In Reverence of The Old Guard · 7:08pm Sep 23rd, 2015
So I've been reading pony fanfiction for over four years now. That's... about a quarter of my natural life.
Fuck, I've wasted my life the best years of my youth gone I don't even-
Okay, that out of the way.
I'd like to make a compilation of some of the authors that made me want to be the author I have not yet become.
I've taken the bold liberty of, well, bolding the authors with a tagline, so you don't have to read the whole thing. Just scroll right past to whoever catches your eye. I won't be offended. This gets long.
Because of that, I short some authors I might otherwise have added, like Kits, or that I might have written more on, like Horizon. I apologize sincerely for that. If you're on this list and feel that's the case, message me and I'll more than make up for it.
You're on here because you've affected me deeply and personally, after all. It's the least I could do to try and return the favour, somehow.
I'll start that with the authors I learned from personally.
AbsoluteAnonymous - For teaching me humility in the face of Magnum Opus Dissonance.
She's gone for good, folks. Heartbreaking, I know.
A lot of this is going to show a lot of frustration on my part, at a lot of people. I will make no efforts to mask this, because it's rather the point, for me. I want to make clear just how awful a lot of this stuff was second hand. How AA felt was far worse.
She used to be a regular with myself and quite a few others in the #FIMFiction IRC, but was... unpopular. When she came back months after her departure, having just left a blog post talking about looking back on this part of her life, she'd snuck back in the IRC under a pseudonym, where I was embroiled in a fierce battle to have people say some nice fucking words in her memory rather than just harp on the petty bullshit. She PM'd me under her temporary name, took me aside, and thanked me, and we had a lovely talk about how I, personally, remembered her.
She'd written countless words into The Games We Play and had everyone scream at her for the ending, something I'd guessed and talked to her about since its earliest days because the foreshadowing was so blatant. Brilliant even. The whole point of the story. Unfortunately, folks had their shipping goggles on way too tight, their own powerful headcanon blinders, and she'd messed with that.
At the same time she posted Pinkie Watches Paint Dry, something she'd written in a few hours as a joke. It got insanely popular and well-received, even as abuse was hurled at her perceived Magnum Opus. She snapped.
Then Too Many Pinkie's came out. The straw that broke the camel's spine irrevocably was when people started telling her that Pinkie Watches Paint Dry was now canon. Isn't that great?
Enough. She'd had enough. She packed her bags and never looked back on a site and community that had previously given her so much.
I learned a lot from... I don't want to call them mistakes. Experiences, then. Being a confidante for her in these times made me appreciate how hard this dissonance between your intentions and your audience can be. I think every author worth their salt will sift through a thousand comments and still, every time, find the negative one. It's devestating, each and every time.
I must admit, the feeling has hit me especially hard a few times now. Especially with the last chapter of Demesne. Now, I still haven't given up on that story, and I stand by that. Not least because I have good reason to focus on finishing #Moonfic first. The point is, I got a lot of criticism and complaints for how I wrote Luna, how I just hadn't 'solved' the Demesne problem so obviously by now, how the entire premise is silly because why can't Celestia just fix everything with a wave of her hoof? No less than three authors now have written this "fixed" ending as a parody and, while they do make me smile, it also exhausts me.
Especially when I could have simply written ten more stories like Late Fees, carved myself into that niche, and never looked back.
Magnum Opus Dissonance is hard. It's really hard. AbsoluteAnonymous for me was a role model in how to take it, even if I learned more from her mistakes than anything else. This isn't criticism of her in the slightest; If it wasn't for her, I easily would have made those same mistakes myself, and now have been in her position. And I think I would have lost something very dear to me in the process.
GhostOfHeraclitus - For his brilliance and humanity.
Whom The Princesses Would Destroy is mandatory reading. Twilight Sparkle Makes a Cup of Tea is mandatory reading.
Go! Now! Come back later, if you must, but go!
Unlike AbsoluteAnonymous, I don't have much to say about Heraclitus in terms of volume. But it is not insignificant in terms of impact.
Reading GhostOfHeraclitus coincides heavily with a big turning point in myself as an author, which is the writing of Late Fees.
