Thank you for checking out my story. I hope you find your time here well spent and the story entertaining to you. Now that I'm done with that little introduction it's time to get to the nitty-gritty.
Disclaimers:
This story is not for profit. I realize that I am not perfect so there may be times in which some information may be incorrect. I do my best to enough research about something before I write about it and have some part of it rooted it realism. All characters in this story (referring to OC's) belong to me unless I put the character of another user's in, in that case credit shall belong to them and will be stated in the affected chapter's Author's Notes. All other characters (referring to human names) are fictional and any resemblance to people, living or dead, is a coincidence. I haven't gotten a royalty check from DHX Media or the Hub Network so that means that My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic belongs to DHX Media and the Hub Network. All I own is the story idea, nothing else. Any products mentioned belong to their respective owners. The MLP universe characters are humanized, however they retain whatever physical characteristics that belong to the four races. I reserve the right to change the rating or genre/character tags at any time for any reason. I have never been in the military nor do I plan to anytime soon, but I do have the respect to do as much research as I possibly can, without setting off red flags that is. Any misinformation is from lack of information, not wanting to set off red flags, or just plain laziness. If there is any major misinformation I'll try to edit it as much as possible without compromising the plot of the story. After all the main focus isn't on the military in this fic, but on the characters and their interactions. Anything that has been left INTENTIONALLY wrong is because of the aforementioned point as well as for drama. Think about how many cop shows have things incorrect for the sake of drama and drawing in the viewer.
Feedback:
I like feedback and criticism since this is my first published story on this site. If you have any questions or concerns you can reach me either here on the site or by going to my profile and clicking on the links to message me that way. I would prefer constructive criticism (ie: This was wrong, but you did this nicely. Here's how you'd change what you did wrong) over negative. If you find this story interesting enough to follow, go ahead and favorite it. If you really like it go ahead and give me a nice little thumbs-up there at the top (or bottom) of the chapter. If you dislike this, please leave a reason why so that I may do better in the future (preferably in PM form). And if you dislike this just to dislike it, please don't let the door hit you on your way out, no one's forcing you to read this. For those of you that stay, please enjoy yourselves and enjoy your stay.
Release schedule:
I try to release a chapter ever 4-14 days. Of course this is dependent on things like writer's block, editing a current chapter, being busy with life in the real world, work schedules, etc. However I reserve the right to take as long as I want to get a quality chapter out. We don't want a "crap chapter" now do we?
Other things:
This story is designed to be friendly towards the lore already set in place in the MLP universe up to the two-part season 4 premiere. After that it's sort of up for grabs. I'll try to keep up with the current episodes to make this as friendly to season 4 lore, but there might be some twists here and there, of course this little statement would be valid for episode 10 "Rainbow Falls." If you watch the episode you'll see why. If you want to throw me an OC name to use for a scene/chapter you can, however I reserve the right to whether I'll actually write it in or not. If I do then you'll receive credit for your character in the Author's Notes. The story starts in 2020 (our years), so every once in a while I might mention political things that happened in the past and how hypothetically they could be affecting "us" then. The era that that MLP characters live in is a pre-WWII-like era in terms of weapons technology.
This story was inspired by stories like CyberFire by Johnnycashsix, The Ranger's Journey by Silentpegasus, and The Journy of Graves series by GentlemanJ
If someone wants to do either a spin-off or a sequel that I do not plan on doing myself I do request (more like demand but I'm trying to be nice) that I be notified prior to publishing it via a PM or getting a hold of me via any other method that I have on my profile (twitter, YouTube, Xbox LIVE, etc. ). That would be more of a formal gesture of course.
Please avoid putting spoilers in the comments. If you must in order to discuss it with me or another reader please use the spoiler bbcode (putting "spoiler" in brackets: []) so that you don't accidentally spoil something for someone else.
Genre tags/General character information
The main genre tags that affect the story are listed as such. Chapter specific genre tags will be posted at the top of the chapter with an "A/N" and a color to emphasize the importance. That specific tag is then voided at the end of the chapter. If it does make it into the bulk of the story then it will be added to the main genre tags for the entire story.
The "sex" tag is for mainly jokes, innuendos (double endandtras), insinuation of sexual encounters/situations, and mentioning it in general. This is not a clopfic (if you're from fanfiction.net you'll be familiar with the terms "lemons" and "limes"), so while there might be suggestive scenes, there will be nothing graphically written since the content rating is "teen" and not "mature." HOWEVER, should I decide to do such a thing it will most likely appear in the form of an "extra scenes" or "deleted scenes" supplement separately published from the main story so those who don't want to read that won't have to. This would be in a similarly done fashion as done by the stories A Dash of Humanity, its sequel, and The Start of Something New. IF clop happens, that's how it will be done for this story.
