Three FimFiction writers who have helped me. · 5:05am May 29th, 2017
I want to give a shout-out to three particular fim-fiction users, whose writings have helped me a lot.
Around late 2014 was when I discovered this website and Iater on established an account. At the time...............my mental and emotional state was in a dark and wandering place. I will need to provide some context, so bear with me. I had spent eleven years prior in political activism, was going through college in order to become an American History Teacher, and was a moral cultural warrior. Full disclosure, I am registered to vote as a Republican. I have grown up in a conservative household and retained some of the values my family instilled in me, particularly my dad who is Cuban and had the strongest hatred for communism. Naturally, being a young and idealistic man, I thought I can engage in political activism to restore my country's constitutional republic and teach the next generation to be proud of America's founding and advance the cause of liberty. To make a long and complicated story short, I was..............disillusioned with the Republican Party, working so hard to get them elected in 2014, only to realize that they had no intention of opposing Obama. In fact, both parties were cooperating to increase government control over the individual, and further increase the debt that may come to haunt us in my lifetime.
At that moment, realizing time and time again, how my energy had been wasted and how I was manipulated to serving the interests of politicians at the expense of the citizenry, I threw my hands up in anguish and gave up. I gave up on politics, I gave up on my country, I gave up on everything, including God. I still believed Him and acknowledged His existence. I just flat out ignored Him, which when I think about it, it's actually worse to ignore someone you know is there than to not believe He exists.
With the hopelessness I was in, I retreated to the world of fiction in order to escape from reality. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic was the best means to help me cope with my sense of uselessness.
As I read the stories in this site, whether they be silly, comedy, horror, gory, epic, and just plain randomness, there were three authors whose stories have retained my sanity, re-established my moral compass, and put me in a better footing. Here is who they are:
Daxisle
I came across a title that was appealing to my love for liberty, and as far as I am concerned, this author's point of view was the only one that could be found in this website. When you love liberty as much as I do and see the title Earning Freedom, you at least want to see what the author has to offer. And boy...........his political philosphy was VERY HARD to take in.
The basic plot is that Big Macintosh was illegally arrested for a crime he did not commit. He was able to escape with the help of this mysterious stallion, whose philosophy changed Big Mac's outlook in life and greatly challenged the status quo of our familiar characters. The philosophy is called the Non-Aggression Principle (NAP). Fluttershy, will you explain to the audience what the NAP means?
Thank you, my dear.
um, your welcome.
For a point of reference of who practices this philosophy, think of Ron Paul, Murray Rothbard, Lew Rockwell,Tom Woods and Stefan Molyneux. In any case, when I came across the NAP back in 2012, I was very hostile towards it. I thought it was one of those left-wing pacifist cancers that teaches us to disarm ourselves in the face of evil. I was wrong. As Daxisle showed me in this story, the NAP is the epitome of righteousness and freedom. Each individual is free to do what they want with their lives and property, as long as you don't hurt innocent people, interfere with their liberties, or violate their private property rights. If someone tries to take away your life, liberty, or private property, you have the right to defend yourself.
As I read Daxisle's story, in how the NAP can be applied in any situation, whether in private or public life, I began to to value the philosophy and have started to adopt it in my personal life. It also helps that as I immersed myself in the story, I wanted to imitate some of the beliefs and actions of the author's OC named Sin. This fictional character shook up my worldview in a way that I found admirable and worth imitating.
One more thing that Daxisle challenged me on is the notion that a just and civil society can logically exist without government. Anarchy, to be precise. I thought this was a ludicrous idea and that this would never work. But I had to remember that anarchy is only an umbrella term that means no government. Just because the government ceases to exist, does not mean morality needs to cease as well. The kind of society Daxisle is talking about is called Anarcho-Capitalism, and in his story he constructed an example of what that kind of society would look like. After reading it and mentally comparing notes to see if this would work in reality, I came to the conclusion that an Anarcho-Capitalist Society that is governed by the NAP is not only feasible, but it is one I would personally want to live in. Daxisle also helped me to look for a successful and purposeful life outside of the government. That there are opportunities for me to do what I want in the private sector and that I do not need to seek a profession that pays me at tax-payers expense. So now, I'm giving up on college and seeking private employment.
