, 2017
CHAPTER 5 PROGRESS:
Stage: First draft + editing
Pages: 14
Word Count: 7,443
In the span of a month, Chapter 5 has been struck with a huge amount of changes, all of them positive. You might recall that I said this in Chapter 4’s notes:
”...it isn't shaping up to be quite as long as 4.”
Yeah, turns out that Chapter 5 is probably going to be twice as long as I anticipated, and the longest chapter thus far. Current estimates put the final word count at around 11k-12k words, though this number could rise or fall in the coming weeks. Funnily enough, I was dreading this chapter going in, as I felt like I didn’t have enough content to really flesh it out and not make it feel like “Chapter 4.5.” The amount of ideas I’ve had since then have been exciting, and I’m incredibly excited to finish this part. It maaay be a little late depending on how long editing takes, but I assure you that any delays that arise are to ensure that the chapter has reached my personal standard of quality.
(It’s not due to procrastination. I swear.)
In other Of Shadows related news, I’ve settled on an abbreviation that doesn’t look or sound awkward for the story: “OSha.” Much like Murky Number 7’s “MN7” or Wasteland Economics’ “WEcon,” it saves lots of precious virtual ink to shorten the title. Feel free to adopt this abbreviation as well, if you’d like.
There are two other topics to discuss regarding OSha: a changelog and the matter of accents. Which to tackle first... alrighty...
So I am constantly tweaking and editing OSha, even once content has been published. I rigorously reread my content to seek out spelling errors and grammatical missteps, and have located a fair amount this way. It’s unlikely that anyone’s noticed, but some little things have changed with the story since it first released. I’m aiming for zero major retcons; anyway, I feel like my readers deserve to know what changes have been made since they’ve read published content. I’ll be creating and maintaining a changelog of sorts so you can know what things have been tweaked in the background. Here’s the list so far; I may include smaller ones with each blog if there are any notable updates since the last.
General changes:
-The story's description has been edited slightly.
-Improvements to spelling and grammar throughout.
-Some incorrect uses of quotation marks have been fixed.
-Quillwright's cutie mark has been revised. This hasn't had any actual effect on the story as the subject hasn't been brought up yet, but the few pieces of art depicting Quill are now out-of-date in that regard. I apologize for this one, as it's something I really should have done a long time ago.
Chapter 1:
-Quill's narration immediately following the introduction has been amended slightly.
-Aurora Tide's description has been updated.
-Explanation added regarding the PipBuck's ability to unlock Stable 56; being that the Steel Rangers had decrypted the Stable-Tec maneframe, they were able to obtain the unique override codes for each Stable. This detail wasn't present in the original chapter.
-Quill and Kyanite's original conversation within Stable 56 was revised. A reader noted to me that it sounded very out of character for either to be nervous around each other; they'd been in a relationship for several years by this point and if Kyanite had any trouble dealing with mares, it wouldn't have applied when speaking with Quill. The exchange now sounds much more natural for both.
-The battle against the Armored Stranger was extended slightly, including a few final lines of dialogue between Quill and Kyanite, as well as providing an explanation as to why Quillwright didn't act as she witnessed Kyanite be incapacitated.
Chapter 2:
-The healing process of Quill's wing has been further elaborated on. A healing potion cannot immediately seal something as severe as a dismembered limb, only speed up the scabbing process. It takes a few days for the body to catch up and heal itself, but in that timeframe the wound is still subject to contamination.
-The broadcasting station's graffiti was tweaked slightly.
Chapter 3:
-Guilty Pleasure's description of Willow Wisp was altered slightly.
-Quill now removes all of her clothes when she unpacks in the inn; as described in Chapter 4, her undershirt is soaked with blood, and it wouldn't make sense for her to sleep in it.
Chapter 4:
-Tough Sell's description of Camphor mentioned that the doctor had been in Buckwater for a "few months," but this was updated to a "few years."
-Minor tweaks made to the tribals' dialogue and mannerisms.
And there you have it. The changelog may be of little interest to you, but I felt like I should make it available for anyone who might want to know.
The other detail regarding OSha is about the accent of a certain main character. Long ago (as in, the day after Chapter 1 was published), I said this:
The Steel Ranger expedition is from Central Equestria (where the original FoE takes place), so they'd have a wide range of American accents as seen in the show. Quill has a more traditional voice (like Twilight) whereas Vox has a bit of a twang (closer to Applejack).
