Oh my gosh! Information, glorious information! This week we have been flooded with so much new information that it's been truly terrific. We got a trailer and plenty of screenshots, a little more could have been detailed but with how little we've so far had I appreciate what we've received. Of course I'm sure you want to know my thoughts on it and I'll be glad to tell you. Well, I love all I've seen... of Pokémon X and Y.

As of the moment, you see that little yellow lizard. Well it's an electric/normal type who powers itself via sunlight and has an electric move that heals and does damage. Its name is Helioptile, which is stupidly hard to say but I'm probably going to have one in my squad and I will naming it Tanner. Also, because it is obligatory now that we have robin Pokémon, the following picture must be posted.

Now, I'm sure there was something else that came out recently, something really important... meh; I'll remember it for a later blog. Let's move onto fanfiction progress folks.

Fanfiction Progression

Progress on Promotion has been going slowly but I've been organising how I'm to write it quite well. Instead of writing all of the scenes in order I think it would be better to finish all of the shorter scenes, including the one at the end, and then write the longest scene of the fanfic that is most likely to take up the most time. As they are shorter scenes with only a handful of characters playing a part in each of them, whereas the largest scene has all of the assist trophies involved, my understanding of how everything plays out and the exchanges of dialogue is clearer. So if all goes well then by the end of the next week I can all but the large scene finished, and thus devotes all my focus towards it. The best factor to timing, though perhaps not to quality, is that I lack a proof-reader for the Super Smash Bros fandom and thus I won't have to worry so much about how long a proof-reader will take with it. Besides, any major errors or flaws will be pointed out by readers and I will quickly fix them up.

Progress on Promotion is probably not what you want to hear from me. Oh I know what to hear me say. Out of the blue a fanfic has appeared, written by my hand and one I have never mentioned before. What gives? Did I forget to mention this story before, or simply withheld information on it in order to surprise you? The answer may surprise you, as this new fanfic, Fluttershy the Cheerleader, has something in common with the greatest fanfic I've ever written Dull and Dulling (on that note if you are to read any of my non pony fanfics I do advice Dull and Dulling, best story idea I've had). The thing they have in common... they were both written in a single day.

To explain how I came to write Fluttershy the Cheerleader, let me inform you of the Flutterdash groups FlutterDash Prompt Tag (For the FlutterDash Group Collab), a wonderful little thing FlutterDash-er Jake Roberts organised (yes, we are talking about the same Jake Roberts who supports AppleDash, it is weird seeing significant contributions from shippers that also support rival ships towards the very thing they are significantly contributing towards). Anyway, the way the FlutterDash Group Collab works is that someone suggests a prompt on the FlutterDash Prompt Tag thread (say midnight or tea, and then use that as a theme), someone lays a claim to that prompt and writes a short 100-500 word FlutterDash fanfic for it. It's a wonderful idea but one I have little time for, I'm busy with work, busy with SSB fanfiction, and hope to swing back into reviewing soon. Also most of the prompts weren’t appealing to me until one day the prompt 'cheering' was put forth. I've brainstormed previously an idea centring on Fluttershy cheering for Rainbow Dash, and so decided I should claim this prompt and write a short story for it. Then Flutterguy89 snatched it up before me. He goes onto the revenge list now. Well this bothered me, I had gotten all excited for writing this short story and the idea wouldn't rest. I happened to have the day off the next day and thus decided to just write my prompt idea for cheering as a longer, standalone one-shot.

Something you will sadly never see is the witty banter and exchange of FlutterDash ideas that NintendoGal and I share with one another over Skype. In one of these exchanges the subject of Equestria Girls was brought up and from there whether or not the animators and writers will continue to ship FlutterDash (with season 2 you know they do). This sprung forth an idea from me of a tale of Rainbow Dash dressing Fluttershy up as a cheerleader to help her practise with the problem arising that Rainbow Dash was having a hard time keeping her eyes off Fluttershy. So when I saw the 'cheering' prompt this idea sprung to mind. I simply thought of a shorter pony version towards it. Even with the fanfic now being longer than the 500 word cap, it is still best described as a funny, short and sweet fanfic, and has kept the pony aspect to it.

The initial idea of humanised Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, was changed to a pony 500 word prompt, and the back to a short story albeit with ponies being ponies. I won't go into some of my ideas for the human version but the prompt version can be effectively summed up as the opening paragraph combined with the last scene of the fanfic. It would have started with Rainbow Dash musing over the reason she had crash landed, describing cheerleader Fluttershy, explaining why Fluttershy is dressed (in Rainbow's thoughts and not a scene switch), and then ending with Fluttershy taking care of Rainbow. The idea on how to expand it started with simply showcasing Fluttershy dressing up as a cheerleader, as well as showing Fluttershy's improved cheerleader cheers for Rainbow Dash. Then I wanted to add in the opening part where Rainbow Dash gets the idea, and then I thought of both the measurement joke and role-playing joke so Rarity made her way into the story. Simple, but that's how things expanded after having been altered and cut down.

The title has changed quite a bit during it's creation and even now as it has been uploaded I am not satisfied with it's name. Other title ideas included the original 'A Cute Cheerleader Proves Distracting', 'Cheering!', 'Crash and Burn', 'Rainbow Dash's Cheerleader', and 'Cute Distracting Cheers' but in the end I went with Rated's suggestion of Fluttershy the Cheerleader, a title also approved by my younger brother because it was the least creepy and/or weird (when I told him the plot involved Rainbow Dash dressing Fluttershy as a cheerleader his suggestion for a title was 'Rainbow Creep'... I for some reason chose not to use this title).

My final comments to the fanfic then go towards Rated PonyStar, whom I thank very much. When I decided to write this fanfic and realised I could get it uploaded before I even once mentioned it in my fanfiction progress I decided I should make it a surprise treat for my readers. It was Wednesday evening and I wanted someone who could proof-read the fanfic in less than two days. I imagined the ever busy Ugugg would reply to my short notice request with a response fitting his raging avatar and collection of flipping table gifs so I went to collage finished Rated PonyStar. His proof-reading and suggestion of the Rainbow chanting about Fluttershy scene really helped and I truly appreciate the great work he put in, especially given such short notice. A round of applause for Rated PonyStar everyone.

Main Article

This blog post is long enough as it is so I shall skip out on a main topic for this week. It's a shame too; I had such a brilliant thing planned as well. Actually, giving you guys a week notice in advance to think up ideas for my upcoming interactive post might be a swell thing to do. So I shall. I will ask this question now to ready your answers for it next week, so without further ado next week's blog post will cover the topic of...

"How would you design a My Little Pony Trading Card Game?"