Developer's Notes Batch 1

A/N: If anyone has seen my profile, you've no doubt seen the line that reads as follows:

"I can't even count how many times I've changed the setting of my main storyline (the "Hope and Faith" saga), but now that I've finally settled on one, I'm now finally here on !"

Well, I'll be sharing the story behind that now.

I actually started conceiving ideas for this saga about nine years ago. The only consistent idea I had back then was Unod herself, who was then called "The Unnamed One" (because I couldn't think of what to name her, so I went full-on hack by giving that label to her). I think the first continuity I set the saga in was "Sonic Underground," which wasn't working out because I'd never seen that show (and YouTube hadn't been made yet, so there was no way I could see it in an ultra-convenient way). Then I switched it to being based in the world of "The Simpsons" (in my high school years, I was a pretty big Simpsons fanboy; my fanboyism blinded me to the fact that there was no way this idea would ever work out). Some time later, I switched it to being based in the world of "Sonic SatAM", and that was where I started conceiving ideas and plot points that actually did make it into the story (for one thing, this was the point where I came up with what eventually would be the ending of "The Demon Comet", as well as the Dark Blessing itself). Then when 2011 came, I started watching "My Little Pony – Friendship is Magic", and once season 1 ended, I started brainstorming again. As more seasons of that show came around, even more ideas were conceived (in fact, if I did go through with making it a MLPFiM fic, Doom Phantom— I mean, King Sombra would have served the purpose Darkrai served in the finished story). As for why I didn't make it a Pony fic after all is a story in and of itself, so I'll just condense it here: toward the end of season 2, I started becoming very bitter about the show, and then the two episodes preceding the season 3 finale ("Just for Sidekicks" and "Games Ponies Play") were the two worst episodes I had seen, which caused me to drop the ball on the show. I couldn't even enjoy previous episodes because I was seeing things I hadn't before. In short, there was no way I was going to write a fic based on the show I grew to utterly loathe (MLPFiM is currently behind TMZ as my least favorite show on TV), unless I was going to end it on the grim note "The Demon Comet" ended on (I am ashamed to confess that I once entertained that idea). And with a villain as vile as Unod, I don't think anyone would have wanted to see the heroes lose to such a fiend. So, once again, I had to look for a continuity full of good guys I actually did want to win and could root for. And this was near the time "Pokémon Mystery Dungeon – Gates to Infinity" was coming out in non-Japanese territories. In preparation for that game's release, I went back to play previous PMD games, and when I got to "Explorers of Sky", that was when my final decision was made. And then when "Gates to Infinity" came out, I played through that one and conceived the rest of the saga. And the rest is history.

So that's the story of the nine-year Development Hell the Hope and Faith saga went through. Before I end this chapter, I received a question.

Matthias Unidostres asks: "Is Bubbles's Mother really dead? They never found the body, so she might be alive somewhere."

Yeah, that plot point was a bit vague, so this question is definitely warranted. That's just what happens when a character's death is made vague (look at how many people were in doubt when Jet died in "Avatar – the Last Airbender", all because the only clue was Toph saying "He's lying," in response to him saying he'll be okay. And also, before "Explorers of Sky" came out, there was no end to the theories of what happened to Grovyle after he took Dusknoir back to the future with him; even though Grovyle didn't die, that is still a noteworthy example). Anyway, the answer.

My answer: Unfortunately, Bubbles's mother Shui really is dead. Shadow and Magus were the only family he ever had until he was adopted by Kelvin and Blessing.

And speaking of Blessing, the deleted scene featured in the next chapter will be about her.

One more thing, I do apologize to any Bronies who are upset over what I had to say about MLPFiM.