While there were other libertarians who have helped to shape my worldview, Daxisle was the first one who helped me to value and adopt the Non-Aggression Principle.
Fireheart 1945
I have a particular obsession with the concept of war and military stories. Call me a psycho, sadist, or what-have-you, but I just LOVE reading about such violence and drama, whether in fiction or real-life. So of course, The War of 1002 was gonna be one of those fics I feasted on like a pig. The narrative, the drama, the characters, the world-building, and the battle reports. It was one of those delicacies that I just kept consuming, hungry for more.
........................
um.........David
Yyyyyyyyyeeeeeeessssssssssssssss.
Um.............your're drooling................and scaring me............
*clears throat* My apologies Fluttershy. I will try to control myself.
Anyway. Some may be wondering, out of all the war fics in this site, why do I hold such high regard and preference for Fireheart's work. The answer is simple but profound. It's because of his unapologetic choice to fuse Christianity into his story. I forgot to mention that Fireheart's story is an HIE fic, and the human character, James, brings his Christian beliefs with him. The interactions between James and the ponies on this hot topic is frank, intriguing, and something of a rarity.
What?
Your puns are terrible.
Shut uuuuup.
Anyway. Whenever other prominent fics discuss religion, it's either portrayed in an extreme negative light or the author tip-toes around so as to not offend his/her audience. Fireheart has demonstrated that he doesn't give a shit if his readers give him flak for including Christianity into his story. Don't get me wrong, he's much more respectful and has great use of tact, (something I can't say about myself), but he will stand firm in his right to express his faith in the story and has consistently remained unapologetic about it. The narrative and dialogue written in the story helped to keep my spiritual sanity and prevented me from going the deep end into spiritual darkness. I don't know if I would have hold on to my fragile faith had it not been for him. I have gotten better since then and my relationship with the Lord has been restored, and Fireheart 1945 played a role in preventing my faith from being completely snuffed out.
Alex Warlorn
When it comes to stories that explores psychology, the connection between the natural and supernatural, and the complexities of the individual, there is one author that has tackled these with such brilliance and articulation, I question if he is a privately a professional author. I'm talking about Alex Warlorn and his Pony POV series. The material he and the others have produced is SUPER MASSIVE! So much so that you can spend many, many months reading them and not get bored. I was definitely entertained by many of the writings in this series.
There two specif stories that Alex wrote that I want to highlight, the ones that helped me in some ways.
Princess Twilight's Lightly visits to Grim Worlds
This website has an unnerving tendency to turn our beloved pony characters into monsters and have produced grim dark stories where the good guys always lose and there is no hope for the virtuous. In essence, evil always conquers, so why bother fighting. I always get aggravated when I'm invested in a character, hoping they will win or survive, only for the author to say "fuck you" and kill off the character in the most gruesome and humiliating way. I really hate those stories. And it appears that Alex shares my opinion, because his character, Amicitia, has decided to take those stories (worlds) and work behind the scenes to produce a happy ending. That's literally her job, to be in charge of Magic and produce realistic happy endings.
Along the way, the concept of tragic endings is tackled on and the author(s) stresses the point that there is a difference between producing tragedies for tragedies sake and producing tragedies with moral lesson in it.
Needless to say, this particular fic prevented me from losing hope in humanity and showed me that there is still good and sensible people out there.
Pony POV Series Season Six: Dark World
To summarize this story without spoilers, the story starts of in a world where there is no hope and evil has triumphed. It's the classic Downer Beginning. However, the main characters will find hope and will work hard to restore what was right and produce a happy outcome. Basically, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
Out of all of Alex's writing, this is my personal favorite. I read it twice. That's how much I loved it. There are a host of reasons why I cherish this fic out of all of Alex's other writings. I will explain only two of them here.
