2016: My Pony Year in Retrospective

For this year, I will for the first time write a retrospective while looking forward to the upcoming year. 2016 was special for me in many ways, so it deserves a recap in its honor.
I'll be writing it per month. Here we go:



January

Very surprisingly, this year didn't start out with a whole lot of ponies. It even started very rough and everything promised that it would be my WORST year ever.
Exactly on January 7th, I had to move out of my shared flat, because my roommate, and at the same time, owner of the apartment, wanted to sell it, so I had no choice than to find a new place to live.
Which I did..... And I made one of the most horrible mistakes one can make when making my choice.
Desperated and afraid to not find a new place on time, because it was getting tight already, I did not notice how "strange" my new, future roommate was. I noticed he was eccentric, a bit, but thought he was nice and we would get along together very well. My gut feeling and very reliable instinct for people told me to not move in there..... I didn't listen. As I said, I was afraid to not find a new place on time anymore, so I ignored the nagging feeling that something is wrong with this guy. And this was a huge mistake.
Shortly after moving in, it turned out he was a hopeless drunkard; loud, obnoxious, annoying and even verbally abusive (which might be a weird term to use here, since he wasn't a parent of mine, but that's how it felt). That would have been worse enough already and I thought it couldn't get worse anymore..... Until he threatened me and said he will tell the other roommate who lived in there with us to cut my throat if I make problems. Nice, isn't it? It got better when, on the same evening as moving in, he smugly showed me the gun in his room.
Sufficed to say, I made the resolve to get out there again as fast as possible and I did.
In a rush, I went to search for another apartment to live in. Not even two weeks later I had found one, a time which I barely spent in the apartment, but rather at McDonalds with my netbook and crappy Wi-Fi while searching. Only times I was there was to sleep and to shower, the former of which I did with one eye open and a blocked door of my room there (since I couldn't lock it) and the emergency number of the police ready on my phone.
So, using up my last savings (especially since the moving company scammed me and took more than they should have), I moved out from that guy and into a new apartment on January 20th, exactly one day before I would have lived with that guy for two weeks.
At this point I was pretty broken, financially and mentally. The fact the guy himself scammed me too and kep the 200$ deposit I paid him by pretending I destroyed something did not help either.
The only light I saw during these less than two weeks was Equestria Daily reporting on hints that Maud is going to have another role in Season 6:

www.equestriadaily.com/2016/01…

Which was one of those things building me up and giving me strength during this time.
Another downside, though, was the fact I could not attend an Open Server Weekend of "Legends of Equestria" that happened, because UPC failed to set up Internet connection at the guy's apartment in time for it, making it the first OSW I missed:

www.equestriadaily.com/2016/01…

But yeah, I managed to move out before getting killed..... Or having to kill him in self-defense.
The month ended on a higher note than it began on, with the move and the announcement of Flurry Heart, which I mostly avoided because spoilers, but lifted my spirits tremendously anyway, because I felt connected to Flurry almost immediately:

www.equestriadaily.com/2016/01…

From there on, things began to look up slowly, but it was also that the time began where I couldn't buy any MLP: FiM fan articles (aside from the monthly official comics, which was already a risk to do, but I needed those) and where I had to buy the cheapest food possible to restore my emergency savings.


February

Not much happened here..... Winding down, relaxing, recovering from the terrible experiences and from nearly two weeks of panic. Which unfortunately brought back my videogame addiction, that had returned way back in 2014 and that I was fighting since then, so I watched pointless Let's Plays of "Harvest Moon: Back to Nature" and others for a while, essentially wasting my time in the process.
I felt so weak, actually, that I had problems to unpack my ponies and bring them to their respective places where they're used to be, something I needed to force myself to do. A process that only happened very sluggishly.
Overall not a very good month, but better than the last and I needed a break.


March

Things began to look up more. I caught up with the fics released on FIMFiction.net and looked through two months worth of fics to put them into my bookshelves and our Cutie Mark(ed) Crusaders group.
I caught up on reading all the fanfictions for "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" that were released in this time as well. Another quiet time, that I sorely needed to recover.
I also discovered the Sweetie Bot Project in this month, making the resolve to support it on Patreon once I'm better off financially again:

www.patreon.com/sweetiebot

Then, at the end of the month, Season 6 started on the 26th and suddenly, things were a lot brighter again..... I even dared to invest some more money, since it started on Easter, to celebrate this a little with more than rice soup and dry bread.
I watched the Season 6 Opener and fell in love with Flurry Heart immediately. And watching the episode even gave birth (No pun intended! But it's funny.....) to a fic idea for Flurry Heart that should turn out very important for me in the coming months..... More about that later.
I also wrote a very deep analysis based on something interesting I caught while watching the Season 6 Opener and developed a theory about the future, one that yet needs to be proven right:

