It's been about a year since I've joined FiMFiction.

It's been a year to the day (earlier today) since I found this place and I've loved pretty much every bit of it. I've read hundreds of stories and experienced all kinds of feels here, and I don't regret a second I've spent doing it. Writing is one of my favorite pastimes and until just recently, I haven't posted anything I've written and haven't gotten any feedback because of that. Thankfully now I have plenty of readers and even followers, which was a surprise to me.

-story time-

I got into reading fanfiction a long time ago, but back then it was just the occasional shipfic that I stumbled upon looking for other things. Eventually, I found creepypastas and became an instant fan, going from the countless Lavender Town Syndrome pastas to the creepy pokemon games, and looking up things like Russian Sleep Experiment and Ben Drowned. Throughout that time I was taking a break from the anime I used to follow to watch ponies instead. i saw the first episode when deciding what to watch on netflix with my friend. I laughed at him for having MLP on his recently watched list and asked him if he actually watched it. I was never the kind to care about that sort of thing because I used to love unicorns and dragons when I was little anyway. I also knew how adorable they looked and I found it hard to not 'D'AAAWWWWW' at them every time I saw pictures and videos online. He finally snapped and put on the first episode to shut me up (he always controls the remote) and left the room.

22 minutes later, I sat alone fairly disappointed that there was more to see and yet my time there was up. Later I watched the rest in private, not really paying attention, and I figured that was enough for a while. I went back to anime for a little bit only to be drawn back shortly afterward by several boring or clichéd series that I had to finish. I always hated leaving things unfinished. Eventually, the ponies came back.

Whenever I got the time, I would watch an episode or two, not really getting anywhere until about halfway through season 1 when I started to binge watch the rest. Not only did I want to finish what I started, but I wanted to ENJOY it. My Little Pony was good. In fact, it was better than any of the other crap I had been wading through back then, and so I was hooked. I loved it, it made me erupt with unrestrained laughter and happiness. I only had a few other people to talk to about it at the time, and it was just after Equestria Girls came out, so against their warnings I watched it. That was the end until I met up with an old friend from high school who happened to notice a gag gift the netflix friend got me. It was a Vinyl Scratch key cover, and it was barely visible. It took me until that moment to notice that pretty much everything about this woman screamed brony. She had an mlp backpack, shirt, thermos, and even the backgrounds and music on her phone and ipad were pony themed.

I started listening to the music she talked about and I fell in love with it, but I was still reluctant to listen to official music from the show (I love it now). Shortly after that, I caught her reading the comics and fanfiction and scoffed. She tried to get me to read, but I had the same excuse most people give me: "I don't have time to read all that." boy was I wrong.

On a whim one night, I dove into Rainbow Factory, seeing it as a creepypasta and thinking that it was rather 'meh' on quality and creepiness. I liked it though, and it was enough to pique my interest. She suggested cupcakes after that, and I felt somewhat justified by the order. After seeing Dash as a murderer, it felt rather nice seeing her get paid back, even if I felt hurt by her dying and even more so by Pinkie's murderous traits. What came next changed my life.

Cheerilee's Garden was next on the list. Until that point, I didn't know about fimfiction, and I read the others on creepypasta wiki and heard cupcakes read on youtube. I noticed it was 3 chapters and didn't think about the word count. I knew it would take some time just like the others had, but I had no reference and I had no way of pacing myself at that point. I signed up for an account to add a bunch of stories recommended by my brony friend and eventually picked up the fateful story.

I read the whole thing, including Scarlet Harvest (both parts). I didn't take a break. I read all of Cheerilee's garden in one sitting and it was the most graphic thing I had ever seen in my life. So graphic, in fact, that I refused to read anything dark or sad for at least a month after that.

As a result, I discovered fluffy cute fanfics and shipfics, and being naïve to the genre of fanfiction and only seeing the mediocre fics before ponies, these fics opened my eyes to just how good this stuff could be. I discovered that there are fanfictions that are even better than some published books in terms of quality and entertainment value. Before I knew it, I was plowing through these stories like nothing. I've seen some good, some bad, and some amazing things here, and I just want to say a special thank you to all of you that write these things for providing me with something worth doing.

So if you've made it through all of that, I thank you. You didn't have to read it but you did anyway, and for that, I thank you. Sorry if it wasn't that interesting, but I felt like my story should be told. It was a special day for me today. This will be the day I look back to when I'm older and possibly successful and say that this was one of the best influences.

By the way, the brony that brought me here is my first follower, The Ferret Girl. She still hasn't finished Scarlet Harvest. She says she's "busy with RWBY and Korra fanfics and WoW".
lame

Comments

[Phenrys]

Congratulations on being here a year!

I found fimfiction last December when I moved to Colorado and was far away from my wife and children for a month. I didn't become a member until later, though. Basically not until I decided I wanted to write.

I hope you don't mind, but I consider you a friend.

[exsnaggerwes]

2590881 Woohoo! I have a friend! I consider you a friend too. You're a pretty cool dude

[Phenrys]

2591787
Thank you good sir, I think you're a pretty cool dude yourself.

I feel honored to call you friend, and to be called friend by you.

Keep up the good work with your writing, you are doing an amazing job of it.