This is just a little place I dump answers to some questions I got about what I do and how I chose to do things or why. There's also a little gallery thing below just for the fun of it. There's also some explanations of terms and canon that I use in the fic if people are confused!

First/Second Sunrise/Sunset :
Cloudsdale experiences sunrises and sunsets twice. The first sunrise is when the light breaks EQUESTRIA, but is below Cloudsdale from the perspective of a central cloud somewhere looking towards one edge that they determined a long time ago. Second sunrise is when the sun hits that edge. In reverse, First sunset is when the sun dips below the edge of Cloudsdale on the other side, and Second sunset is when it goes below Equestria.

Our regular sunrise and sunset equates to first sunrise and second sunset of Cloudsdale (and other sky lands) respectively.

Earth-borne / groundside :
Terms to describe characters and things of a 'ground' origin. This is not considered a rude term.

Underclouds :
A term used to describe Pegasi who live and/or were born in groundside cities. This is not considered a rude term.

Overcast :
This is the rude version of 'undercloud'.

Police:
The police in each different city and town are named quite differently. Here is a list of the ones that have been named before:

Canterlot Police
Fillydelphia Rangers
Las Pegasus Galeforce
Trottingham Shrievalty

Pigeons:
These are actually not birds. These are actually rats with wings. Literally. They call them pigeons in Cloudsdale, but are general cloud-rodents that have magic to walk on cloud and have a pair of fluffy wingboners. So if you ever see me describing pigeons weirdly in the fic, this is the joke.

Equestria:
While there are a lot of discussions about what Equestria actually IS, for the purposes of this fic it refers to all the lands that Princess Celestia has domain over. It is her continent. Cloudsdale is found within its borders, but because it is a sky city, does not fall under her authority. Cloudsdale is independent.

Skylla:
Don't pay attention to the Hearth's Warming tale. All pegasi originally come from a grand city far, far away to the East named Skylla, out of Princess Celestia's domain. Skylla is on the other side of the world than the Gryphon Lands and is equatable to ancient Greece of earth culture. The original language of the Pegasi is called 'Thebos', but central Equestrian (English) is very widespread and common by this point.

The Cirrhara Desert:
It is a sky tundra that exists to the far East somewhere between Cloudsdale and Skylla. It is technically a 'sky desert', not because of dryness and sand but because of hostile terrain. It is mostly fog, and is inhabited by all number of dangerous sky creatures, like the windeater of episode 3.

Eyrietrea:
The giant floating mountain, and surrounding ground, that makes up the Gryphon headlands. It is essentially a suspended island of earth and soil, carrying a huge craggy mountain, around which houses are built. Based off the idea of a Mediterranean coast-town.

M’polani Plains:
The name of the Zebra lands.

Nchi:
200 years ago, Eyrietrea and the M'polani Plains were once part of a larger continent to the west called Nchi, where Gryphons and Zebra shared the land. A war broke out between the Gryphons and the Zebra with the Zebra as the dominant race, as they had magic and tribal warfare. The Gryphons were taken as workers to conduct mining for the zebras to do trade and toolwork with. In order to ensure their safety, the Gryphons tunneled their mountain, rich in a specific kind of floating magic ore, and it floated up above Nchi, taking a large chunk of the ground with it. Over time, peace returned and relationships became better. Nchi decided to split, recognizing each other's independence.

Q: Why do you use 'hands' so much in the fic? Why do you use so many terms that have the word 'hand' as a base word?
A: Hands do exist in my world, but not in the same way as humans. Gryphon and dragon paws are referred to as hands in their universe. It's just simpler. And no, those things aren't 'claws'. They have claws, but you don't call a human hand a human nail. In the same way, you shouldn't refer to the body part as a claw. It is uncommon for ponies to use words with the word 'hand' in it, though, although they know what they are and are familiar with them.

Q: What's up with 'everyone' and 'no one'? It's everypony, damnit!
A: Yes, sort of. But it was a pun for the show, and that's how it sort of began. Let's face it. It's incredibly racist and small-minded for a species to refer to themselves and themselves only when including non-pony species in reference to a group. Gryphons are not ponies. So if you wanted to refer to them, you'd have to have a term that encompasses all sentient races. Everypony is a term used only when ponies are included in the mix. A broader term for that is 'Everyone'. Simple.