Theory: The Mane Six will make a Time Travel!Ok, here's something very exciting that I just saw when watching "The Crystalling" for the seventh time. I'm really psyched about this, because I'm sure no one else in the fandom has noticed that yet.
Have you taken a closer look at the antique vase Spike shows to Applejack and the others, including Starlight, while he explains the Crystalling? Here's a reminder:
I stopped the video there and in the second before I wanted to continue it, my eyes fell on the pony that stands on the far left of the five blue ponies and I thought, without suspecting anything yet, "This pony looks a little bit like Pinkie Pie."
I hesitated with continuing with the episode because of that and then my eyes fell automatically on the pony to her right and I thought "And that one looks a little like Rainbow Dash."
And from there it went on. I looked at the pony at the upper right and recognized that it looks kinda like Applejack.
I was then unsure about the ponies in the lower row, but after some moments of thi

Another thing I did in this month was starting my first fic collaboration with Raylan Krios, a fic author on FIMFiction.net, to write a fic for Lily Longsocks together. It still goes on, but we keep working on it!

April

I started writing on the aforementioned fic for Flurry Heart, based on an idea that the Season 6 Opener brought me, an idea about Flurry Heart's future in which a certain decision her parents made for her might bring her a lot of problems.
This month also brought the first Cutie Mark Crusaders episode after my lovely Crusaders got their cutie marks. <3 Our Cutie Mark(ed) Crusaders group on FIMFiction.net was holding a very big celebration for this occasion:

www.fimfiction.net/group/20902…

Which was even preceded by another stream event during the week where we caught up on the first three Season 6 episodes, combined with some gaming:

www.fimfiction.net/group/20902…

This was also the month where we started to livestream episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic regularly on our Cutie Mark(ed) Crusaders channel on Equestria TV and the events were a rousing success!
A not so fortunate event in this month was Sony creating trouble, as it had acquired licensing rights for a bunch of the show's songs and proceeded to abuse those rights by blocking everything containing these songs, from the songs themselves to animations using them on YouTube. But we prevailed and defeated Sony together:

VICTORY my friends! Sony has given up! :DUPDATE: A little update for everyone who has used the song removal feature on YouTube, instead of making the videos private! AstrumSpark on Equestria Daily knows how to reverse this:
Tell people who used "song removal" feature already on their videos to make them playalbe again, they can undo it!
For that you should find a video on a Video Manager page and click Edit on it.
Then in its Audio tab on the editing page you can find the buttons to undo those song removals back!
So today, I was again informed by :iconsuppliedrelic: SuppliedRelic of something, but this time it's good news:
Sony has given up on slaughtering our creations on YouTube and all claims were retracted!

I just went through the videos I linked in the second journal on the matter and all of them work perfectly again! Some others that were set on private by their creators for safety measures are still unavailable, but are bound to return soon now!
Have two examples of what we got back (Update


May

May came..... Or should I call it "Month of the Sweep"? Because that's what it was:

www.equestriadaily.com/2016/05…

When Twilight started sweeping Rarity's new boutique in Manehattan rhythmically to a made-up beat, it became a trend in the fandom and Sweep Remixes were suddenly everywhere. I even made a playlist for them:

www.youtube.com/playlist?list=…

Of course, that was not the only interesting event in Equestria that we witnessed in this month..... More importantly was that Rainbow Dash finally became a Wonderbolt! Scootaloo was even with her when she heard the good news, which made the moment even better and very special, especially for me.
And with this month, it was also that I got presented with another Hearth's Warming Eve episode, which finally showed me what I wanted, ponies celebrating Hearth's Warming Eve together (sorry, Pie Family, but amish Hearth's Warming does not count) and I couldn't have cheered more over this! The best thing about it? Luna, our Princess of the Night, graced us with a solo song! It hyped me up more than anything else in episodes of Season 6 before and more than anything that came after it:




