QUOTE(BrainSucks @ May 30 2012, 22:17)
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I've never read fanfictions, but I'll give it a try.
I'm curious to know why most of the bronies became so crazy about that Littlepip :]
Referring to FO:E as a fanfic is a bit of a misnomer, while I wouldn't put it at the top of my list of "best works of fiction" it's pretty far up there. While it's not entirely without typographical errors and editing mistakes, it's better in that regard than many published works I've read, and the scale of the story is for want of a better word epic.
To put it in scale.. someone made a kinda-unofficial map of the places involved. (No actual major spoilers, but there are some minor ones.)
[attachembed=14372]
I guess one of the things that make it appealing is that it's as much about what happens in the present as about what happened between ~175 and ~217 years before the story takes place - that is, starting about 20-30 years after "current-day" Equestria.
As for Littlepip.. she is well characterized, as are the rest of the major characters. She has the type of personality that would likely make you care about her. And she gets shot a lot.