Starting an Account

So I decided to start an account. I guess this in itself is not all that impressive, but then again you don't know me, so there's no reason for it to be.

I think I want to talk about why I'm here if you'll excuse me for a sec. I do like sharing stories, and this is one of the few I have worth sharing after all.

Over the past week I have been inhumanely ill. It started with a sore throat and some sniffles, then it got worse with the coughing and the invability to talk. I think the worse it got to was when I started coughing blood. I was scared but it does tend to happen once in a while. In any case, I was incapacitated and unable to get out of bed. I also suffer from some depression but lets say it was the coughing.

As I lay there at 2 in the morning unable to sleep, I got ansy. I could not sit up or turn because it would trigger a coughing attack, and I had already re-watched every video of "Dr. Whooves and his assistant" and "Dr. Whooves Adventures", meaning I was out of content to watch. As such I decided to finally check out this Equestria Daily thing I kept hearing about. I've been a member of the fandom for about a year or so, but this was usually confined to following YouTube channels and musicians. I figured that the website might give me new videos to watch or music to listen to. What I did not expect was the fanfic.

I love books and I love reading. It's why I became a High School English teacher. Even from an early age I loved staying in bed for hours reading my way through my small library of books. I was also no stranger to fan fiction, having been an avid reader of Harry Potter and YuGiOh fanfiction since high school. It is as such that I must say I cannot understand how I did not realize there would be fanfiction of MLP. To be fair, I didn't completely forget, I had already been exposed to my little dashie, cupcakes, bubbles, and rainbow factory, but it still came as a huge jolt to me to discover the vast amount of story updates I had to choose from. With little reservation I jumped right in.

The first story I found was "A Delicate Balance." I was not expecting much due to it being a slash fic (my experience with them has been less than satisfactory in the past) and I could not have been more wrong. The way the relationship blossomed and the way the author wrote hooked me right in. I read the 10 available chapters and moved on to the next story. The next I read was Windfall, another expertly crafted story that hooked me right in, and I followed it up by reading all the available chapters for the sequel (Earth and Sky). Then I read Stubborn as Ponies, and A Stranger and her Friend. This went on for days as I devoured every chapter, being frustrated as I hit the last chapter in the incomplete stories. I bookmarked them on my phone (which is where I was reading them) and figured I'd check up on them every so often. Then I found the Winningverse.

This is what really tipped the balance because it was not just a story, it was various stories written by different people all of them having to do with the same universe they collectively created. I was amazed. The alternate dead derpyverse broke my heart with some of the most emotional and heart wrenching writing I have ever encountered, while the the actual winningverse did no less of a good job at contorting my emotions, making me feel sadness and joy along with the characters. At this point I had bookmarked every side story as well as the main ones and I found myself with too much content for me to passively check on. And so, I made this account.

It has been now 5 days of coughing induced insomnia in which the stories of FIMFiction have helped me hurry along the night. In these 5 days I have read over 150 long chapters in a multitude of stories. I have seen new love, and I have felt loss unlike the type I've felt in recent years. I really want to commend this community for their work and for their ability to give someone a grounding point in the midst of their fever induced delirium. I don't want to be just a spectator, I want to be an active member. I will try writing stories, talking to people, commenting on stories, and being a part of groups and universes I've awkwardly stalked for the past few days.

So.. yea, that's why I'm here. Sorry for the rant but I felt it was relevant. I'll start adding less weird entries when I am either fully awake or no longer sick, whichever happens first ^_^