Feathered Hearts - Eros: Introduction · 1:38pm May 31st, 2021
Greetings to all readers, both new and returning! Welcome to Feathered Hearts - Eros. It's become of a bit of a habit for me to write introductory blogs for new stories, especially ones I worry might cause some eyebrows to raise for one reason or another. This is very much one of them, given it's based on what was originally another author's story.
Who is the author and what is the story?
That would be Feathered Heart, by the great and sorely missed Demon Eyes Laharl, progenitor of the Gentlemanverse and formerly one of the most popular authors on site.
You can read the story description, but in a nutshell, the story was set in Gentlemanverse, and it described humanity's first visit to the Griffon Kingdom through the portal to Earth opened in Equestria. In this AU, the griffons are not limited to a single town (which quite frankly I find to be ridiculous in show canon) but control the entire continent of Europe, called Aresia in their world. The US-led diplomatic delegation was accompanied by a company-sized detachment of US Marines (as they provide security to American embassies and diplomats) as well as a few civilian scientists and observers.
The story itself centers around a more mature but still-bitter Gilda, who was forced to grow up quickly after being dumped by Rainbow in season one. Returning to her homeland, she joined the Kingdom's military, and eventually ended up assigned with her partner Fortrakt as a liaison to the human civilians. All is going well after some early hiccups, but then an ancient enemy of the griffon race called the Cloven of the Sun appear, and what starts off as a slow-moving interspecies romance story morphs into a surprisingly compelling crossover war epic. It has no right to work, but trust me—it does.
Sounds good. So why are you making a clopfic based on it?
Because unfortunately, Demon Eyes Laharl never finished the original, even though it had become extremely popular and left off on a bit of a cliffhanger. 
He was last seen on Fimfiction in 2017, and dropped off the internet entirely after that. I attempted to contact him over a period of many months through Skype, old google doc comments and even his fanfiction.net account intending to ask him if I could take over and finish the story. There was no reply, so I took it upon myself to pick up the gauntlet, getting permission from the mods to do so as long as I didn't repost the original chapters to my own account. Thus, Feathered Heart was reborn as Feathered Hearts: Continuation and Chronicles:
[Adult story embed hidden]
And it is from that story that the clopfic Feathered Hearts: Eros now springs. C&C dramatically fleshes out and expands the original story, plugging some plot holes and incorporating additional lore, both from the show and my own headcanon. Where the original story had a single human/griffon romance, this has multiple ones, and I decided after the third original chapter I'd written for C&C that they should be explored properly. I didn't actually originally mean to write a clopfic side story right away, but my muse all but demanded it. And for that matter, so did many readers and prereaders!
Dunno, writing a twice-removed clopfic side story seems a bit disrespectful to the original work.
I suppose it could be seen that way, except that Demon Eyes Laharl himself wrote his own M-rated human/griffon one-shot to Feathered Heart:
[Adult story embed hidden]
He was a clopfic author first, much like me, and that was his attempt at some realistic human/griffon action using the societal rules of griffons he established, and that I now use for my own works. In fact, you'll find precious little human/griffon action on Fimfiction. Considering how popular the griffons and especially Gilda can be, it does seem like a neglected niche.
So this story will fill it?
In spades! 
Even aside from the Gentlemanverse/Feathered Heart angle, I'm marketing this story as an erotic anthology of varied human/griffon encounters, some with Gilda and some not. In it, you'll learn all about griffon mating rules and anatomy, whether they're compatible culturally and physically with humanity (spoiler: they very much are!), what they might like about humans (sexually and otherwise), and whether they're strictly straight or have any aversion to same-sex action.
To that end, you'll see every combination of genders possible before all is said and done, from man-on-eagless (the griffon term for female griffons), woman-on-tiercel (ditto for male griffons), and even man-on-tiercel and woman-on-eagless. With regards to the latter, I don't think there's much or even any of that on Fimfiction currently!
Do I need to read the main story to read the side story?
No. I've attempted to write the side story so that reading the main story is not necessary, giving each character a brief but thorough introduction--who they are, what they do, why they're there. I've also tried to catch the reader up on where you are in the main story, in stages, character by character.