Even before I started talking to him, Ghost had made me feel worthy of writing more thoughtful and structured comedy. I'd always loved Terry Pratchett, certainly, but he was this nebulous, other being that I felt unworthy of aspiring to.
But here was this infinitely humble, approachable man who took the best and brightest aspects of Pratchett's works and applied them to ponies of all things. He made tackling something like an intelligent approach to comedy, something that was so intimidating to me, and made it something I felt worthy of approaching and studying. Comedy is something I was always gravitating towards, always. But Ghost is probably the reason I've tried to be smart about it, even when it's silly.
He's inspired me to poetry and beyond.
It is directly because of these lessons, and a conversation about the styles of bureaucracy humour, that a short script I've written has ended up in the willing hands of Kevan Brighting.
Ghost is honestly one of the most gentle, humble and kind creatures I've ever had the pleasure of knowing.
Aragon - For comedy.
But didn't I just talk about comedy and attribute it to Ghost?
Of course I did. The clever, thinky stuff. That made me want to be methodical and thoughtful about what I write. With strong, serious characters.
Aragon? Aragon is the other side to the same coin. The yang to Ghost's yin.
Aragon taught me to love and appreciate gut-bursting, laugh-out loud guffaw, dumb stuff. Because you have to be very clever to make something so absurd. It's another form of genius entirely, and it's of equal merit. Comedy is hard. It's one part art form and one part science.
Aragon is to comedy, in that regard, like Tesla was to science. This mad creation, this intuitive understanding, that he can't quite explain to other people, not fully. It's just this fundamental component to him that doesn't, or can't, happen in anyone else. The only problem is occasionally you have to tell him to take his penis out of some poor pigeon.
Aragon I can't say as much about as the others. But his Daring Don't series, his Good Day to Die, his early stuff reminded me to just have fun with what I'm writing. A lesson I keep forgetting and needing to relearn, and a lesson he still shouts madly into my head every day.
ChuckFinley - For making me embrace the darkness
Chuck does something that I love and appreciate, but could never do. Dark, serious and heavy action.
Then he gave it a dark sense of humour. Witty characters. Personality. He humanized it. He saw the humour in feeding a rotten head to a vat of piranha and shared it with a wink and a smirk.
I'd put Kkat, of Fallout Equestria here, too, I think. You know what?
Kkat - as above
Before both of these people, I'd always thought dark and light were an either-or. A one or the other affair.
To the lessons I'd learned from these people, I attribute my approach to #Moonfic. Darkness and light might not mix, but they give each other context. We can only appreciate darkness if we see what it's snuffing, and we only appreciate the light when we see what its alternative is.
And that's not a bad thing in the slightest.
McPoodle - For making me appreciate niche.
The Best of All Possible Worlds is possibly, if not probably, the best story I've ever read.
It's a story about Voltaire, the old philosopher not the Weird Al Yankovic of goths, being stuck in Equestria.
I am, and always have been, almost a slave to the idea of public appeal. While, as above, Aragon constantly reminds me to write for me, for fun, I almost always do that in such a way that I'm still confining myself to write in the most 'me' way in a broader manner.
Then McPoodle had to go out and blow up the whole fucking paradigm.
I'm going to summarize the impact this story had on me, an impact that is significant to me to this day: Don't retreat from a niche you love. Don't be frightened by the idea that it might not have mass appeal. You go hard or you go home, because at the end of the day? You can be the reason the mainstream starts caring about something they never would have before. And to retreat in fear of your idea does a disservice not only to the people who already would like it, but to everyone you're depriving a new love to because you were to afraid to try.
As Voltaire himself would say: Writing takes balls.
TheDescendant - For being everything I want to be when dealing with an audience.
I used to be mortified by my love for replying to comments. I thought it made me... I don't know. Overly narcissistic to indulge in the peanut gallery. It's something I shy away from overly to this day.
The Descendant doesn't do that.
He has this infinitely patient and genial approach to each and every person that is awesome. It's inimitable, truly. You can see it in his stories, too, the way he indulges in the best qualities of characters and characteristics. This endless optimism not about situations, but about people.
