It's Xpm March 4th... · 1:16am Mar 5th, 2018
...and do you know where your author is?
No?
Well, that's completely my fault.
I'm not very studious when it comes to certain things, and the more I leave you all hanging, the more embarrassed I get, and the less I want to come out and admit it. Blargle! So, here I am! I have not forgotten, and I have not stopped. I just... don't work as hard as I really should.
What I can say is that I'm on page 55 of 71 according to Google Docs, though at least 2 of those pages are just notes and drabbles. I'm skimming through the final scene, which I already spent much effort writing, so it's not as much revamping as the middle portion took. And trust me, even though it would have been easier to just release what I had, one of my editors was right. It was kinda' boring. But now things happen! Like this thing:
I blinked. The inmates hadn’t been-?
Arissa, on the other hand, didn’t hold back her laughter. “What else would anypony possibly use the hedges for?”
“Not much has changed over the years,” agreed Guard Pony.
Hah! I snorted, adding to the good-natured chuckles all around me. In response, I got a grin from Arissa. What?
I'm totally evil... 
So, to catch up on some random things. Why? 'Cause I can.
-Halloween happened, and I've still got candy left over from it. In the Easter basket from last year, no less.
-Thanksgiving happened. We ate much food, but made sure my diabetic roommate didn't east himself into a coma, and that nothing was peanut-based for another friend. My other roommate's Mac 'n Cheese is simply to die for, by the way...
-Organizing Christmas was a mess. I got blamed for being the delay on Christmas planning when it's a sister who we're always planning around because her end of the year schedule is always unforgiving. But whatever, it's not worth it to fight there. So I got myself organized, affirmatives were asked for, and we picked the weekend before Christmas. Then said sister replied that that weekend wouldn't work, and she could only do Christmas weekend itself... Like I said earlier, it's not worth the fight.
Plane tickets on/around Christmas weekend are [CENSORED] expensive, by the by. Celestia enjoyed the trip though. Here she is raising the sun, Christmas morning:
By the way, it's like -15 degrees in that picture. Fahrenheit.
Oh, and here's my mom and I at Stropp Road.
Cool, right?
-New Years happened, which was nice because it wasn't Christmas' mess. Valentines was much like it, just with more candy and less drinking at a casino. Which I guess brings us to now.
Things that are going on: My kittens are growing up. Yes, my roommate and I got kittens 'cause we both missed having cats around. They're adorable, but I don't have any good pics handy. (Also, I didn't just want to turn this into family photo time)
My other other roommate (not my roommate, or my other roommate, just to be clear) still conveniently vacates the premises moments before one of her 30 or 40 alarms is set to go off.
I'm playing the heck out of Stellaris. (Good game, by the way)
And there are like three good job openings at my work. Now I just need the district manager to get back to me so I can discuss how to approach having so many options in quick succession...
I've gotten myself into a more productive schedule, where I go to sleep earlier (generally), which allows me to wake up earlier and ideally do some writing before the day saps my Will to Word. I thought you guys would like to know that.
So, for those of you who made it this far, I have a request. A suggestion, really. A suggquest? Reggestion? Ewwww... Sounds nasty. 
Anyway! Recently a story popped up in the Royal Canterlot Library. No, it's not mine. It's JoeShogun's Nine Days Down. Read it, if you haven't. It's gooooooood. 
Now, I understand it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, since there is gore in it, but you really can't escape from Hell Tartarus without getting your hooves a little dirty. I mean, it's not like the place is just going to let you waltz out...
But what it does well, it does really well. The princesses are overpowered, but in just the ways they should be. Twilight's naïve and dorky, but just in the way she should be. Tartarus's denizens are nasty, but just in the ways they should be. Tartarus itself is bizarre, but in such a neat way. There is so, so much world building, pulling from myths many of us would recognize, but neatly slotted into Equestrian history instead. That last point, to me, is reminiscent of the background work for some of the most memorable, expansive stories on this site.
Nine Days Down definitely deserves more recognition!
(I just hope he doesn't hate me for the 6 page of gushing/fanfanfiction I sent him via PM...)
I should probably call it there, and get back to work.
I'm still around folks! I'll be a better author for you all.
Nine Days Down is quite good, yes. :3
Question: You've got some kind of collab fic in your gallery, that's marked as a sequel to another story with the exact same name. Are all versions of that the same? And if so, are there only as many copies as authors/stories in the collection? I was a little confused by that. :B
Well, it's good to hear your making progress.