There are, however, characters who will use 'Everypony' despite this. And this is purposeful.

Q: Why do you spell it 'Gryphon'? It's spelt 'Griffin' in the show! *RAGE*
A: Yes it is. But I assume that was only because that particular spelling lent itself to the pun found in 'Given/Griffin' in the title of that one ep. Regardless, the original spelling of the term is Gryphon. I am just very much more used to spelling it that way, and they really are the same thing. It's automatic when I write it so I decided it'd be easier. Calm down there, chucko. It's a small deal.

Q: Why does Brilliant Cut in Episode 2 have a cutie mark icon? Is she going to be a cast member?
A: No. She was a loaner from a friend. Sort of a cameo character. I put her cutie mark in because I wasn't really thinking about it at the time, actually. In the future, when I do cameos, they will take the ~ mark instead, or no header icon at all. Brilliant Cut unfortunately is a one-time deal, but MAY show up in the future in sort of just references.

Q: Are you a butt?
A: Yes. I am.

Have a question? Ask me!

Please enjoy.

Egg's cutie mark is a flaming eggbeater. Or at least, that's what he thinks it is. He hasn't ever been able to figure out what it means, yet, but perhaps that will be revealed to him in the future. Maybe it's just an eggbeater on fire. No one knows.

Egg remains the only one who hasn't changed dramatically since I started conceiving this story all the way back.

This was my first ever conceptual drawing of him. Besides a bit of colour change, and the fact that this drawing is pretty terrible, he's pretty the same. But the most accurate design I have for his colours and mane is on the cover art.

This this AMAZING picture of him. It's lovely. Go check out Martian on his page. He's another excellent writer, and as we can see, an amazing artist who puts me to shame.

Emberkite's name used to be called Sheerwind. His original conception was an ex-flight instructor who was tired of teaching little fillies and put his skills to good use fighting crime. He was actually originally going to be the opposite of what Ember ended up as - extremely straight edge and the one who 'kept everyone on track'. However, through discussions I felt this was not going to work out in a team that was mainly going to be known more for their faults than successes, so I changed him to a brash, young stallion who has no impulse control.

Sheerwind is not dead, though, per se. He'll probably come back in a MotD episode.

His cutie mark is thunderbolts crossed under a cloud. But of course, the skull-and-crossbones motif is there. It represents his recklessness.

This is a very early sketch of him back when he was still 'Sheerwind'. His mane was designed more like a cliff, because he used to enjoy base jumping. His firey tail was a bit more poofy, but right now I envision it more like a streak of fire, snakelike, rather than so obviously modeled after a flame. He still carries some streaks of yellow around his mane, though.

q97randomguy drew me this very... interesting picture of Emberkite. I name him OomberKoote because it fits better. I actually like it a lot. Thank you!

Another amazing piece by Martian. Thank you, as always! This really captures his anger very well indeed~

Mocha Leche's name is a weird mix of all the languages. It just means 'Milk Chocolate Coffee', and 'Leche' is pronounced 'Leh-chay', and I'm saying this because I've actually been asked this a number of times.

Mocha's cutie mark is a cup of coffee. As she's an insomniac, she's slightly tilted, as is the cup. Also, the shadow of the moon is reflected in the crema of the coffee, to show her affinity with the night.

Of the entire cast, Mocha was the one I came up with the last. But she was the most necessary.

The red streaks under her eyes is not due to terrible eyeshadow choices. It's because she doesn't sleep. Also, her mane is impossible. But I don't care.

Early sketches of Mocha, which I don't like at all, have her in a darker colour. I'm not very happy with this. Also, the second sketch has some random text, but I drew it to mess with a friend. It's still valid though, right?

Yeah.

More recently, I did a one-layer painting of her just to fiddle with art and stuff. I think I like this one the best, although her mane is still impossible.

People have asked why she's on the cover and Survey isn't. It's a good question.

