Gone a long time, Hearts of Iron IV, Equestria at War and "Sparks" Sky Gazer

If you are reading this I hope you have a lot of time on your hands and/or interested in a rather interesting tale of events from someone who's been extremely inactive for almost a decade

It's been a long time since I have ever even touched this site, but man oh man it feels a bit nostalgic since I was only in middle school when I first joined. I've never thought I'd come back to it nor do anything MLP-related since it was more or less a niche phase and a way to practice my writing outside of my original ideas. Now, technically I would not call myself an active member much less own any affiliations to the fandom, but I respect it and it has kind of elevated a sense of inspiration for me. In fact, I remember at the meager age of T W E L V E (at the time since I have a late birthday) I was impacted by a wave of ideas inspired by...you guessed...My Little Pony.

Now there were a set number of circumstances to take into account when I got started on this journey in the past before my departure. Firstly, I had no clue the show even existed until an upperclassman introduced me to Cupcakes on top of a list of other Creepypasta (which is also how I learned what a Creepypasta is in the first place), and with zero prior knowledge of the show, I was in for a treat. After listening to an audio of the whole thing my underdeveloped brain held some expectations. As someone who had the horrific privilege of watching Happy Tree Friends, I was half-expecting that I was walking into a similar trap with MLP.

To put in an understatement of the first decade of my life: "My disappointment was immeasurable and my day is ruined."

However, I did give the show a shot. I skimmed a lot of it and only watched it in secret. I precisely remember watching all of Season 1, skipped to the end of Season 2, skimmed Season 3 (I think that had Sombra, right?), saw some of Season 4 as well as Twilight's "ascension", then I officially stopped from there until skipping the near the end of the last two seasons. A MASSIVE jump between things right? Well, my interests had changed a lot as well as my line of thinking.

Typically when I look at MLP or a lot of my childhood shows I look at a lot of "what ifs" or "how I'd do things" in my mind. As my previous childhood stories go I had a pretty bleak, violent, and rather bizarre take on those ideas and that hasn't changed. In fact, it pretty much escalated.

I bought Hearts of Iron 4, a Grand Strategy game for my PC, and later discovered the "Equestria at War" mod and that acted as a catalyst to where my roots lie. My imagination pretty much ran wild using that mod as I loved things being open to interpretation and being very imaginative of the things that happened within the game. That later revitalized an inspiration streak in me which leads me back here.

I've done the impossible.

I actually made an OC for this godforsaken fandom. Based on nothing but the horrific events and bad decision making I've made (and lack of good strategy/understanding of Hearts of Iron) and acclimated into a single pony that I've become infatuated with among other original characters I've made from scratch.

Sky Gazer, nicknamed "Sparks", callsign "Element 1" of the Crystal Empire Royal Air Force (not to be confused with the Pegasus Division) and former E-3 of the Crystal Empire Army. A young and ambitious stallion who wanted to join the Royal Guards at only age 13, then the military at 16, then join the efforts of defending the Crystal Empire during the Changeling War at age 18 where he finally got enlisted. I won't go in too deep, but to put in simply I enjoyed making him and as a return, I WILL be working on a story dedicated to him (and vow to actually finish it as I am now older and found a way to limit writer's block). Hopefully, when it comes out you all will enjoy it and perhaps this could be a successful return to duty as a writer before I gain the courage to actually start on my own works instead of spending hours drawing nothing but hopes and dreams.