The Uncrowned Queen of Magic

The alicorn made the last adjustment to the components of the spell, examined them with a critical eye, and nodded to herself. Everything was in order. The doors were shut, locked, and sealed, the windows likewise, and with her current home in the middle of the expanded Everfree Forest, she was unlikely to get a visitor to begin with.

Apple Branches: Cloudy Nights

Big Macintosh scrubbed at his face. “All right, first things first. Ah’ll check on Brae, then see if Soarin’ shows up. It’s dark out, so Luna only knows if Dash can find ‘im.”

The next chapter...

Will be up in a few days.

And you will hate me for it.

*Maniacal cackling.*

Apple Branches: Spreading Branches

He’s runnin’ late, Big Macintosh thought to himself as he idly drummed a hoof on the restaurant’s table.

Not that he was surprised. Despite how much the poor pony tried, something was bound to go wrong for Caramel. It was just how things seemed to work around the tan stallion, and by now both he and Macintosh had simply come to accept it.

Fanart Update 2

This was sent to me a few days ago.

I'm mildly annoyed; the artist can draw ponies far better than I.

Working on the next Apple Branches update I swear.

Apple Branches: Pegasus Feathers

Soarin’ sighed, quietly, as Braeburn rooted through the pantry and cupboards to find the things he needed to “make the best pie possible”.

He’s not bad looking, no. But... Soarin’ crinkled his nose as he thought. Something about him just sets my teeth on edge. It might be his attitude. It might be his whole “woe is me pity my poor broken shell of a body” thing.

Braeburn dropped a pan onto the counter with a clatter, and the pegasus winced. Or it’s his attitude. Nothing’s worse than a stallion who cares only for himself.

Apple Branches: Powder Blue Wings

“He did what?!” boggled Rainbow Dash, her jaw dropping in sheer shock.

“I told ya, he went and dragged m’ brother off to his house in front o’ everypony in town!”

The rainbow-maned pegasus blinked a few times, trying to imagine the scene - shy, flighty Caramel, stamping up to a stallion who was a few hands higher and - she broke off, blushing. “I... wow. That is totally, uh...”

Fanart, Woo!

So, Written Waiver, at my request, did a painting of Caramel and Macintosh in a scene from "Winter Apples".

Have a look.

I'm quite pleased with it, to say the least. Now go give him adulation and congratulation.

Commentary

All right, this one isn't actually a 'fic post. In fact, it's more of an apology.

First of all, I'd like to apologize for that two month break in updates. As much as I'd like to say "oh, I was working hard on it, I just couldn't get it together," it'd be a complete lie. In fact, for most of those two months, I did absolutely nothing in the way of writing. I suppose I could claim that it was a personal problem, but I really doubt "I was lazy" counts as a personal problem. Or, for that matter, a decent excuse.

Secondly, I'd like to apologize for the sudden drop in formatting quality; it annoys the everloving hell out of me, and I assure you I have no idea why it looks like that; I type everything out in Google Docs, it looks fine, and then I copy-paste it to the Gearbox... and it all goes to hell, and no amount of editing I do seems to fix it - and every time I try to go to HTML mode and correct it manually my eyes glaze over, because apparently there is a lot of formatting I'm not privy to when composing posts normally.

Have I mentioned having any form of technological savvy is not part of my skillset?

In response to the first problem, I'll say this: yes, it was absolutely terrible of me to leave you hanging. I am not at all happy with myself about it, and I'll do my best to get at least one update a month going from now on, if not more. If I fail on this, feel free to leave a scathing comment about my lack of work ethic. I'm serious.

Secondly, the formatting, I'm looking at a few ways to remedy it, and the best one seems to be coming up with a special character and some extra line spaces to indicate scene changes...

Honestly, as much as it'd be simpler to leave it as Google Docs, and link to the document, I prefer using Blogger so I can see your comments. I might not reply to every single one, but I do read them, and I do appreciate them. Despite a few trolls on EqD, and just as many people, if not more, seeing the premise and reject reading it out of hand, I haven't censored a single comment anyone's made to the blog, and I don't intend to. If you like it, that's fine. If you love it, great! If you don't like it, or think something's terrible - tell me, along with your reason. If it's something like "I don't like this story because it's M/M", then perhaps you're reading the wrong fanfic...

But if it's something I could improve on? Yeah, I'd like to know.

Thanks,

Cogs.

Apple Branches: Sweetened Apples

It was a wonderful day; the birds were shining, the sun was singing...

Er... whoops. Got that backwards. Caramel chuckled as he made his way past slush and mud-covered roads, then resumed grinning ear-to-ear and whistling a happy tune... terribly off-key. His horrible luck clearly extended to how well he learned the musical arts.

Apple Branches: Winter Apples

Big Macintosh stared out over the snow-covered fields, his teeth working over the hay stem held between his lips. It wasn’t the best of habits, and it had led to several shouting matches between himself and Granny Smith when he’d first picked it up...

All right. Maybe it had mostly been Granny shouting at him while he looked for someplace to hide.