MAegis
MLP: FiM
Dark
Horror
Slice of Life
Aegis. An ancient word that means parental love. When five foals get locked inside a mall at night, they discover that not all entities grant them such love. If they survive the tortures, they might find out what the absence of Aegis truly means.
Sex
Gore
Violence
Profanity
Other
Babs Seed
Fluttercheer · 51k words · 10 3 · 210 views

2018: My Pony Year in Retrospective · 9:47pm Dec 31st, 2018

It's time to do this again..... This time also here on FIMFiction.net, instead of just on Deviantart, to follow-up on my sort-of retrospective I wrote here last year.
I did not feel like writing a real retrospective last year, because 2017 has been such a trying time that I did not want to look back at all the pain it caused for me and DinkyUniverse, but this year I am writing one again. 2018 was by far not perfect and especially not the wonderful year that 2016 was, but it was a vast improvement over 2017, so I can look back at it without going through a nightmare.
Brace yourselves..... This retrospective is going to be much happier than the short end-of-the-year blog entry that I've written at the end of 2017.

January

The year started rough..... Just like 2016 started rough, as well. And just like 2016, it started with me having to move out from the apartment I lived in and to find a new place to live. It was very hard and I almost didn't make it in time, as you can read in the blog entry that I linked above, but eventually I did. I found a nice new room in an apartment, even cheaper than the one before, and so I was safe. It's a very nice apartment that reminds me in a lot of ways on the apartment I lived in right after I moved here to Vienna in 2012 and where I lived during my first three years here.
January was a very exhausting month. I moved into my new place on January 9th and the following two weeks were spent with arranging my furniture proper and with placing all my ponies, as well as the other things I still possess, where they belong.
After this, a few weeks of relaxation with watching videos, rewatching Season 7 of MLP: FiM, reading a couple of issues of the official comics that had piled themselves up and general laziness to recover from the moving stress followed, which extended into February.

February

More relaxation happened in this month, but I also started writing again. in 2017, I had adopted a fic submission on FIMFiction.net from a pony author who stopped writing ponyfics and who gave her fics away. An opportunity I took, so I grabbed the story "The Sun Still Shines", a story about Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash, something that I absolutely did not want to go to waste.
On February 23rd, I released "The Sun Still Shines", greatly expanded on the idea by the author I got it from and with a surprising twist that is going to tug at your heartstrings like a freight train would if you read it.
It was also the month a bird I lived with died, which is why I dedicated this story to him and gave him a mention in the Author's Notes of it. The date of his death was oddly close to the release of a story that has a fitting and very similar occurence in its plot, which is just one of the moments that show me why I don't really believe in coincidences anymore.

March

After "The Sun Still Shines" was finished, I continued writing immediately, because I had decided to participate in a writing contest, my first one ever. After reading about the "Next Generation" writing contest hosted by GaPJaxie, I felt compelled to participate and to write a story about the "Next Generation" in the only one and true way to write such a story, by writing my own possible Generation 5 of My Little Pony.
I was trying out something new with this story, the intent was to write each chapter (episode) exactly so long that, if it would get animated, fit into a 22-minute timeframe. This required a lot of thinking and of imagining each scene and letting it play in my head over and over again, as well as reading what I wrote while measuring the time and making re-adjustments to the dialogues, among other things. I also prepared a logo for it and title cards, which meant to make a lot of screenshots and to cut them. It was taxing, yet rewarding, to do that, even though my story did not meet the contest's rules and was therefore not eligible for one of the prizes, as I wanted to send an important message with it.
March also saw the start of the long-awaited Season 8. I won a Wooden Toaster t-shirt at the Season 8 Start Meetup here in Vienna, which was neat, and I found a new and very adorable love and waifu with Silverstream, which was awesome and spectacular! I also got highly interested in all of the Student Six, which caused a couple of story ideas I've yet to write and will in the new year. Photos I made at the Season 8 Start Meetup also made me use my Instagram account more and so, I started to make the account really active. It has seen a lot of posts and pictures in 2018.
I also started to publish my episode reviews on FIMFiction.net, something I had never done before because I wanted my blog entries there to be focused on my writing only, as well as started to analyze new episodes even more in-depth than I had already done in the past, to support MLP: FiM more in sight of the strong possibility that Season 9 isn't going to be the last one.
The writing of "My Little Pony: Guardians of Crystal Growth" slowed my writing tempo down again a bit, as I had to mentally recover from the challenges writing it has brought, which should delay the release of my next fic until May.
March also saw a story for the Student Six by a rather new pony (creature) author, Saucyberry, which I became quite attached to, but then was sadly discontinued as Saucyberry vanished without a trace at the beginning of May after only three chapters.