When I write for Survey, I think of Stephen Merchant. I actually don't have any art of him, because... I don't.

His mark is pretty self-explanatory. He's not special, but he doesn't have to be. As a Trottinghammer, he sports a thick British accent, and carries some of the odd word choices of the locals. He's Egg's best friend not by choice, really, but they've sort of established a weird hate-hate rapport.

Survey used to have a larger role before I found it to be more funny if he were diminished, and it makes more sense in the long run, in context, to have him skirting the sides of the cast but always flipping over back and forth.

Just for fun, a friend dumped this on me when I was bitching about how Survey had no art and I didn't know how he sort of looked like. It might not be the final design, but I sure like what it's got so far! It's a lot better than his original idea, although to be frank I like that one a lot better.

This character was the hardest for me to tie down. I had a lot of trouble writing for her because her story was very similar to a lot of others, but couldn't find a groove. She has now, though. And snapped to it quite nicely. She has always been a pacifist, and someone a bit mysterious with a lot of hidden things. Although I assure you all that she has no evil in her heart.

At least, not of her own creation.

However, her design hasn't changed much from the start. I wanted her headfeathers to sort of resemble a french beret, and the spots on her chest look like chocolate chips.

She used to have a pet baby anteater named Archibalt, but I was threatened into dropping it. (The idea, not the baby anteater.)

Her Cutie Mark is... oh wait.

Nevermind.

In my head, Cookie speaks with an odd icelandish accent. Think of bjork but less annoying and thick.

Martian did me this sketch of her once. It's not complete, but I liked it so much I put it up here anyway. Thanks very much, Martian! Maybe you can finish it one day! *wink wink nudge nudge*

q97randomguy drew another one. Cookie. Yes. It is what it is. I display this PROUDLY.

Champy's there, too.

She's a brat. Sort of. I wanted to write a brat, keeping the idea of Silver Spoon and/or Diamond Tiara in mind, but much less annoying or flatly tied to that one single aspect of that character. I wanted to try to turn it and make it 'cute' in a way, something that is good to get over, but something that also fuels a part of her character.

Her cutie mark was explained in one of the episodes, and so was much of everything else. So not much else to say about her.

I imagine her voice is like Breanne from this song.

Oh god. Ohgodohgodohgod. *eyes leak sugar* Even more incredibly sexy cute art from Martian. Check him out! You cannot resist the eyes...

The professor went through so many iterations that I scrapped her original idea and started fresh. Originally she was going to be the comic relief of the group, but I decided to make her a bit more involved since the group is pretty funny as it is already. At the very start, I really made her up as part of the 'mad scientist' trope, with a mane inspired by 'bride of frankenstein'. She had this whole steampunk thing going on with a monocle. Her cutie mark was obviously inspired by Dark Side of the Moon, but I changed that to something a lot more visually interesting.

Here she is arguing with Eternia back when Eternia still had a pet anteater named Archibalt (scrapped), and here she is being offensive to Champagne. Yes, she was that kind of character. Due to the series taking a much darker tone, and my decision to play it straight rather than 'silly', most of these original ideas were changed, and Poly took the biggest redesign hit. She's still the 'quirky' one but not insanely so.

Currently she looks like this in sketches that I never fleshed out. The most complete mugshot I have of her is this one here, which is her image from episode 5 onward. She has white eyes under the dark glasses. The only thing I kept from the old design is that she still wears two sets of goggles. But one of them is necessary for her ability to function in daylight.

One of our... antagonists, Gale was made to fill a specific role.

Of course, I can't say what that is, but she has a pretty big part later on. She's mysterious, and might be hiding more than what has already been stated. Her cutie mark is just a stylized quill, nothing fancy. But her name is based after a joke that I had with my co-conceptualizer. We both watch and are fans of the series Parks and Recreation, and in that, there is a horrible TV show presenter named Joan Callamezzo. Gale A. Mezzo is a simple reference to her, although their characters are rather different.

The A stands for Aubergine. Another name for an aubergine is an Eggplant.

Make of that what you will.

Here is a quick sketch of her, looking annoyed. She would like to very much piss in your cereal.