His relentlessly aggressive optimism is why he's on this list. It's not because of how I've been impacted by his stories -- which are astounding, truly -- but because of the impact he's had on me as a person. More than anyone else on this list, The Descendant has had the most profound effect on how I personally treat and communicate with the individuals of my audience, but more importantly than that, he's set the gold standard, in my mind, for how I'd ideally like to do that. To be that.
I don't think that's a level I'll ever be able to reach, but it's not going to stop me from trying.
Horizon - For being the first person to fan-nerd at me harder than the original fan-nerding message I'd sent him.
It's almost unfair to put Horizon here for that. He's an immensely talented wordsmith in his own right.
That's rather the point though.
Horizon, I think, is the first time my immense respect for a writer was not only reciprocated, but retaliated in full force. Or at least, that's how I remember it, which is rather the point of this blog.
It should be mentioned that I look at how many of these people I'm listing, and how I have more followers than a lot of them, and I get dizzy. Horizon, I feel, is the first time I outright flipped out.
Paleo Prints and PegasusRescueBrigade - For making me appreciate well-written OCs.
These two I won't link to, because I'm not even sure they're around anymore. But PRB's Derpy's Shipping and Handling and Paleo Print's School Daze did something important.
They taught me that trying to write good, original characters isn't impossible. It isn't improbable. It shouldn't be avoided, even.
More's the pity that I still haven't taken this lesson to heart, yet.
PoweredByTea - For making me appreciate character pieces and studies
Apparently still around, though I haven't seen it myself.
Powered by Tea wrote one story back in Season One that I could still recite almost off by heart some four years later.
It was a story about Rarity picking up the wrong fork and watching Princess Celestia copy her.
And it was in that moment that I realized something very simple, but very profound: Sometimes the best stories aren't stories at all. They aren't about what happens. They're about who it happens to.
Sometimes who the characters are is even more important than what they do, and what they do is far more significant because of who it is that is doing them.
A lesson I learned from ponies and cutlery, because of Powered by Tea.
Bad Horse and Bookplayer - For being pedagogues
I'm not going to disservice either of these people by pointing to any one of their stories, because who they are as writers falls far short of what they truly are: Literary theorists. Word-scientists.
Anybody can write, that's the plain and simple fact. Most can write well, with sufficient practice and guidance.
These two, more than anyone else, have another skillset so far above and beyond that I attribute to anyone else here.
These two can teach. They can think and hypothesize and weave endless factual words together without appearing dry, condescending or unapproachable.
I couldn't even tell you what I've learned from them, because the answer is inextricable. There are simply too many little things adding up to a whole. The best I can do is spread my hands helplessly and say 'a lot'.
They're the only two people on this list who I don't link to their user's page, but link to their blogs instead. For good reason.
Eakin - For everything.
I'm unable to give Eakin the writeup he deserves. Physically incapable. My brain screams at me all at once, and in so many directions, this high-pitched squealing, like a kettle going off in my skull.
If I focus really carefully, I hear it for what it is; my inner fangirl.
I'm sorry, Eakin, for not endowing you with the loving praise I give so many others in this ranting diatribe of mine. Just know it's because you've rendered me utterly incapable.
SleeplessBrony - For proving to me unequivocally that erotic fiction can still be fantastic fiction.
TAW, CarcinoGeneticist and many, many others would go on to hammer this in to my skull time and time again, but Sleepless - another I won't link because I fear he's gone AWOL, was the first.
Quite possibly the most significant for years, at that.
Thank you, Zapp Brannigan avatar, for showing me an entire new world, and giving me the courage to tinge my works with risque with a mature and level head, without hedging my bets too hard or devolving into immaturity. Sex is a thing that happens. It's a powerful component of our psyche, it motivates us, it drives us, and a lack of it can bring us to despair and desperation.
To shy away from it is a disservice to a character. An author may be a prude, and has every right to be, but a character shouldn't suffer for it.
Andrew Joshua Talon - For being the first author I ever followed
Though I still can't remember if it was for Progress, with your amazing characterization of Luna, or for Beating the Heat, the earliest risque comedy I adored at the time...
Too much, too long ago I'm afraid. I can't even tell you how you've impacted me. But I read both of these works, at the time, I am certain, from GDocs linked on Equestria Daily, because FimFiction wasn't even a thing yet. Know that your works probably kept me coming back here long enough to find everyone else.