April

April followed and Season 8 came into full swing. I quickly started to miss Silverstream when she wasn't starring in new episodes after the season opener, only two weeks after the season started and when "Fake It 'Til You Make It" aired already. It made me depressed and let me realize how much I love her and I was quite marvelled by discovering that I love her just as much as I love Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, something I did not thought to be possible.
The most important thing I did in this month was writing down my thoughts and feelings about the leaked information regarding the possible end of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic with Season 9, as well as my realization why there is a strong chance that Season 9 will not be the last one.
April was also the month in which Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle got sent by the Tree of Harmony on a map mission, as seen in "Surf and/or Turf", which made me incredibly proud of them and happy once more!
To my own surprise, I also finally drew a pony again in this month after a long time! I had just finished reading Chapter 9 of "Fallout: Equestria" (and I'm still not further, so, NO SPOILERS!) and I felt so much for a particular filly in it that I just had to draw her.
Of course I also continued writing, as 2017 and its woes had left me with a massive writing backlog (one that still isn't fully processed) and so, I wrote away at a story about a background filly called Brown Sugar, that I had promised DinkyUniverse a long time ago. I promoted it very strongly since March, to ensure that it gets proper attention, as barely anyone in the fandom knows Brown Sugar. And it was a story that had a huge surprise waiting for me in the month after.....

May

May 17th was the day that saw the release of "Wish for a Mother", my story for Brown Sugar, as it was requested by DinkyUniverse in the year before. Since I was writing about a background pony who barely anyone knew, I did not reckon with much success and popularity for this story..... But already the same day proved me wrong, as the views did not only skyrocket, but the fic made it into the Feature Box, as well!
This marks the first and still only time I managed to get into the Feature Box, so far, and it gave me a lot of hope for it that writing about background ponies can become more common again in the fandom, like it used to in the past.
In May, I could also finally write a fic for Tempest Shadow, after 2017 had prevented me from it so long. "Now..... we settle the score." was far less sucessful than "Wish for a Mother", but it was carthartic to me that I could finally do this.
I also attended one of the greatest events that were ever held in "Legends of Equestria", the Grand Galloping Gala, which saw more than 100 ponies attending, something that no event in "Legends of Equestria" ever managed before! I met Flurry Heart during this event, which resulted in a very nice and lengthy roleplay that even inspired a new story.

June

June came and with it, a slow and quiet Summer for my writing started. Getting back into writing proper proved hard in this month. I was still writing away on another story for Tempest Shadow, a multi-chapter story this time, but progress was slow. This partially happened because of the discovery that the plans I had made for this story did not work anymore when I could finally read the movie prequel comics. It required re-planning of the story and coming up with new ideas, which led to another delay of the story.
Another thing that happened in this month was that I bought and read the last volume and grand finale of the "Ponyville Mysteries" book series, "Journey to the Livewood". It was fantastic to see Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle saving all of Equestria from a threat, for once. It's something I would not mind seeing more often in the future!
In other news, this month saw a little more drawing by me, as I spontaneously drew a picture of Noi. Which is something that let me realize that drawing ponies happened a lot more frequently for me this year.

July

Another quiet month. Preparing my second fic for Tempest Shadow continued sluggishly. I also took a week of vacation, sort of, in a nudist area here in Vienna, where I spent most of each day in this week and even one night.
But it wasn't a completely inactive month. July also saw my traditional participation in "Ponies Around the World", for which I visited a more than 1,000 years old church this year, accompanied by my Cutie Mark Crusaders plushies and my figure of Princess Skystar. The Newbie Artist Training Grounds happened, as well, again this year and I participated with several pony drawings:

NATG VIII - Day 1: GO, Team Cloudsdale!

NATG VIII - Day 2: Circlejumping

NATG VIII - Day 5: A Cold Treat[

NATG VIII - Day 7: Finally I can fight!

NATG VIII - Day 9: She stole my hive!

NATG VIII - Day 10: Free and without shame

Drawing these brought my drawing activity in this year on a level I wasn't on since 2015, so it was still a pretty successful month. I also participated in the Equestria Games in "Legends of Equestria", sadly with little success, but I went out of them with the determination to do it much better next year.

August

In August, it became a little darker for me again..... but thankfully not as bad as it was in 2017. Backstabbed by a ~~pony~~ demon behind the mask of a cheery pony, who I trusted to be a good person but turned against me for egocentric reasons, a person who shall not be named here now, crippled my spirit in this month. Another week of "vacation" in the nudist area shortly after this, where I also celebrated the 5th Anniversary of me reading the Cutie Mark Crusaders Micro-Series Issue for the first time, contributed to my recovery and I began to feel better relatively soon. The work on my second fic for Tempest Shadow also progressed much faster again.
August also saw my yearly visit of AniNite, an anime convention nearby, which was filled with purchases of a ton of pony merchandise as usual, among it a plushie of Derpy, something I sought after for a long time now.
I also pumped more money into movie merchandise and bought the gigantic "Seaquestria and Canterlot Castle" playset, as well as the two Seasong figures of Princess Skystar and Pinkie Pie, which both play an instrumental version of "One Small Thing" if the button on the front is pressed.
The highlight of this month was the return of Season 8 after the end of the mid-season hiatus and I was delighted to finally see more from the Student Six in "A Matter of Principals" and "The Hearth's Warming Club"!

