Monthly (and super brief, again) Progress Update [February 2019] + Sneak Peek

Just got back from celebrating the Chinese New Year with my relatives in the countryside. My time this past week was mostly preoccupied with meeting relatives, eating, playing with my cousins, eating, eating, meeting new additions to the family, taking photos, eating, participating in the annual gambling night over bottles of beer and also eating. Gotta say, I had a lot more fun than I expected looking back at it all.

I'm now currently doing some bookkeeping work for my parents' shop, which is basically the main reason why I'm rarely around on the site and churning out horse words these past few months. Wanted to get the New Year's story out as well, but once again, real life foiled my master plan.

Also, my laptop died again, this time for good. I'm getting a new one soon and hopefully, my stuff is salvageable this time around. As much as I enjoy flexing my fingers and recuperating all my story notes, it's not exactly something I'm looking forward to doing again. Will see how that pans out.

Anywhos, I don't wanna leave you guys hanging, so I'll put up a sneak peek of that New Year's story I'm talking about. It's my light-hearted foray back into romance with some pretty strange stuff interwoven in between, of which I'm still doing some restructuring. Once again, hopeful it'll be out in the next couple of weeks despite everything that's happening.

And with that, I'll leave you guys and girls with a snippet. WritingSpirit, signing out!

---

Sunburst knew, for the longest time now, that this couldn't go on forever.

The Royal Crystaller was seated at the finest dining table in the Crystal Palace, his hooves restlessly rubbing on the ornate curves of his teacup. His breakfast was laid before him, a plate of waffles glazed in syrup, plain and simple as breakfast could be, yet they remained uneaten, untouched. Instead, his eyes were creased into a deadpan stare, for across the table sat his charge going to town on her own plate of pancakes, brazenly licking and smacking her lips free of the syrup gratuitously spilling down her chin, only to stop when she noticed he was looking right at her.

"What?"

Sunburst raised an eyebrow.

"Seriously, what did I do?"

He sighed. "You asked if—"

"I just asked if you two kissed yet. Right? Yeah. That's it, that’s all I asked," Flurry Heart stated with a shrug, before grabbing another pancake with her hooves and stuffing it in between the pair she was already chewing in her mouth, the syrup dribbling down the edges of her lips and splattering across her plate. "Gffhuh fig greeugh, hargght?"

"For the love of your grandaunt, Flurry, stop talking with your mouth full."

"I said it's no big deal, right?" she repeated once she swallowed, before licking the syrup off her hooves; a sight Sunburst preferred to behold from a grooming cat than from the young princess of the Crystal Empire. "It's not like I'm asking you what pet name you give her or anything,” she continued. "Or whether or not you guys have slept together yet. Like, eeeshh~! Not exactly a picture I want in my head, Uncle Sunburst."

"Not exactly a question I want to hear coming from you either, young lady," Sunburst grumbled.

Mornings were never a good time to ask questions anyway, especially those of an intrusive and provocative nature. It was an unspoken lesson he was sure the teenager currently slobbering over her breakfast should've picked up by now, though her repeated attempts of interrogation regardless of his repeated attempts of dismissal proved only the contrary. "Why do you even want to know anyway?"

"Oh, you know! Cause I'm awfully worried about my ol' Uncle Sunburst, of course!"

Sunburst raised an eyebrow, his other one this time.

"Okay, so maybe not exactly that, but it's at least sixty-five percent of the reason, I swear!" Flurry Heart insisted. "Look, whenever you guys are in the same room together, like, Gruntie Luna's flanks, the tension between you two! Thick and juicy! Like a knife into butter; cleft in twain! I mean, come on, it's so obvious!"

"I have no idea what you’re talking about."

"Ugh, really? What it means is you two should just get a room already!"

"I thought you said you didn't want that kinda picture in your head?" At her pout, Sunburst chuckled. "Look, Starlight's just a friend, Flurry. I know you're going to tell me that doesn't seem to be the case, but trust me, there's really nothing going on between us."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing."

Flurry Heart pursed her lips, her eyes falling back down to the last glazing pancake remaining on her plate, only to meet his gaze once more. "Not even a tiny itty bitty thing?"

"Flurry Heart, enough." Sunburst sighed. "I know you're finding this hard to believe but Starlight and I aren't like that. We're just really old friends, that's all—"

"Not just old friends, Uncle Sunburst! Foalhood friends! Which is why it only makes sense—"

"—and as much as I find it amusing that you look at us that way—"

"—that you two would absolutely, positively be perfect together!"

"—I should probably also mention that Starlight's already seeing somepony else."

Only when his words finally reached her did Flurry Heart stop in her tracks. Her jaw dropped first, her eyes bright and wide before they scurried back to the newfound sanctuary of her uneaten pancake. "Oh," was the only word that managed to flutter out of her mouth, the rest of her sentence lost in an audible gulp.

Sunburst quietly returned to his tea.

Albums I'm Listening To [January + February 2019]