Thank you for being a catalyst. Thank you for being excellent.
Wizard of Words - For instilling in me a love of shipping. Well, that's not fair. Thanquol helped.
Again, Thanquol wrote one of only five stories I keep in my best-of-the-best folder. A story told through letters. A story I read when it was still a GDoc predating FIMFiction.
Wizard of Words... fuck, just go browse his Stories page. Honestly.
Did you know I like shipping?
Because I love shipping. So much.
So much you guys.
To you two, here, I dedicate Cupcakes, Challenges and Cupcakes, my first true romantic comedy. The first story of mine that I feel didn't completely suck.
Late Fees might be when I found my voice. But you two are probably where I found my form and my feet.
Thank you.
I find this really interesting, because in all honesty, looking at Demesne and #Moonfic I would rank you right up with most of who you have listed. The two of them, the latter especially, are just that good.
Also, how young are you? If you tell me sixteen I am going to flip. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the "quarter of my natural life" comment...
I haven't seen some of those names around in a long, long time.
ily2 brah
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20. I've been horseficcing for nearly five years, now.
Though I still... intellectually I can understand that. But processing that statement is still very vertigo-inducing in me.
I'm gonna cover my foreskin with Colgate before going to bed from now on.
'CAUSE YOU SURE LIKE TO SUCK MY DICK.
Also, the Descendant frustrates me. He's too kind. Says hello to people whenever he sees they have no comments in their user page. That kind of person shouldn't be in the Internet. He might get corrupted.
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Oh.
Right.
You guys follow me don't you?
Uh... uh...
media.giphy.com/media/ib9h1mFOPCLWU/giphy.gif
Don't sell yourself short, *coughGoldenRetrievercough*
Nice blog. Most of the authors here I'm not familiar with, but definitely seem worth checking out. You've also got me thinking of the authors on this site who have influenced me, and shaped me into the writer I am today.
This list.
This is a good list.
orig00.deviantart.net/3619/f/2011/282/e/5/twilight_sparkle_approved_by_ambris-d4c255h.png
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20 he says.
Stop making me feel old dammit!
If I may chip in a few pence into the communal fountain here:
To Titanium Dragon who makes the art of criticism seem so bloody easy until you try to do it and realize just how darned difficult it really is. And he does. Repeatedly. Over and over. Through writeoffs and random critiques and just out of nowhere surprises. No gushing fanboy here, but a reviewer who can leave you with a mass of red marks bleeding down your infant creation while you weep in joy "He doesn't dislike it! He says it's entertaining and shows promise!"
Oh, and he writes some pretty darned good stuff too.
Also Estee, (who I constantly confuse with Eakin for some reason) and the Triptych Continuum. Neurotic Twilight is Best Pony.
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...Wow. You're this good a writer at twenty?
3414622 Okay, twenty is slightly better, means you started when you were 15–16 as opposed to when you were 12.
Still though, damn youngins'.
Well, uhm... Sorry about the parody ending thing. If I'd known that it frustrates you like that...
Let me just say that I still utterly adore the Demesne story. It and Sonnets By Twilight are both on my - comparatively - exclusive list of all-time favorites. I know why Celestia can't just snap her fingers (besides the obvious physical flaw in that analogy) to resolve the situation and I won't enjoy it any less for whatever shipping mishaps might ensue, especially if it means that there will more story to read in the end.
Now that that's out of the way... I don't know if I could point out anything particularly inspirational, but I'm very glad I found you and your stories. Writing some of my absolute favorites aside, without you I would never have come across The Best Of All Possible Worlds (which I agree is a must-read as much as it is niche and unconventional), and I suspect that I found both Georg and GhostOfHeraclitus through your blog posts.
That makes at least four times the the gratitude I owe you. Probably exponentially more.
Thank you for everything.
Why does the phrase "Those who can do. Those who can't teach" come to mind?
Seriously, I'm a bit of a niche writer, but I'm really glad my blogs have let me reach outside of my niche in the community, and meet and interact with so many awesome writers of all kinds. That they might actually help people along the way is really yummy icing on the cake.
Like, cream cheese icing, with that yummy gel icing from ice cream cakes as lettering, and some fruit filling between the layers.
Even if sometimes my comments sections get a bit heavy on the fruits.
