#FebFIMFanFicLove - How I came to love this community... · 3:55pm Jan 31st, 2015
Love is a heavy word. It carries a lot baggage. For some it's the expression that defines the happiest and most important things and people in their lives. For others love is bittersweet, tinged with feelings of loss, rejection, or sometimes even of its cost. And love is often brought to mind at this time of year when we approach the day we celebrate its romantic expression.
Piquo Pie has a great idea: let's celebrate love by talking about what we love about this community. This is my contribution.
How I came to love this community
I grew up in a large family. My sisters often played with My Little Pony toys and watched the shows on TV, but I mostly wasn't interested. This is not because I thought these pursuits too girly, but rather because they were simply not Spaceshipy enough. I had no interest in G.I.Joe or Johnny West playthings for the same reason. None of these things lit my rocket! Over time, my love of things Spaceshipy became a full-fledged love of science.
Over 40 years later, when I saw MLP revived, I smiled at the nostalgic feelings it brought with it. I even read about the Brony Community, but didn't think much more of it until my adult daughter – a true science nerd in the image of her dad – clued me onto this:
I was intrigued! Here was someone relating MLP to science! At the urging of said daughter I looked at the first few episodes of the show and was astounded! This show was, with no need to seek a better word, awesome! Better still, the main protagonist turned out to be unashamedly – even proudly – a fellow science nerd! I was hooked.
Coincidentally, at the same time I had started writing my own fiction again after a hiatus of nearly thirty years, and I was looking for an online community that would provide both lots of reading material to analyze, and a place where I could post my stories and get intelligent feedback and advice on how I could improve my writing skills. Via Equestria Daily I discovered FIMFiction.
Browsing the stories, I found something I hadn't other fan fiction sites: an overall concern for the value of friendship and tolerance, along with a whole slew of stories that were truly concerned with the science of magic and the magic of science! I started writing, and was happy! My muse had found a home!
This all isn't to say that there were no unhappy moments. Like any community, for every mouth with splendid horse-words, there is a flank-hole dropping road-apples aplenty! There were arguments, many of them silly, and troll battles, most of them futile. Such is life. Coming from a large family, I know for a fact that it is possible to argue with someone and still love them, and I hope some of those feelings come through in what I write and post.
Of course those first stories had a lot of rough edges, and I continue to work on improving my writing. Still, I keep those early stories as they were written, not just so I can gauge my own improvement, but also because they are true to who I was when I wrote them. They captured my feelings and let me share them on a broader community, which is why I continue to write and love this community.
I'll close this blog with – appropriately enough – a love song. I wrote it for Princess Luna as part of the very first story I completed on FIMFiction: The Vacation Crew. In the story it's how the mane six express to Luna their feelings at her return from exile. I'm still quite proud of it!
She walks like beauty in the night,
through stardust paths, in mystery
Clad in a veil of pale blue light,
love's sidereal sanctuary
Her sparkling gems in endless flight,
trace constellations wandering slowly
Each one a hero there to fight,
seek truth, or love or justice holy
In her embrace there is no fright,
safe from all toil and from worry
Our guardian on high to smite,
Fear's illusions and darkest folly
For all who gaze upon the sight,
do wonder at this ancient story,
Feel in their hearts that all is right,
To see the Moon in all her glory."
I love the science in the show. The “¿Who’s That Noisy?” of Episode # 286 of “The Skeptics’ Guide To The Universe” featuring Twilight Sparkle being Skeptical in “Bridle Gossip” is what brought me to the show. I hate “Feeling Pinkie keen”. I look forward to MLP:FIM:EG#3 because the HuMane Twilight Sparkle is a scientist.
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2759966
Hating Feeling Pinkie Keen?
That is such a tired trope.
2761482
I honestly do not like the episode. Still it is not the worst:
S03E03 “Too Many Pinkie Pies” is just soul-crushing. I find the episode so disturbing that it is the 1 episode which I cannot rewatch.
2761527
I agree! The solution is killing all the extra Pinkies? Auuuuugh!
2761208
Nailed it!
Great blog post, mate. I can tell it's from the heart!
I envy your love and courage.
Thank you for sharing that video. I saw it referenced but not sourced in a death battle video and never found it. This was a good blog post, and I added some of your stories to my RiL list. Thank you for sharing your story