First - the final edition · 11:13pm Oct 12th, 2015
Well, the first MLP fanfic I ever wrote, the cleverly titled "First", is finally finished.
Over the last few days, I gave it a thorough cleaning and polishing up for a combination of grammar and content, especially showing versus telling. I think it's in way better shape now. There's also some (very slight) retcon in there to update it to fit the current state of the universe, since this was originally written way back before Twilicorn happened.
Maybe it's strange that I would dig this up yet again. I'm sure that most (saner) authors wouldn't have. There would be better, newer things to write. I just had to, though. This is the story that I cut my teeth on. It's a story that honed and encouraged my writing skills when they were just starting to emerge. It was my first Equestria Daily feature. It was a lifeline the connected me with people who reached out and understood at a time in life when I felt like I was dying and there was no one else who did understand. It's a story that taught me a lot of things and got me through rough times that I've thought about long and hard almost every day since.
This story means a great deal to me, and after four years, I finally feel like I've finished it to the point of satisfaction. Now it's time for me to finally stop working on this and move on for good.
Thank you for reading the final edition of "First" (if you do).
One more thing: looking through my backup archives of this story, I also found a copy-paste I took for some reason and then saved in Notepad of my responses to the now long-lost initial comments from readers during the initial Equestria Daily posting!
Winston here (the author of this story).
I wanted to stop in and say thank you, to everyone who voiced their comments, and to the whole Brony community here at EqD, for your reception and your kindness.
This is the first piece of MLP fanfiction I've written and the response has been incredible. To be honest, I was scared that this wouldn't be so well accepted. Some aspects of this work are personal in nature. They were things that I felt I had to say somewhere, and I didn't know if many other people would relate to or appreciate them very much. What I've found is that I shouldn't have felt alone. I connected with a lot more people and found more acceptance and understanding than I'd ever hoped this story would meet.
To those who've said that this story touched their lives or their hearts in some way, it's an honor to know that. The greatest reward in any effort is knowing that it's done something for someone else.
For everyone who had their criticisms of this story, I accept them. They've been fair and well-stated. In fact, a lot of them were things I thought about myself before I made a decision to release this story. I know that reflections of the darker aspects of the real world's nature are not what some people are looking for in their pony fiction, and there would be dislike in some minds for the premise and for the concepts it revolves around and maybe some resentment for choosing to work with those in a Pony story platform. I also went in knowing that some people would have problems with Rainbow Dash's characterization (particularly in having to expand it beyond the fairly limited boundaries of the strictly canonical) and the way that I've handled her interaction and dialogue with Twilight. All I can really say is that those were the ways I felt like I had to write it. This story wasn't by any means written to try to please everyone, but to explore certain things and try to present a vision of them in the Pony contextual universe, so I completely understand your dislikes and why it's just not to some peoples taste. If you did have an issue with this story, thank you for your responses and your explanations. They've all been reasonable and I appreciate hearing about what you think could / should have been done better or differently.
I'm not completely sure what I'll end up writing next. I can tell you, though, that this community is encouraging and one that I feel good about doing fan work for. Thanks.
I'm amazed I have that little snippet. All I can think is that I must have been editing it in Notepad before posting so that I wouldn't typo or say anything too embarrassing in a comment that couldn't be edited. Man, that brings back memories...
But I think that's enough waxing nostalgic for now.
Sane authors? Around here? Nah. Pretty cool that you found that response comment just lingering in your computer somewhere.
3465904 I'm pretty sure 'sanity must be surrendered henceforth' was in the fine print on the Fimfic account setup page.
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I don't know. That implies most of us had such a thing before coming here.
3465948 Good point. ;)
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I think I might have shown up with some tattered scraps still clinging here and there. Fortunately, with this place's help I was able to lose them in a much better way than I might have otherwise!