My Pony Year · 2:16am Jan 1st, 2013
So, I suppose, on this entirely arbitrarily-designated Last Day of the Year, it might be worthwhile to talk about 2012 for a moment.
Ponies.
To go into a bit more detail... at exactly 12:00 A.M. on January 1, 2012, I was not at a party. I was not singing "Auld Lang Syne". I was not boozing, in any way, shape, or form. I was lying supine in my bed watching "Friendship is Magic, Part 1" on an MP3 player. And I recall thinking to myself that I thought this would sort of set the tone for the upcoming year.
I have, I think, never been more right with a New Year's conceptualization.
At the time, I was not so very far down the rabbit hole. I had watched the episodes, yes. I had talked with one or two of the principals in my head (and though this may seem like Extremely Deep Rabbit Hole territory to those unfamiliar with the inside of my brain, I assure you, this is pretty much baseline behavior for me) and I had written exactly two pieces of Pony fanfiction. One of them was a script for an abbreviated and ponified episode of "House, M.D." (which was really more a "House, M.D." fic than it was a ponyfic), and the second was "Observatory Hill", which was penned largely out of angry spite at myself. "Observatory Hill" at that time existed only as a Google Docs document, because I didn't actually want to, y'know, get too into this thing, because I Am A Professional Writer Now. I was still more-or-less treating this as a momentary fascination that would go away in a month or two and leave me back where I started, except a little wiser, a little stranger, and possessed of the vague aftertaste of rainbows lingering in the back of my throat.
About two weeks later, I tossed "Observatory Hill" up on FiMFiction, hoping for more exposure, because why the hell not.
And then, I went and read "Eternal" and I that was the moment I was lost. I am not going to go on record and say this is the greatest fanfiction in all the history of fanfictions, or anything. It contains padding. Unneeded bits. Applejack rings just a tiny bit false to my ear, for what little she shows up and for what little importance she has to the plot. But the conclusion, somehow, absolutely floored me. I was simultaneously convicted and crushed by it, and it colored my worldview for days to come. In fact, it was so absolutely compelling in my mind that I had to go off and write an entirely different story just to disentangle my own head-canon from it, to, indeed, give my vision the right to exist alongside "Eternal".
What "Eternal" did for me, in the end, was to free me from a very, very dangerous trap. My writing was becoming stagnant because I refused to write anything I wasn't getting paid for. And I hated everything I was writing. I had to drag myself to the page because I was forbidding myself to just have fun with words, to write for the joy of it, rather than simply to earn iPad money. "Eternal" made me realize that there was an inherent value to touching people's lives with words even when those words are absolutely unsellable. And, not to spoil overmuch, but the story itself is an absolutely heart-rending plea that not only can you touch other people's lives with your actions, you should, and must, and what's more, you ought do it with great rapidity, because life is very, very, very, very short.
So, yeah. I started writing ponyfic, just because I wanted to. Thirteen stories in (including one novel), and a thousand watchers (just hit that milestone today!) and I have absolutely no regrets.
But, of course, that wasn't enough. I started getting lonely for community. I pined after friendship after being told that Friendship was Magic, and ended up reconnecting with an old Internet friend who, after ten years of separation, stumbled across one of my ponyfics out of the blue and struck up a conversation with me. We met for the very first time in person at this year's Summer Bronycon in New Jersey, and I am pleased to say that he is the best damn beta-reader I've ever had the pleasure of working with. Plus, um, he, uh, um...
(...invited me to dinner with tara strong and john de lancie and lauren flipping faust herself and here is a picture that i have to prove to myself that it actually happened and that it was not some sort of weird hallucination please do not hate me kthx.)
So, here I am, twelve months later. Pony has, in an absolutely unquestionable sense, broadened my horizons. I have gone stargazing at an actual functioning observatory to better connect with Twilight, I have attended an actual rodeo to better connect with Applejack, and I have gone to New York City for the first time in my life to better connect with all you wonderful people. None of these experiences would have happened without this show and this fandom being here and being what they are. Through Pony, I have connected with old friends I had thought gone from my life, and I have met new friends that I really want to know better (I delude myself sometimes into thinking that the feeling is mutual.) Here, on New Year's Eve, 2012, I find that my life is approximately (and yes, I do hesitate to haul out the hoary old cliché, but it really is a subjectively accurate figure) twenty percent better than it was one year ago. And friends, you can't ask for much more than that.
Thanks to Lauren Faust, to all the fine folks at DHX and Top Draw and Hasbro Studios, and to each and every one of you, it's been a wonderful, wonderful twelve months. Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart, the top of my heart, and every square inch of my heart in between. God bless you all on the turning of the year.
(tl;dr: Ponies.)
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Ponies.
F
k yeah.
They have come closer to dragging me out from under my proverbial rock than anything else. FiMfiction is the first social community I have belonged to for several years, (I used to be on the Vega Strike forums, Privateer Remake.) I have even encountered some people around here that can actually stand me.
Bravo! I keep having to remind myself that 24 weeks ago, I had written *no* ponyfiction, and was re-re-rewriting a Fantasy novel about 1/3 of the way done that I had "worked on" for over *twenty* years. (Yes, that slow) Now I've got 13 stories and about 170k words written, (some of which are even fair), and a second short humor bit about to get onto EqD (Squee )
What a difference a year makes.
Gotta be honest, that's a pretty accurate summary of my year as well. And what a great year it's been.
Dear internet friends,
This year I spent more time doing pony related things than I did at my full time job. Joys abound. Ponies will do that to you.
My resolution for next year is to increase this ratio further. I regret nothing.
Happy New Year y'all.
Awwwwww... I am very very very VERY JELLY that you got to have dinner with those people!
Anyways, I'm glad you've had such a good year and I'm glad you found love in your writing again! Writing should be a ton of fun and I'm so glad that you got our of your rut!
Please keep up the great great work and please keep having fun!! When you have fun, I have fun! And your work is awesome when you have fun! 
I hope this next year is even better for you.
i heartily agree, pretty goo year for me...ponies to blame
Keep being awesome, Skywriter.
Me, now, 2012 was the first year I showed someone else something I wrote that wasn't non-fiction. And they liked it. To be honest, I'm still stunned at that. And I've ponies to thank for that.
Ponies!
Amen.
Heh! You're making me blush, man! Still, thank you: It's very nice to hear that you value my input on your stories so much!
I've also been reflecting on how amazing a year 2012 has been for me, in no small part because of Pony. Er... well, I've posted this in three other places, so I guess I'll make a blog entry about it, as well, eh! (While I've still got semi-functional internet access in this Buenos Aires hotel.)