So apparently, everybody loves Cheerilee as much as I do. · 12:52am Jun 6th, 2012

So...yeah. It's been 2 days since my first attempt at a MLP Fanfic went live.

-Nearly 2000 views
-122 thumbs up
-Favorited 232 times
-Comments ranging from "can't wait for more" to "perfect"
-Featured on the front page of Equestira Daily.

Uh....diiiiid not see that coming.

I'm truly flattered to see people enjoying my work like this. Smiling Flowers is a story I've had in my head for months (and means a lot to me on a personal level...more on that at a future date), and I was hoping that when I wrote it, it would reach a few people...but this kind of exposure is completely insane, and I love it. Thank you to everyone who took the time to read chapter 1, favorite it, comment on it...it really means the world to me.

Also a few other thank-yous...

Golden_Vision: The first reviewer to take a look at the story. He read it over, wrote "Show, Don't Tell" on a bat, then beat me over the head with it until it stuck. His advice was invaluable, and really helped me focus the story.

Props!: Who I met because we both help with reviewing rough drafts of the excellent story Background Pony. He is a Systemic Ninja who caught a ton of grammar and punctuation mistakes I made in early drafts, and also pointed out that the original draft of Smiling Flowers used ellipses 150 different times.

Seattle_Lite: The Last Line Of Defense, I sent my story to him as the last reviewer before I posted it here. He gave me fantastic suggestions towards tightening the story up, heightening the emotional impact, and getting rid of a lot of unnecessary, meandering narration.

And to Science_Brony, I_Love_Ponies, and Terran, who all took early looks at the very first rough draft of SF and gave me some early advice. Thank you to everybody who helped shape Smiling Flowers into the story it is now!

My only regret is that I couldn't apply a [Semi-Sad] tag to the story...to me, [Sad] has always implied that the story will be depressing from start to end...and that simply isn't my style. But when it came down to picking the tags, I guess the first chapter IS fairly sad, so I think I made the right tag call.

The plan has been for SF to be a 4 chapter story, and that plan remains in place. I will be working on the next chapter post-haste, and hope to get it up soon.

So thank you all again, it really does mean the world to this humble mechanical engineer that you are all enjoying my writing...and most importantly, I think this all but confirms that Cheerilee Is Best Pony.