Dear Princess Celestia: I'm Sorry
Dear Princess Celestia,
Today I learned a very important lesson about life and hurting others.
I have something very important to tell you, something I need to let off of my chest. I have done something terrible. Something I should never have even thought about doing.
I have stolen from another pony. But it's not what you think, it's a different kind of theft, one much more complex and serious than the simple theft of an apple from an apple stand.
I stole somepony's story, and I need to apologize.
The correct word would be plagiarism, meaning I took somepony's else's writing, and used it as my own. I believed I could get away with it. Wow, was I wrong, and now I'm paying the price.
It all began a few days ago. I was casually surfing the ponynet, looking for nothing in particular, when I come across an old story named "Taken For Grammar" on a website called "Equestria Daily". Strange name for website, ain't it? Sounds like it should be Equestria's national newspaper.
Anyways, I remember reading this story when it first came out nearly a year ago. I think to myself,
"Hey, I remember this story, it was one of my all-time favorites!" It really is one of the best stories out there. It is the tale of a Unicorn mare named Twilight Sparkle, and an Earth-pony mare named Applejack. Twilight Sparkle, a studious librarian, offers to help her friend Applejack, a not so bright apple-farmer, read over and edit a story Applejack had written. Twilight makes some corrections to Applejack's story, which Applejack isn't too thrilled about. In fact, she's downright angry. Applejack, whom clearly doesn't take criticism well, goes as far as letting three young fillies nearly destroy Twilight's library for revenge.
In the end, the two ponies make-up, agreeing to one another they both are at fault. It's a happy ending, Twilight Sparkle writes a letter to, well, you describing her new promises to be more considerate of other ponies' feelings. Do you know this "Twilight Sparkle"? The name sounds so familiar... she also seems bright enough to have attended your school for gifted young unicorns.
I'm not writing this to talk about somepony named Twilight Sparkle though. I'm writing this to tell of my wrongdoings, so let's not get off track.
You see, I frequent another website called "Fimfiction", a place where ponies from all over Equestria can post their stories about our land. I have previously written and submitted a few of my own stories here.
I notice the author of "Taken For Grammar", a pony named Robotech_Master, has not written anything for almost an entire year. I believed he was done and gone. I think to myself something like,
"It would be a shame to let somepony's great work go to waste. So many more ponies deserve to see this great piece of literature."
For that to happen, I needed to come up with a sinister scheme. Basically, I copied and pasted "Taken For Grammar" onto Fimfiction, and wrote a phony description, claiming it was originally written under my comedy "pseudonym" Robotech_Master. Since I knew it likely wouldn't pass moderation after submission if I gave the true author full credit, I was forced into plagiarizing. It clearly states in the rules of submission that one pony cannot post another pony's story without proof of permission.
Obviously, I had no proof. Plagiarism was the only option, and I foolishly went down that path.
I double-checked to make sure Robotech_Master wasn't already on the site, and he wasn't. Since his story was so old, I knew few ponies would remember it, and even less would even think of questioning my credibility. It seemed to me at the time a foolproof plan.
I'm going to be completely honest with you princess, sharing the story with other ponies was not my only intention. That would make the seriousness of what I committed sound, you know, not so bad.
At the time, I craved the attention. Other stories I actually previously wrote gained a lot of popularity on the site. Three of them, titled "Endless Gifts", "Harmony Harmony", and "Forgotten", ended up in something called the feature box, a white box at the top of the webpage where the best of the best stories are displayed for everypony to see. After my true stories left the box, I REALLY wanted to get back there.
After my next story failed to get featured, I felt I would never get there again... until I saw "Taken For Grammar". It is such a great story, I knew it would get featured for sure. It was a free ticket to bask in the glory of another featured story. Who wouldn't want that? Yeah, it's not quite as satisfying when it's not really your work, but it didn't matter to me. I just wanted the popularity.
I knew it was wrong, but I didn't care. My rationale was,
"If nopony knows this is wrong, then I'm not doing anything wrong, right?"
I think we both know the true answer to that.
As expected, the story quickly climbed the popularity chart, before reaching the top a few hours after submission. This meant another feature box for me, and I was elated.