First, the concept of forgiveness is explored again and again, from different angles and perspectives. There was a line that just kept getting repeated. The phrase is profound and worth remembering.
"You don't earn forgiveness. It's given to you. That's why they called it forGIVEness."
This line helped me to keep something important in perspective. There is so much truth to that phrase, especially when we consider it's significance in Christianity, where God has bestowed undeserved favor and mercy to those who accept Him.
Secondly, the concept of regret and moving on was repeatedly explored and examined. The basic gist is "we can't change the past and there is no use dwelling on it. We must learn from it, deal with the consequences, move forward and start doing good. Don't let the past define you, focus on what's ahead and start making better decisions."
I have to say...................this fic has helped me to keep important things in perspective. There are many things I have done in the past, including recently. I'm ashamed of them and wished that I could have done differently. But Alex has helped me to not dwell on what could have been, but to focus on what I could do now. He also inadvertently helped me to slowly return to God and accept His forgiveness.
Final Word
So Daxisle, Fireheart 1945, and Alex Warlorn, if you ever thought that your writings were a waste of time and ever thought of just giving up, well............I'm glad you did not give in to such temptations or I would not have started on the path to becoming a better person. To restore my moral character, to have a different and positive outlook in life, to pursue what I believe is the road to righteousness and freedom. To look ahead and work for a better future for myself, my family, my friends and the good people of this world.
You have my thanks and encouragement to keep on helping people make better decisions in life.
For Christ I stand,
David Crespo
And dude... I'm sincerely not sure how to react. I'm so used to people who don't directly comment on my stuff saying how fun it is to insult just to get a rise out of me or a offense to good writing everywhere ... I... I... I sincerely not sure what to say. Thank you. Very much. Thank you. It's very, very, VERY kind of you.
I'm happy to hear you read these authors (including me) and were able to find your own truth. Thank you dude. Thank you.
Wow, man, thanks for this blog.
Honestly, sometimes I do despair over my own stories and getting them done, as well as the fact that I'm not updating them as often, and I must admit, occasionally I muse over it being easier if I just quit, but it's blogs and comments like this that help convince me it's worth it to continue. When I began writing, and even today, I did not think that my writing would help people in their actual lives, or at least, not in the manner you described.
And the fact is that I have re-written the story over the past couple of years slightly. The scene where James and Grayfeather meet at Trottingham, for example, was originally one where James insulted the griffon gods (and king) and used profanity doing so, as well as mixing that with Christian beliefs and condemnation of the then-Griffon Kingdom. I re-wrote this scene, mainly because it seemed inappropriate to the behavior of a believing Christian as I matured, and I've cut out a great deal of the original profanity in the story in general, though probably not quite all of it. I must admit, I've retreated a few times and I'm not proud of it. But over the past year or so I've started giving less care to comments that are negative about the faith, and more to trying to write an accurate character doing what he can as a Christian in a pony world that is at war. I think I've done okay, though given all of what I intended to put in and either forgot or changed because characters over the past few seasons have changed to where they're either redeemed (in the sense of earthly relationships) or less unlikable (case in point, I was intending to put Gilda as a conscript at Ragna Fortress and have her blown, dazed but alive, all the way to Equestrian lines when the fortress blew up), along with other reasons, it could have been better.
Honestly, it's been great having you as a follower and a good friend. And your blogs have definitely helped me too. And your own story is pretty memorable too, along with your blogs. And your bio is the very heart of both simplicity and directness when it comes to being a Christian fan of the show;
May God bless you friend.
And, if God wills it, maybe the remaining chapters can have the old zing that I originally had.
Edit; Going to bed now. If you have any reply to this, I'll reply to it late in the morning or in the afternoon (probably the latter).
Well said, good sir. Well said.
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Your welcome.
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Funny, isn't it.
Glad to know you have been developing a thick skin.
Really?
I'm surprised that my writings..........hold that much significance to you. Good to know, 
That will make me bloody happy.
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