Writing-wise, a success started for me this month. While I was up until this point resolved to finish writing my fic for Flurry Heart, then release a chapter per week, I lost my patience on the beginning of the month and couldn't wait anymore..... I finally wanted to release it! So I did just that:

www.fimfiction.net/story/32759…

And I was stumped by the response and the success the fic had! In no time, it had more than hundred views and comments and favourites began to trickle in in masses and haven't stopped since.
This fic brought me a stable readerbase that came back every time I released a new chapter and commented on it with theories and speculations of the future course of the fic.
"Princess Flurry Heart, Destroyer of Worlds!" even made it to Popular Stories, a first for me:

www.fimfiction.net/blog/626382…

And as if that wouldn't enough for this great month already, there was a chance that presented itself to me, something I thought would never happen, but which I always dreamt about a little.....
To become a quest writer for "Legends of Equestria"! Of course I took the chance:

www.fimfiction.net/blog/629816…

I applied and wrote a little fic that was required for the application:

www.fimfiction.net/story/32886…

Which brought me into the second round of the application process, much to my joy:

www.fimfiction.net/blog/634109…

Next up was writing an own quest to show I am able to do that, something I proceeded with swiftly:

Legends of Equestria Quest: Love Is In The AirName of current Quest: Love Is In The Air
Author: CMC Scootaloo
Tier: Low
Prerequisites: None
Giver: Sunny Meadows
Other NPC(s): Tornado Twist
Location(s): Ponydale, Sugarcane Corner; Ponydale, Park
Key points:
Talk to Sunny Meadows in Sugarcane Corner. She tells you about a colt in her class who seems to have a crush on her and pleads you to ask him about that.
Go in the Ponydale Park and speak to Tornado Twist.
Ask him if he has a crush on Sunny Meadows.
He admits the crush and you get presented with three choices to answer.
Choose any of the answers to steer the quest into a different direction each.
When you return to Sunny Meadows you can again choose between different answers.
Depending on your answers to Sunny Meadows at the end, you get 20, 10 or no bits from her pocket money as reward.
Quest Dialogue:
#startquest
* aliasname
#When the player speaks to Sunny Meadows:
[SMStart]
SM: *sigh*
>What’s up? You look n

But how that turned out was something I should only find out in June.....


June

The month began with some bad news, because I found out I would have to cope with another mid-season hiatus! "Flutter Brutter" and "Spice Up Your Life" (to my big surprise a new map episode!) aired and then there was silence from Equestria for one and a half month, at least on the TV screens (Luna bless the official comics!).
But before the hiatus started, I was given a great gift. Completely unexpectedly, I got a little insight into Dinky's life, the life of one of my favourite background ponies, as she appeared with her patronizing and overbearing aunt on the screen, annoyed by her aunt covering her ears over Fluttershy's "swearing".
It is not often that we get such a deep insight into a background pony's life and see what this has to put up with in its daily life. And it happened for Dinky to boot! I was so happy and overjoyed that I knew I had to start writing a fic:

www.fimfiction.net/blog/639850…

www.fimfiction.net/story/33255…

It was a special moment for me to see this and so it was a matter of course to write about it and explain how Dinky's life with that obnoxious mare might be exactly. And just a day later, it even got to Popular Stories, my second fic making it there:

www.fimfiction.net/blog/640225…

And like "Princess Flurry Heart, Destroyer of Worlds!" before, "Aunt Millie" acquired a respectable readerbase that returned to read and comment on every single chapter! But this was not the only good thing that happened in this month.....
On June 2nd, a nice e-mail jumped into my inbox and it was telling me..... that I made it and became a quest writer for "Legends of Equestria"!!!!! A dream got fulfilled with that:

www.fimfiction.net/blog/652188…

I also wrote and finished my first quest for "Legends of Equestria", called "Special Star's Heroic Deed", in this month. If you play the game, look for the quest in the Crystal Empire Library!
This was one of the best months in this year and in my entire life in this here world, but not the last awesome month this year.....


July

A more quiet month again, because of the mid-season hiatus, which I spent with writing and becoming a master (but not really) in slaying zombies as a pony when playing Left 4 Dead 2's ponymod.
But despite the quietness, it was also that Sony showed its ugly face again by once again taking remixes and other videos on YouTube down. But we beat it this time too:

The 2nd Sony Remix War is over! We won again!This just happened. Today, the newest album for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic released and upon checking on remixes of the songs on it that got blocked worldwide by Sony, I found them freely available on YouTube again!
The protest has worked, my pony loving friends, Sony has once more retracted the claims on MLP: FiM songs on YouTube after Hasbro's intervention!
Here are two examples of remixes, both from my first journal about the incident, that got blocked by Sony, but are now free again:
Einarx' remix of "I'll Fly" and JoinedTheHerd's remix of "The Magic Inside", both available again for your listening pleasure!
It's the second time now that Sony attacked us and the second time that Hasbro stepped in for us, saved our creations and helped us winning the fight!
This is something that was, until now, unheard of, a company defending fan creations, but this is what Hasbro does!
And to show your gratitude, as well as demonstrate that supporting Fair Use and fanwork pays off by voti