The "gore" tag, like the sex tag, will only in chapters that I deem it necessary to progress the story. Again since this is a teen rated fic and not a mature one the gore levels will not be extreme.
As you viewed the main page of this story you saw the character tags for Spitfire, OC, and Other. Based on the "romance" tag it should be obvious that this is a Spitfire x OC story. The "others" that are mentioned is for other characters of the FiMverse that appear periodically and since I can only have 5 characters tagged that would make it a little difficult to have them all tagged. The main protagonists are Spitfire and my OC Andrew, the rest are secondary characters in terms of this story.
The races are relabeled as such (you could call this a "codex of species" if you desired to):
Unicorns -> Mages -> Still use magic, but with their hands instead of horns. Subtle markings signify what magic they're adept in.
Pegasi -> Angels -> Have wings proportionate to their bodies and can fly; also can use all other Pegasus abilities.
Earth ponies -> Earthborn -> Increased strength and stamina over the other races by default. Generally good with their hands (drawing, mechanics, farming, tinkering, masseuses, etc.).
Alicorns -> Princesses or Royalty -> All the abilities of the races, but with a higher power threshold.
Others (for reference purposes if mentioned):
Bat ponies -> Nightkin -> Same abilities as the "angels," have higher senses of hearing, bat wings instead of feathered ones. Naturally nocturnal because of their eyes (can live with the daytime, prefer not to if possible). Also have a false stereotype of drinking blood of animals and people.
Changelings -> Changelings -> Shapeshifting as shown in the show. Also can mimic voices similarly how mockingbirds can mimic other bird calls. They transform similarly to how Mystique does in the X-Men movies.
Sea ponies -> Mermen/Mermaids -> Think of what we typically think of in the human mythos for appearance. Control ocean currents. They can walk on dry land, but a drop of salt water causes them to change back. Have control of basic magic skills unrelated to the sea. They also may act as "sirens" to attract a mating partner if desperate enough.
Crystal ponies -> Crystalline -> The same sort of skill set as the Earthborn, however they like using crystals in their technology like we would use silicon chips for. It is not uncommon for their hair or skin to "sparkle" in sunlight, it is more prevalent during the Crystal Heart festival.
Breezies -> Pixies -> They have a kingdom hidden away on the western side of Equestria. The main gender distinction is that the afro-like hairstyle belongs to the men while the long flowing hair belongs to the women. Think of a similar look of what Tinkerbell from Peter Pan looked. Their primary language sounds like a mixture of Celtic and Swedish. Not much is known about them other than they travel through Ponyville once a year.
Dragons -> Dragons/Dragonborn -> There are two distinctions of the draconic species, the naturally hatched and the artificially hatched via magic. The naturally hatched take on the form of their draconic parents as they are hatched via dragon's fire; the artificially hatched are done so by magic (usually be very powerful mages) and take a form in which is appealing to the caster to take care of (imprinting based on magic signature). Naturally hatched dragons are of course called dragons or draconic, while their artificially hatched cousins are called dragonborn. Once their coming of age (puberty) arrives they may choose whether to stay as their artificially hatched form or take on a draconic form, however they must stay in the chosen form for the rest of their days. It is not uncommon for those during the draconic coming of age to swap between forms to see which they prefer. Dragonborn have slitted eyes as reptiles do and can breathe fire that can be used as a secure communication method between people as well as a self-defense mechanism. They are natural megalomaniacs.
Formatting: Added (7/10/14)
Alright now this is a bit new for me to be writing in here, but since I've been getting some new peeps watching and reading the story I figured that it would be good to get it out of the way as soon as possible to alleviate any confusion. Note that this is based off of most professional writing styles that I've observed in published novels.
"Speaking" - This is your standard character dialogue (though it will have slightly different quotes thanks to my word processor)
"'Quoting'" - This occurs when a character is quoting something or someone while speaking to another.
'Thoughts' - Internal monologue of anyone not the narrator (which means 9/10 times anyone but Andrew).
[Translation] - This only applies to where another language is being spoken, but has been "translated" over for you to read normally.
Alright then ladies, gents, and lads (please apply the appropriate title to yourself), now that you've read this little disclaimer/foreword section I would like to ask you to keep you hands and feet inside the car at all times and wait for the ride to make a complete stop before getting out of the car. Wait that's for rides at an amusement park? My bad. But regardless enjoy the story, and as stated before, I welcome feedback from my readers.