I had achieved both of my stated desires, and the personal satisfaction was overwhelming. I answered comments on the story like it was mine, even changed the story a little to satisfy the fans.
Basically, I went way overboard, acting in every way like the story was mine. I had the entire website fooled.
Everything was going according to plan, until...
The true author, Robotech_Master, was informed by somepony on the site his story had been stolen. Robotech_Master, reacting like anypony should when confronted with such news, immediately reported the story for plagiarism.
Almost instantaneously, my scheme unraveled, everything collapsed, it was all over.
"Taken For Grammar", the first of the five stories in the feature box at the time, was removed. I know this left many ponies who favorited and enjoyed the story confused at what was going down.
I quickly realized the seriousness of what I had committed. It wasn't going to be fun and games anymore. I was going to be banned. At the request of the original author, I quickly made a "blog post", or basically a note on my profile, publicly admitting and apologizing for what I had done.
One of the moderators of the site, a pony named Poultron (maybe you've heard of him?), out of pure kindness decided against my ban from the site. For that I am truly greatful.
But it certainly felt like I was banned anyway.
I soon received a few angry messages from various ponies, describing how I should be banned. Other ponies were banned for plagiarism, why not me? I also received some nice forgiving messages and comments on the blog post, for which I am very greatful.
Regardless, my reputation on Fimfiction was ruined, everything was lost, and I deserved all of the anger I received. Words cannot describe how remorseful I felt at this point. I'm sure this is how Princess Luna felt after she was defeated as the heinous Nightmare Moon by the Elements of Harmony all those years ago.
The Elements of Harmony... that's where I've heard of Twilight Sparkle! She's the Element of Magic, isn't she?
Well, magic isn't going to help me here. The damage is already done, and cannot be changed by any amount of power.
Oh Celestia, why did I do it?
I think you and I both know what I should do next. Everypony involved deserves a personal apology from me.
Here it goes...
I'm sorry to Robotech_Master, a truly great writer. You are the real victim here. I stole YOUR masterpiece. I cannot describe how awful I now feel for doing that to you. If somepony stole my work, I would be just as furious. I hope you can find it in you to forgive this poor broken heart.
I'm sorry to Poultron, a moderator of Fimfiction. I greatly wronged you as well. I took advantage of your website for my own benefit and self-satisfaction. You should have banned me, I do not deserve to set eyes here any longer. But you did not, and I thank you for giving me the chance to compose this apology for everypony to see.
I'm sorry to my fans and everyone who frequents Fimfiction. All of you that watched me, expecting another masterpiece written by me. I let you down as well with my stupidity.
Lastly, I'm sorry to you, Princess Celestia. As your royal subject, I have failed you greatly.
What I did was unforgivable.
I ask not for pity. Please, punish me with whatever you deem necessary. Whether it be throw me in a dungeon, banish me from Equestria, or both at the same time, then that's what I deserve.
Just know this, I have learned a valuable lesson today. I learned that just because I had success in the past, doesn't mean I'm allowed to take shortcuts to attain the same success in the future. Even when I knew it was wrong, I stole somepony's work and called it my own. I was caught, and the outcome resulted in hurting more than just a few ponies... If I ever write again, it will always be genuine. That I swear to you princess. I am not a bad pony, I do have good intentions. I just screwed up bad.
I've learned why plagiarism is such a serious infraction of the rules. It is never the answer, no matter how tempting it may be...
Thank you for your time.
I'm Sorry.
Yours Truly,
Jenova2
A/N: On a serious note, I know this fic is a little corny, and it isn't my best piece of work. But I think it does a good job of getting my point across. I'm extremely sorry to everyone about what happened. I'm not sure if I'll write again, it just doesn't feel right anymore because the guilt will now always be there. But I had to write this, I owe this to all of you. :) I hope everyone can learn from my experience, don't plagiarize. It's not worth it. No matter promising and easy it may seem, especially with fanfiction, you will still almost certainly get caught. I learned that the hard way.
If you haven't already, please read Robotech_Master's story "Taken For Grammar". I wouldn't have plagiarized it if weren't awesome. You can read it here on fanfiction.net.
Thank you for reading.