This has been... reassessed. You see, the issue of Quillwright’s voice hasn’t been addressed directly in the story before (being the narrator, she isn’t interested in how she herself sounds). But seeing as she often uses more “elegant” words and doesn’t dip into slang very often, I’ve been considering a way to further discern her from the rest of Southern Equestria’s residents: a “Rarity accent”.
Rarity has a British accent, a dialect that has been referred to as “fancy talk” in the show. The other day I was also thinking about how (to my knowledge), no one in the original Fallout: Equestria is described as having an accent like Rarity’s other than Dress Horse herself, at least as far as I can remember. Similarly, I couldn’t think of any examples in any of the (admittedly sparse) side stories I’ve read, so I thought: “Hey! Why not give Quillwright a British accent like Rarity and all the ‘fancy’ ponies from the show?” Granted, this is currently just my headcanon, but I’d like to know your feelings on the topic. Do you read Quillwright’s dialogue in a specific way? I know I have at least one reader from the UK and one from Australia; are you hearing an American accent from her? Or have you used the ambiguity to craft your own idea of how her voice sounds?
Also, I just had a weird thought: why do the other members of Rarity's family have varying American accents? 
Closing thoughts:
-The Fallout: Equestria Print Project happened! And every day I internally scream in anguish because I didn’t get an order in. 
I wasn’t in the best financial straits when they were being taken, and now that time’s up, whatever’s left is very pricey. The book looks so beautiful... I just want to feel the cover For now I can only hope that perhaps someday a fourth printing will occur. I know FoE’s fanbase is still huge and I’m not the only one who didn’t get a copy; I’ll be the first in line if it ever happens again. 
-I finished Anthropology! It was a fun romp.
-Pirates of the Caribbean 5 didn’t suck! It wasn’t as good as either of the first two, but I’d figure it was on-par with the third. Some gallivanting action and interesting art design really helped it feel like a genuine Pirates movie. It was certainly much better than the forgettable fourth film...
-I'm currently reading through Wasteland Economics! It's really great so far. Alloy Shaper is a neat take on a main character and how they fit into the Wastes, and the setting is awesome (because, let's face it, swamps are just the coolest).
-This month's random amazing mystery video.
-How about that site redesign? There are some negatives I’ve found, but I think most have been positive changes. The editing tools in particular have been vastly improved. Though I have to ask: why add normal emojis when we could have new ponicons? All these years and there’s still no Luna... 
-At work I've packaged a “Rectal Pressure Catheter,” a "Cervical Ripening Balloon," and a few weeks ago I saw something along the lines of a "Non-stick Condom Catheter." 
-E3 happened! And yay Metroid Prime 4 is in development 
Star Wars Battlefront II looks hella fun (plus free DLC. FREE. DLC. FROM EA. BEST TIMELINE), Ubisoft's conference was surprisingly good overall, and that game "Moss" looks adorable. The lack of a Fallout spinoff was really disappointing, as was most of Bethesda's conference. The Creation Club sounds like a way to pad out the longevity of Skyrim and Fallout 4, since it's probably gonna be a long time until the next entries and has thus kinda killed my hope for Fallout: New Orleans ever being a thing. 
...But hey, Fallout: The Frontier released a new trailer and I am beyond excited for it; the mod team is seriously pushing the limits of New Vegas' engine. I mean... driveable tanks?! 
-Here’s a link to my Bandcamp profile! I’d love to connect with you if you have one; the best way to find new music is from word of mouth. I just recently started rebuilding my library; I simply adore BC’s pricing philosophy.
And in conclusion, the cutest picture of Fluttershy I found this month:
The fact that you're excited for chapter 5 has made me reeeaally excited for chapter 5! I can't wait now!
Also i have to go back and re-read the first 4 now! There goes more of my life into horse words.. curse you!
I love this story!Also i'm sure there will be a fourth printing at some point ^^ i'd be surprised of there wasn't!
4571724
Yay horse words!
Considering how successful the previous three have been, yeah, I'm not too worried about the possibility of a fourth. All the same, I'm kinda scared to ask on the FoE subreddit in case I get a definitive "no."