ANYWAY! What I'm trying to say is that I'm glad you find my rambling useful. Also, I agree with you about many of the names on this list, and those I don't know well I probably should get to know better so I can agree with you more.
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Oh, it didn't. In fact, one of the people who wrote one that I loved was Horizon, who retains a well-deserved place above. I genuinely have loved and enjoyed the parodies for what they are.
It was the comments sections of those posts that really rubbed salt in the proverbial wound, I fear. The people who took it less as a joke and more as mean-spirited criticism, and then went out of the way to agree with that perceived intent.
I'm glad my love for those others was contagious, though.
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Because they obviously haven't tried. Teaching, and teaching well, is a lot harder than most people give it credit for.
Besides. You make shipping as much a science as you do an artform. That's to be lauded to the nth degree.
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Man, I'm glad I'm not the only one who does that.
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Pfft. I started horse-ficcing 22 years ago. Took a break between 1996 - 2010, mind you, but horsewords have always been close by.
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You have been ponyficcing for longer than I've been alive.
I recognise... only most of these names.
And that's absolutely AMAZINGLY GREAT!
It means there's some other people to look up and more stories to read.
Ribbit!
This is now one of those tabs that will stick around for awhile....with 169 others
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So do I, actually.
...you put me in quite a bind, actually. It's one thing to be complimented on skill, talent, or some thing like that, and quite another to be declared some sort of cross between Fluttershy and the Buddha[1]. Don't get me wrong, I am equally[2] unworthy of either type of compliment, but how on Earth do you gracefully deflect somebody calling you kind and human?
"No I'm not, and to prove it, I will eat this kitten?"
It lacks style.
Also, I would not eat the kitten. I would snuggle with the kitten, and then subsequently die because I am incredibly allergic. None of which helps my case.
As you can see, quite a bind.
(The above was a very extended and inadequate way of saying 'thank you.')
((Normally I'd leave the subtext in its place, but I'm even more sleep-deprived than usual while writing this so I'm hedging in the event that I have written the above in Assyrian or something))
[1] For one thing, I dread being either. If I am the former, Bad Horse will want to torment me, and if I am the latter, people who meet me on the road will have to kill me.
[2] I.e. infinitely.
Somehow I pegged you as an old man. I didn't believe anyone could be that good without decades of practice. But 20?! If I had a drink, that would have been a spit take. To think that you're that good, and not even really much older than me... wow.
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Today researchers discovered an ancient stone tablet, believed to be one of the missing fragments of what is believed to by mankind's oldest known epic, The Epic of Gilgamesh. Translations are sketchy, but it believed to say something along the lines of, "Oh dear, no I am quite sure you must mean some other Ghost of Heraclitus[1]. Certainly these kind things cannot be referring to myself. Oh, they are? Um, well then. I'll just be....oh my goodness...."
[1]I wonder what the cuneiform for this would actually look like.
The fact that most of these are people I know and quite appreciate the work of makes me most interested in checking out the few I don't recognize. Though, amusingly, the story I remember Thanqol for will always be "Do Not Serve These Ponies", rather than the one you reference. It's an all-time favorite.
(I still can't believe how upset people were at the clearly foreshadowed ending of What Games We Play.)
I'm not sure why you didn't link to kkat, though, he(?) updates his(?) blog all the time, so this isn't a case of the author leaving the site, like most of the others you didn't link to.
I think feeling you are above replying to people (who are denigrated as 'the peanut gallery') would actually be more narcissistic, personally. Further, if you like getting certain kinds of comments, replying to the people who made them encourages them to review more.
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I wasn't aware Kkat was prominent on this site! I've only read their stuff through GDocs! Thus the lack of links.
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Tch. Here I thought we were similar ages, and it turns out I'm OLD ENOUGH TO BE YOUR DAD.
Well, assuming I knocked up your mum when I was nine.
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In that case, you've missed a lot of Fallout Equestria related side-content, because Kkat has done many posts about that world,things like the probable origins of Mega Spells and the nature of ghoulhood:
http://www.fimfiction.net/user/Kkat
See, if you hadn't replied, you might not have found that out.
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I think they're all on the EQD main-post for it, though~
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Not that I see, unless they're buried in the discussion thread somewhere.
