Feedback, Fanart, and FRamblings · 6:08pm Jul 31st, 2020
Thanks so much for all the encouragement, everyone.
Before I get into the blog, I have more fan art to present! Once again, commissioned by Dogman15. This time it’s Hoofington’s changeling love collector crew in their disguises.
By StellarDusk
From left to right: Rose Petal (Vexor), Long Scroll (Skitter), Sweet Leaf (Firefly), Bobby Pin (Spindle), Warm Plate (Tarsus), and Vibrant Brush (Tarsus)
Dunno if I deserve it, but thanks again for the art!
I'm glad to see everyone's relatively un-unhappy about the shift in release. I'll keep up with releasing the longer chapters at lengthier (month~) intervals.
Regarding breaking them up, with the way I set up the chapters in my plot summary document, it would end up a little odd if I did that. Plus, even though I outlined the majority of events that happen throughout each chapter, it doesn't always end up that way. Sometimes as I write, another scene is added or one is removed. And sometimes what I thought was going to be a 1-2K word scene turns into a 4K word scene. So predicting the length of chapters is difficult.
Grumble grumble. Curse you over-productive brain!
Anyway, thank you all again for your kind words. I'm looking forward to getting the next chapter out to you for your enjoyment. 
So, beyond this are some ramblings about my writing. Stick around if you'd like or feel free go on your way.
(Light spoilers for Chapter 4 of Unending Love)
If you'd like a little behind the scenes look at how I write characters, Refined Aura is a good example. She didn't actually exist until I began writing the interview scene with Roast. In my plot summary, that role is a blank faced, unnamed (because I forgot to make it), male/non-gendered interrogator there only to suit the purposes of extracting information from Roast and interrogating Firefly. One of the problems I've had as an author is making sure I write the physical descriptors of characters, especially when describing how unicorns and pegasai interact with objects.
So, I thought why not have a character that does everything with only her wings? On my first draft of the scene, she was a bubbly, ditzy pony who loved touching things and didn't pay much attention to her co-workers guards. But after re-reading it, I kinda... cringed. She really wasn't interesting, she was more annoying than anything. So back to the drafting board I went.
The main question I had about her was "why?" Why did she only touch things with her wings? Then, as I began thinking more on that, I also thought about who and what she was. Obviously she was a detective and if she was one of the best, it meant she was really smart. "Okay," I thought, "what kind of characteristics do really smart people have?" So I did some research and came across several psychology articles that said they often have different kinds of quirks and ticks, some mild, some not.
Alright, so she already has one, that being how she uses her wings. What others should she have? Compulsive tidiness. Yes, that will work. And what better way to show it than rearranging another guard's desk for him? Okay, good, anything else? I thought on that for a bit and it snowballed from there. "Hmm, what if... she had a problem looking others in the eye? That could work, but why would she have that quirk?"
Aura can't look other ponies in the eye because it's like a direct interaction with that pony, because her eyes are her it becomes an opening of her soul to them, and that kind of terrifies her. A lot. So she doesn't.
But then as I started writing, her detective profession reared its head again. She's very smart and analytical, her brain is hugely logical. So, what if she could separate herself from that direct interaction? When looking in another's eyes, instead of interacting with a pony, what if she instead merely analyzes them? The interface would be gone and, in her perception, her soul no longer bared.
Alright. That was enough quirks for her. So that brings back up the question of "why?" Why the wings?' It ended up being rather simple. She likes to touch. Repetition again. "Why?" Well, because of who she is and her oddities, she would most likely be classified as on the spectrum. So with that in mind, what would her foalhood look like? What if she didn't have parents that were initially equipped to handle a filly like her?
Aura's parents tried. For the first few years of her life, she was a ball of difficulty for them. They tried to love her like her sisters, but she needed a different kind of love than other fillies. So, until her parents understood how to raise a foal like her, Aura had to find comfort in things around her.
It's common that human babies with autism tend to have motor troubles. After several falls when trying to hold something and walk on three legs, Aura tended to hold things tight against her body with her wings. It didn't require a lot of fine motor control to squeeze a muscle like that tight. So, she began using her wings for things more and more. In the crib, she'd run her wings along things, letting her feathers do the exploring and feeling and she'd use her wings to squeeze her stuffed toys against her for comfort.
Eventually, as she got older, she developed her wing control and could hold things better. But by then, her mind had already associated wings with grabbing, holding, hugging, and feeling and that became her identity. She was taught to hold things with the magic in her hooves, but using her wings was more personal, comfortable. And that was the way she grew up. Obviously she was "different", so she was made fun of in school for her odd and constant use of wings, which made her use them even more as a source of comfort against bullying.
Okay, good. So we have a detective pony who only handles things with her wings, can't look into another's eyes unless she's analyzing them, and is a little OCD about organization. What does that mean for her? Well... it would mean she's lonely. It's pretty hard to find someone willing to "take on" quirks like that and even harder for that someone to connect with her when she can't even look them in the eyes. At some point in her life, she eventually was able to be slightly more "socially acceptable" by almost looking a pony in the eyes. But that was after she'd gotten socially burned a few times.
"Alright, uhh, that's uhh... I feel bad for her now. But she's still a pony and still has pony desires. Maybe one day in her future she could find a mate to love her and snuggle her and make all the bad feelings go away. In fact, I'm sure of it, even if I never write it. She deserves it."
And that... was the creation of Refined Aura. It's a little sad to me that she's only a side character in Unending Love and there's not really a good plot I could include her in, nor one that I would feel intellectually comfortable including her in. So, she'll stay where she is, forever holding a special place in my heart.
In any case! Let me know if you liked these ramblings or if it ended up being a yawnfest. Maybe if there's enough of a desire from you all, I could write blogs like this more often.
Stay wonderful, y'all. 
With such an elaborate backstory, Refined Aura deserves her own spin-off story.
Here's an odd buddy-cop story concept. She takes a case to investigate odd(er) events in Ponyville, and winds up investigating Discord for a while. The draconequus allows it because he likes to sort of torment ponies in a passively irritating way. But over time, her odd quirks endear her to him. He remembers Fluttershy telling him that she can have many friends and still be friends with Discord, so he decides to try that on himself. He'll develop a professional friendship with a quirky detective. To use Lucifer as an example, he'll be Lucifer to Aura's Chloe. And together they'll solve crimes and get on each other's nerves a lot. But Discord discovers that he wouldn't have his professional relationship with Aura any other way.
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It's not that I can't think of a plot, but rather a couple other things. First, I'm not all that interested in reading crime/investigation novels, much less writing them. Second, and the main factor: I don't have autism.
I think I can do a decent job being respectful to people with autism, through Refined Aura in this setting (at least I very much hope so!). But otherwise, even if I did a good deal of research, I'm not confident that I could emulate autistic behavior or thinking patterns well enough to remain respectful. The last thing I'm trying to do with my writing is intentionally or unintentionally offend someone, especially someone with disabilities or disorders.
That's good concept though! Like I said, it's not a genre that's very interesting to me, but it sounds like it could be a neat story.
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If you were to write a story for Refined Aura, I bet you could get in contact with someone you know IRL who has experience with autistic people who could give you guidance.
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I'm sure there are people out there who would be willing to do such a thing. Moreover, it's that I don't feel comfortable writing it. It's a delicate and sensitive subject that I simply don't want to open myself to the possibility of making a grievous error. There are people far more qualified to write on such topics and I would prefer to leave it to them.
On top of that, none of the story concepts that have been ruminating in my mind involve someone with Aura's role.