The story itself will be a told from a mixture of perspectives, in third-person limited, with character perspectives switching on a chapter-by-chapter basis. That way, you'll get both human and griffon perspectives on things.
What themes and fetishes will the story contain?
Well, let's see. Just off the top of my head... straight, gay and lesbian encounters between griffons and humans, with some same-species versions of each occasionally seen as well. There will also be a lot of exhibitionism and voyeurism, and the sex itself will run the gamut from simple petting and wingplay to oral and anal and everything in between. It should also be noted that most of what's happening is magically induced, for reasons the main story will explain. These events are canon to the main story, but will (mostly) not be remembered there for reasons I won't go into here, except to say that there is intrigue afoot in the Kingdom. If you want the answers, you can pick up the main story. 
Interesting, but not all of that appeals to me.
You know, if I've learned anything over all years I've spent writing clop, it's that it's impossible to satisfy everyone in a story like this. All I can do is make the themes and fetishes varied enough that there will hopefully be something for everyone, and add additional interest in the form of worldbuilding and character development. It's a signature of my stories that even when X-rated, they're chock full of actual story and interesting information. This one will be no different.
For example, even outside of the sex scenes, you'll learn from this story everything from how the normally raw-meat preferring griffons would react to trying fried chicken for the first time, or seeing a movie like 300. You'll also learn some surprising things about what happened after the Changeling invasion of Canterlot, and how the Kingdom helped make sure their Equestrian allies would be ready if it ever happened again. Even on the human side of things, you'll hear about what their goals and fears are, and how they initially perceive the Kingdom and its exotic yet historically familiar culture.
Put another way: You can come for the clop and stay for the worldbuilding, or come for the worldbuilding and stay for the clop. Either is fine with me!
Will the chapter and fetish content be well-labeled so I know what to read and what to avoid?
In a word, yes. Each chapter will have the Author's Notes up front, where it will list in spoiler tags what themes and fetishes can be found in the chapter. You will also find a listing of spoilered chapter-by-chapter fetish content on the front page. As I've taken great pains to make the information available in multiple places, it's your responsibility to make sure you know what you're getting into. If you come back and complain without having read the content warnings, I will have no sympathy. 
Okay, so what’s with the weird chapter numbering system? Why does it start with chapter 7?
That was at the suggestion of reader Kevin Lee, who said the original sequential number system didn’t work because it didn’t indicate what main story chapter an Eros chapter related to.
The chapter title indicates what Feathered Hearts: Continuation and Chronicles chapter an individual entry happens after. For example, the first chapter is titled 7.1. This means that it occurs after chapter 7 of the main Feathered Hearts: Continuation and Chronicles story.
Individual story arcs have their own titles and consist of one or more chapters. The overall format is “<main story chapter>.<arc chapter> - <story arc name>: <arc chapter title>”. So, A chapter title like “8.16 - A Night to Remember: Fortrakt's Fantasies, Part 4” indicates that the chapter takes place after chapter 8 of the main story. It is the 16th chronological entry in the story arc, which is titled “A Night to Remember”, while the individual chapter title is “Fortrakt’s Fantasies, Part 4”.
Hopefully, that will be a little more intuitive to follow.
Anything else you'd like us to know?
Yes. First and foremost, that I cannot remember the last time my muse just grabbed hold of something like this and went to town on it. I went from nothing to writing nearly 60,000 words for this story in under six weeks. I've greatly enjoyed writing this, and I hope you all will enjoy reading it.
You will get five full chapters to start, with five more held in reserve. The reserved chapters will be released at the rate of one per day after until they run out. The story release is also accompanied by a new main story chapter, which takes place in the aftermath of the side story and explains what actually happened—who and what caused those events, and what they hoped would happen. Needless to say, it didn't work out like they thought!
And needless to say, I do hope this will draw some interest back to the main story. If you like what you see here, and would like to know more about the greater story, which will eventually include the epic crossover military action of the original, be sure and check out Feathered Hearts: Continuation and Chronicles!
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Welcome!
There are five full chapters waiting for you with five more coming over the next week. Enjoy!