I've been playing that a lot as well (1.9 though as my friends pc is horrible and can't run 2.0) but i'm going to have to take a break from it though. I don't know why, but all the AI players are being super aggressive with me to the point where it isn't fun.
Hey, great to hear from you, my man!
Nice to know you're alive. I am also alive.
Guard pony is best pony.
I'm looking forward to the loss of my sleep. Gotta make sure I reread once or thrice before the update.
I honestly thought you had given up on the story.
You know, I just finished re-re(-re?)-reading TLaP this morning and I was thinking this would be a good time to see where you were at, if you had done some progress since your last post and also (though I loathe myself for doing so) maybe give a little nudge.
Seeing this post right when I get up for work makes this plan useless. Glad to hear from you, to see you're well !
I'll just wait patiently for the next chapters. Seriously, this can't end on such a cliffhanger ! :D
I don't have much to read on this website anymore. I mostly get on everyday to read the new chapter on The Maretian and that's it. Tlap is one of those I keep checking for an update every time I browse here. I just don't want to be let down after so long though so I hope it's worth the wait.
There is another story of yours I'd like to see more of Shachza.
Bout a certain princess.
*Hugs,Thank you for letting us know how things are going. Im glad your still continueing this and do your best. Im routing for you. cute ponys. and Ive read nine days down and agree that it is well writen. hope things go well for you and thank you again. <3
Good to know you are still around and very active, even if it's not as fast as we would wan't it.
Stellaris is addictive as hell. Though I'm still not entirely convinced by 2.0.
That moment when I can in here to chat, and noticed that I'd never replaced the Xpm in the title with the actual time of posting this...
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It's one of Biscuit's crazy schemes. See, we acquired a number of insane authors, late at night, and fed them all too much caffeine. Then we played shipping masters. Each author had 30 minutes to write a story about each ship. Then we jumbled the stories up, fed them back randomly to authors in the group, then posted them as chapters in an interlinking loop of shipping madness. There's no rhyme. There's no reason. There's only the next story in the loop, full of randomness. (Until you end up back where you started.)
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Hi!
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Hello to you too!
Weird question, but you wouldn't happen to have a good picture of you in your cosplay, would you?
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Grumpiest pony, maybe. Lecol is still best pone. I best she knows Guard Pony too!
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Thankfully, no. I'm just a bad author-type-person.
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Crazy? Yeah... Thanasia is freaking awesome.
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Oh God, yes. I've been such a butt on the forums because I actually liked the initial ideas for 2.0, and think that they jumped to 2.0.2 far too quickly. Things needed fixing, but they went with both fixing and starting over from scratch.
Bleh.
Oh, well. That still won't stop my Xenophilic, Egalitarian, Militarists!
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I hope it lives up to your expectations, I really do. I know you've been so very taken by the story. But please, try not to put it up too high; I'm just an amateur trying to tell an interesting tale. Trying way too hard (the language list is up over 200 words now...), but still amateur.
Hang in there, rumble. Etherea's still very much on my mind. (creepy, no?)
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i'm still playing 1.9. My friends computer can't run 2.0 because it's a piece of junk and I don't feel like constantly installing and uninstalling the update so i'm just playing the old version. I've been having problems with the AI being super aggressive though. Every single game i've played has ended with me being invaded and taken out.
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So the various chapters in the various stories are all different?
Also, it was obviously Xtreme o'clock in the evening when you posted this. :B
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I meant Etherea.
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Yes. One of the prompts was King Sombra and Cup Cake with the shipping impetus "slap, slap, kiss." My version is different than Biscuit's, Nyronus', etc. Whose posting it ended up in, I don't know, but each anthology is distinct from the others.
Expect little to no sense, and an overdose of dumb. I did warn that it was a Biscuitism, right?
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2.02? Already? I was gone for 3 days and they are already going all over the place with this. I feel like Paradox is trying to release new stuff too fast these day, without letting it grow properly and that a few more open beta would help with all the balance issue at release.
glad you're doing alright,my dude.
YYAAAAAYYYYYY!!!! AN UPDATE!!!! THANKYOUTHANKYOU!!
Seriously, I knew you wouldn't abandon us :) thank you so much for sticking with this story, even if you don't have much time to spend on it, this is one of my favorite stories!