September

Finally another story release! On the 23rd, I released "A Storm on the Horizon of the Arcane World", my multi-chapter fic for Tempest Shadow after I finally came up with new ideas for it for the time being and had finished writing the prologue. It didn't catch much attention, so far, because the prologue only retells events that are already known from the movie, but the foundation for the story finally stood there.
I also spent one last day and night in the nudist area before it should get too cold for this, which saw the creation of a quick, last pony picture, of Liza Doolots, in this year. A day that could be seen as a preparation for the things that should come in October.....
And I went to work on another story shortly before October started, one that required a lot more work than I predicted and, almost, more than I anticipated.

October

The busiest month of the entire year! Not only did I kick off another multi-chapter fic for Nightmare Night, "Aegis", a horror story about Babs Seed and a group of background foals with a very original plot idea I got inspired to during AniNite when I visited a mall to watch "Road to Friendship" via Wi-Fi, and updated it throughout the month, I also carved my traditional pony pumpkin for Nightmare Night, this time with a picture of Cozy Glow, and baked the "Scootaloo's SUPER-DIFFICULT Stunt" special cupcakes Pinkie Pie had made for Scootaloo's performance with the Washouts, to celebrate the 3rd Cutie Mark Anniversary of Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle with them.
October was also the month of the Season 8 Finale which, much to my surprise, revealed Cozy Glow as a villain, after all. The finale inspired me to write down my theory about Cozy Glow and about the motivations behind her actions, as well as her possible past.
The chapters of "Aegis" proved to be the most work of all I did in this month, getting the thick Manehattan accent of a few of the foals right required a lot of learning and spelling out words, something that took the first nine days of the month and two weeks in total, an exhausting task that burnt me out quite a bit. Which brings me to November.....

November

November was a quiet and uneventful month. After furiously working on "Aegis" and the other projects in October, I realized how tired and burnt-out I was, so I decided for a break after Nightmare Night. It was supposed to be a few days long, but ended up lasting more than one month and reaching into December. I was, for the most part, only watching videos in this month, but doing so also brought a good bit of inspiration and ideas for a future story.

December

The last month of 2018..... It started with watching the Hearth's Warming Eve Special "Best Gift Ever", near the end of my writing break, as the time was finally fitting to do that. Watching it brought forth my last episode review of this year, as well as another idea for a story based on it, which I am working on right now. I also wrote another story inspired by it just in time for release one day before Hearth's Warming Eve, which I dedicated to Babs Seed.
The end of my writing break was also marked by a complete reading through my best and most successful story "Princess Flurry Heart, Destroyer of Worlds!", to finally find the way back to my previous writing skill that I had in 2016 completely, an undertaking that proved itself to be successful.
Other than this, it was a rather typical December, filled with holiday shopping, a winter market visit, a slightly hectic but overall great and festive Hearth's Warming Eve, a new Hearth's Warming Eve update for "Legends of Equestria" and..... a bit of holiday heartache on Hearth's Warming Day caused by a mistake that was made and by some frustration and a bit of holiday depression. A regretful way to spend most of the Hearth's Warming holidays, but things are calming down again and the work to fix the damage that was caused has begun.

And now, the last day of the year has arrived..... As I said in the beginning, 2018 was far from perfect, but it was a much better year than 2017. I could work myself out of the hole the depressing events of 2017 had thrown me in, my writing improved again and is back at its old level now and I even drew a lot of ponies for my standards and began to feel much more secure in drawing ponies. Things were learned, relationships improved and confidence returned. Overall, a very good year, that ends with a positive outlook into the future.
I can even name a few New Year's resolutions here this time..... One is to become a calmer and more patient person again overall. 2017 has knocked that side of my personality down and forced it to its knees, resulting in a lot of nervousness, anxiety and even some mental breakdowns, with all the "nice" things that accompany these, in the last two years, but I feel that the calm I am actually known for is finally back now, just in time to end the year, so one resolution is to work on keeping that newfound calm and patience, so that more pain and heartache can be avoided in the future.
My second resolution (although that one is more akin to a plan for the future, not just a resolution for 2019) is to draw more MLP: FiM fanarts. I am already a fairly good writer, but have sparsely drawn ponies in the last 5+ years. Now, I finally want to change this. This year did not see much opportunity for regular drawing sessions yet, but beginning with 2019, I want to draw MLP: FiM art at least once a week and improve my skills there too. This is something I'm thinking about doing for a long time now, because doing so will sooner or later and with enough practice, allow me to draw my own cover art for my ponyfics and, maybe, even some chapter art here and there.
This step will likely bring a few design changes for my Deviantart account to make it more suited for a pony artist career and I look forward to this new experience a lot.
Last, but not least, the third resolution is to make amends with a couple of creative people who work on the same project I used to work on a while ago, to rebuild bridges that have been burnt by rash and unthoughtful actions, with the goal to work together again. This one's also more of a plan for the future, but I put it here as a resolution, as it's a goal that is very, very dear and deeply important to me.

Just a few hours more now and I will start into the new year..... It's going to be a year full of new adventures and discoveries and I couldn't look forward to it more than I do right now while I wag my ponytail in excitement.
Onwards now..... A lot more stories will come, a lot of ponies/creatures will be drawn and a new journey will start. Cheers to 2019! I'll see you at the other end!