I was talking about things like this blog-post:
http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/523259/where-did-megaspells-come-from
which does not have any visible link or replication on the story page, at least.
You've got quite a few people that I genuinely admire listed in this blog post!
Regarding AbsoluteAnonymous, I had no idea that was going on. Though, I am familiar with the feeling. I think many authors are, especially ones who write primarily on a site like this, where the stories and the feedback are so closely knit.
I experienced something very similar. I was writing a very long story that I was pouring a lot of effort into and, while it was well enough received, it wasn't insanely popular. Then I wrote something silly and fun, mostly to give my mind a break. My silly and fun story quickly eclipsed the other one in popularity.
The mix of sensations was intense. On the one hand, I was really happy that people enjoyed my goofy, silly story. On the other, I was left wondering why the story where I was actually trying wasn't getting that same attention. I was getting lots of praise for something I literally threw together for fun, praise I wasn't sure that story deserved. I had to wonder if I was wasting my time on the other story.
I wasn't getting the kind of negative feedback and criticism that AbsoluteAnonymous was getting, but I can empathize.
As far as Demesne goes, I have to say that I'm perfectly happy to see where you're taking this particular train. For those wondering why Celestia doesn't just fix things with a wave of her hoof, well... Let's consider our own world for a moment. The US President commands the most powerful military on the planet. Why can't he just wave his hand and have everyone fall in line behind him?
The answer, of course, is that there are limits to his power, and what he is and isn't allowed to do with the military. In the world you set up, Celestia has similar limitations of her own, at least politically.
Granted, there have been tyrants who have had that kind of power over the populace, but Celestia strikes me as having very little in common with them. Namely, she isn't nearly ruthless enough. What's she supposed to do if the nobles refuse to go along? Invoke the power of the sun and threaten to burn then to ashes? Of course not! That would be totally out of character for her!
I feel no dissonance, logically or emotionally, with the way you're handling the situation in the story. I have no issues with the way any of the characters are being portrayed. In fact, your depiction of Twilight Sparkle is one of my favorites ever!
In any case, interesting blog post. I'm considering making a similar one of my own, of the authors who have inspired me or who I've learned from.
Oh, and if you got confused because you received a second notification that I was following you, I have to blame my big ol' thumb for that. I was browsing Fimfic on my phone, read this blog post, and went to tap the Fimfic logo to bring me back to the front page. I accidentally hit the Unfollow button by mistake
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Fun note: I was going to throw you up there, as this resulted from a conversation with Archonix, Masked Ferret and Professor Plum. And as I was writing this, Archonix started talking about you and I thought "Yep, nope, he's gonna do him a lot more justice than I could"
But I was thinking your name super loudly, not expecting you to end up reading this at all.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to roll on the floor squealing because I just remembered all the nice things you've said and continue to say about something I've written, arrrrrgggggh-
So I'm the old guard now, eh? I'll show you, sonny, as soon as I find my cane. Some rascal's gone and moved it again.
Oh, on a side note, I didn't realize you were taking so much flack over Demesne. There are a couple points where the pacing feels like it's dragging a little, but it's overall a very entertaining and amusing story and I think Celestia waving her hoof to fix it all would probably only work as an ending if it were meant to be a short crack piece.
I greatly appreciate being added to this list. I know a lot of people are surprised to find that I comment on 95% of the responses and messages I get, and that I interact with my readership in ways that most of the other "Top 20" writers on the site do not. I do it because I genuinely feel that we "owe" each other something is this fandom. Unlike an author who is writing original fiction for the people to make of what they will, a fandom is community. People have to take out time out of their lives to read my stuff... I appreciate them doing so, and I like to let them know that I do.
I'd like to think my stories are worth their time as well. What can I say? I'm a huge fan of my readers!
Thank you for this very much. It put a big smile on my face.
Wow, my friend MaskedFerret showed me that I was mentioned in this. Believe me, I was surprised too when I wrote a fanfic with well-received OCs, especially way back in 2011 when OCs were a lot more frowned upon than they are today. I'm really glad they had an impact on you!
By the way, I'm not dead
Still writing. The final chapter of the sequel to Shipping and Handling will be up any day now.