On the end of the month, it was over with being quiet, as Season 6 returned on the 31st with the return of Daring Do, while simultaneously, another OSW of "Legends of Equestria" happened!
I finally played it again, of course, and it was an anniversary even, as it was my 10th OSW! I also got inspired to another quest for the game.....
And finally, I also had fixed my savings and restored them again, which meant the end of the cheap life, finally!
How fitting for this, I even made a little trip together with my Crusaders, for "Ponies Around the World", and we enjoyed a good day and night outside together:




August

August proved itself to be an especially awesome month again, as MLP: FiM presented us with two very special episodes "The Cart Before the Ponies" and "28 Pranks Later".
The former one I was suspecting to be a Cutie Mark Crusaders episode, especially after I heard that Ed Valentine has written it, and it turned out it was right! The real surprise about this episode, though, was that we found out about another relative of Derpy, her little brother, Crackle Pop! After seeing him, I had another strong urge to write a fic and I proceeded to do so and wrote a fic about Crackle Pop, his little sister Chirpy and his participation in the race with Derpy, going by the title of "Fate must be Cruel only to the Kind":

www.fimfiction.net/blog/661968…

www.fimfiction.net/story/34277…

I even came up with a big cutie mark backstory for him, which was a first for me!
What made this month even more interesting was that MLP: FiM finally got a zombie pony episode with "28 Pranks Later", something I hoped for since I saw Season 1 already!
I was so happy about this, that I even spontaneously decided to hold a small stream event for our group again:

www.fimfiction.net/group/20902…

Aside from this, I participated in the Newbie Artist Training Grounds by Equestria Daily and made some interesting drawing experiences again:



The first one of which was drawn during another day, or rather, night, that I spend outside with my lovely Crusaders, as we celebrated my first time reading of the Cutie Mark Crusaders Micro Series comic three years ago!
And of course started to write my next quest for "Legends of Equestria", something that should turn out as a long ride.....
Another trip I made this month lead me to "AniNite", Austria's biggest anime convention, where I bought a ton of pony merch as always, even a Luna plushie this time!
And something else interesting happened as well. While diligently looking through all the Crackle Pop fanarts that got submitted to Derpibooru, I came across one by an artist called "DinkyUniverse".
I loved the art style and was glad to see another drawing for Crackle, but otherwise did not think much about it..... Finding this artist should prove to be important later, though.


September

September was holding something for me that I did not expect..... After finding the account of DinkyUniverse here on Deviantart, when a picture of her was submitted to the Scootalove group, she wrote on my page and..... it turned out we shared the same view regarding new background ponies and how important it is that they get more stories and art!
She added me in Skype and quickly, I became her proofreader and we decided to take on that task of making new background ponies more popular together!
September was also the month in which "The Fault in Our Cutie Marks" aired, the third, and sadly, last, CMC episode of Season 6. I looked forward to this episode with anxiety and excitement both, thinking the title hints at a terrible fate for my Crusaders, one which they either have to endure themselves or to witness.
Luckily, it was not as bad as I feared, although something happened that was hard for them still. It turned out to be an episode with very sad moments, especially as we saw Scootaloo lamenting once again over the fact she will never be able to fly.
But the episode also introduced Petunia Paleo, a background filly with huge potential, I immediately fell in love with:

www.fimfiction.net/group/50/th…

I also started supporting the Sweetie Bot Project on Patreon, finally, with my money problems being fixed, the first time that I support someone on Patreon!
And after this, a very special day came up in October.....


October

It was in this month, that the first Cutie Mark Anniversary of Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle happened! I celebrated the day accordingly in their honor, by giving out a boatload of money for tasty food, cake and chocolate bars:

One Year Ago.....One year ago, something great happened. No, not great. Something extraordinary. Something that was long awaited, by everyone, and that should change the lives of three fillies forever.....
Today, exactly a year ago, it was that Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle got their cutie marks! Needless to say, I celebrate this momentous occasion in all the fine ways:

And there were lots of chocolatey presents for Equestria's famous Cutie Mark Counselors:

Of course I rewatched "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" too. Even though it's a year ago now, and I already saw the episode for the 21st time today, I still teared up when I saw their big moment happening.
There were a lot of bronies saying they would never make it, that they are just not clever enough to get their cutie marks and that they would never get them because of that, but they really showed them all.
Since then, they are not just the Cutie Mark Crusaders anymore, they are Equ

After eating more sweets and drinking more Dr. Pepper than it should be legally allowed and indulging myself in catching up with a great fic based on "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" (which you should totally check out: www.fimfiction.net/story/30982…), I returned to my usual schedule.
This month also saw the end of Season 6 and its last six episodes..... But a new ship (Skytrail FOR LIFE!!!!) and an awesome season finale thanks to Starlight Glimmer, Trixie and the return of the dark and evil Queen Chrysalis, as well as a few others, gave a worthy end of the season (Flurry Heart was a little responsible for this too: www.fimfiction.net/blog/684858…), before I was left out into another, long hiatus.....
Another thing that happened this month was my very first Nightmare Night fic, which sadly did not gather many views, but it was my fault because I released it on the most fitting, and yet at the same time, most impractical, day of the month:

www.fimfiction.net/story/35219…


November

Season 6 was over and once more, I was left to rely on fanwork to keep me connected to Equestria..... Luckily, the fandom did not disappoint in releasing said fanwork, especially the artistic acquaintance I could make:

cmc--scootaloo.deviantart.com/…

It was also in this month that DinkyUniverse and me began to grow closer to each other. What began as a professional artist and proofreader relationship slowly turned into friendship as we found out that we have pretty much everything in common.....
I also returned "Aunt Millie" out of a, dumb and unannounced, hiatus and "Princess Flurry Heart, Destroyer of Worlds!" out of a semi-hiatus, and continued to write both fics, not with a loss of some readers, though..... Which was something I learned my lesson from:

www.fimfiction.net/blog/697166…

I also finished "Fate must be Cruel only to the Kind":

www.fimfiction.net/blog/691707…

And included Dinky's pet turtle, Twee, in "Aunt Millie":

www.fimfiction.net/blog/692271…

And I finished my second quest for "Legends of Equestria" after a very long time, which saw long writing sessions and even the creation of two NPCs, my first ones!
The real highlight of the month, though, was when I got to meet Andy Price at Vienna Comic Con! I could see him and could get an autograph on my Luna Micro Series issues! And, on top, two of his famous headsketches and a print with Derpy by him:

www.derpibooru.org/1300088?sco…

www.derpibooru.org/1300102?sco…

www.derpibooru.org/1300108?sco…

Meeting Andy Price brought this month onto a high note, but the last month of the year should be a blast as well.....


December

The big thing happened this month:

"Legends of Equestria" finally started the Limited Access Release, its very own closed beta test! *-*

Of course I am there and I played the first few days straight and without interruption..... It feels good to finally never having to leave the game and to make it my permanent home!
A dramatic situation also happened this month, though..... Having just realized how similar DinkyUniverse and I am are and how important she is to me, she told she might not be able to return because her computer broke and she didn't have a replacement anymore.....
I did not let this happen and some amount of money generously spent in true "Element of Generosity" fashion fixed the problem soon. The events and heartfelt confessions even resulted in a small fic:

www.fimfiction.net/story/35756…

It even marked my 20th fic submission on FIMFiction.net, what a fitting fic for the occasion!

www.fimfiction.net/blog/699171…

My writing was slowly reduced this month, as I began to settle for a holiday brak, this time with announcement. But I did not leave for this break before releasing a few more chapters for "Princess Flurry Heart, Destroyer of Worlds!" and "Aunt Millie", as well as my very first Hearth's Warming Eve fic, which coincidentally was my first ponification of a story as well:

www.fimfiction.net/story/35788…

The new chapter for my Flurry Heart fic was even a special one:

www.fimfiction.net/blog/700297…

After this, I was ready to go into a break, which I needed, especially after a last emergency happened in this year:

www.fimfiction.net/blog/697530…

Now, only relaxation happens, after I ventured into my break:

www.fimfiction.net/blog/700994…





And now the year is slowly ending. While writing this, it is less than an hour until the new year starts here in Austria..... Not much happening anymore except for looking at Hearth's Warming fanwork, eating way too much, playing "Legends of Equestria" and relaxing..... But as last big news of the year, I adopted a story by an author who leaves FIMFiction, something I never did before, so the year ends with another "first":

www.fimfiction.net/story/31239…


So, even though the future is unsure, one thing about 2017 is already clear:

There will be more writing! ONWARDS TO 2017!