MLP:FiM fic Recommendation Thread

akun50

Well-Known Member
Sudden Transdimensional Uncontrolled Polymorph Induced Deficiency Syndrome - "With the Sirens dealt with and no pressing time limit to return to her world now that she can come and go at will, Twilight spends some time catching up with Sunset Shimmer. She asks a question that has been on her mind for a while now. Namely, how Sunset ever thought invading Equestria with a few hundred zombified high school students was a remotely workable plan."
Short but amusing.

Don't Boop The Pony - "They came suddenly and without warning. They wanted us to boop them. We must resist."
Also short but amused me as well.

Sunset Shimmer Versus - "Sunset Shimmer has a pretty good life. She has good friends, a nice apartment, she's back in the good graces of most of the student body at Canterlot High, and she has a hotline to the Princess of Friendship back in Equestria.

But Sunset Shimmer has always had a temper. And there are so, so many things that annoy her.

Like FedEx. And crabs. But she's already dealt with those things.

Lately, a lot of the human world's little annoyances, oddities, and even things that have somehow popped up that shouldn't even exist are getting under Sunset's skin.

And she's had enough.

It's time to fight back."
Chapter 3 is the one that inspired me to post it along the others. It features EQ!Fluttershy's brother. Yes, EQ!Zephyr Breeze. Seeing EQ!Fluttershy's opinion of him is actually worse than it was in the series.
Edit: Not all that comfortable with chapter 4, but Chapter 1 and 2 remain something I would read. Mostly to remind myself that, yes, there can be days worse than mine.

I've already run across two other stories where Zephyr is almost, if not more, unbearable and borderline irredeemable than the character was in the show.

Almost all of the authors that I've seen use him tend to make him the sort to Omega Level Scum-Sucking Douchebag that makes everyone physically ill.

Personally, I think he was more of just an asshole who ignored boundaries and would play off others as hard to get and, right about now, I think I see where the omega-level scumbag characterization came from. Seriously, he's like a nasty mix of Ataru Moroboshi-level useless, Kazuharu Fukuyama-level disregard for boundaries and manages to make the Witch of The Waste from Howl's Moving Castle seem like a bit of a charmer.

Maybe it's because he was a pony in a G-rated series, he wasn't allowed to cross the lines who have characterized him would easily see him rocketing past if he weren't held back by something like TV censorship ratings.

More to the point, I'm surprised no one has made any "Never Seen Nor Heard From Again" scenarios involving him being only referenced as "absent".

But the year is still young and I'm not sure how many people could bear to watch that episode.
 

akun50

Well-Known Member

seitora

Well-Known Member
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/327564/into-the-dark

Pretty good fic. In a post-fall story where the world is basically in complete darkness, a stallion sets out to bring light and sound back to the world, with Luna in a secondary role. A few twists and a bittersweet ending.
 

autobot314

Well-Known Member
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/396744/the-maretian
I'd like to tentatively rec The Maretian. It's actually a sequel to a different pony space story called Changeling Space Program, as well as a crossover with The Martian. Due to catastrophic magic engine failure that sends them out of Equestria's orbit, and possibly dimension, about 3 ponies, a changeling, and a dragon are now Mark Watney's new neighbors and/or roommates while he's stranded on Mars. Here's a link to CSP as well.
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/327551/changeling-space-program
Changeling Space Program is all the races on the planet Equestria is having their own space race to the moon, with Luna specifically stating she doesn't count for having already gone. And yes, it is inspired by Kerbal Space Program.
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
The Monster Below

One of Equestria's greatest traits is tolerance. Every pony, whether Unicorn, Pegasus, or Earth, is accepted for who they are, and have their own parts to play in keeping Equestria running.

But what if an Earth pony decided he didn't want to play his assigned part? What if he wanted to rise above everyone else and become an Alicorn? Such a thing is possible... but the path to fulfilling one's dreams is never simple. Risks must be taken. Sacrifices must be made. And the question is always asked: How far would you go to get what you wanted? And would you be willing to pay a terrible price to get it?
The summary sounds a little try-hard, but it's a really good fic that hits hard at the 'coolness' disparity between unicorns, pegasus, and earth pony in the show, and the Earth pony's protagonist gradual start of darkness at being an Earth pony outcast in a unicorn society. This start of darkness turns into something a lot more ambitious as he wants to make his own mark, and Silverspeak has an amazing first-person voice. The end of the story gets a little bit into grimdark territory. The sequels fall off significantly in quality, but the first story is one of my favorites in the fandom.


Carousel

The Millennial Summer Sun Celebration is only a few years away, but Rarity’s fashion career seems to be ending before she can begin it. Now, she has one last chance to find a place for her talent.

But as she works to create the boutique of her dreams, a forgotten piece of Ponyville’s past is waking up. Secret memories lie forgotten in dusty basements, unrighted wrongs scratch at locked doors, and Rarity finds herself caught up in a history that may be doomed to repeat itself.

For although she is the first to set hoof in the Old Town Hall in thirty years, she can’t help but feel that something inside was waiting for her.
This is a Rarity story that takes place a couple of years before the start of the series. Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Applejack also have roles in the story, in order of decreasing relevance. It tells how Rarity starts her fledgling fashion technique in Ponyville's carousel tent, buuuutttt this is a horror story. What's there is more subtle horror, and besides Rarity versus supernatural, there's a lot of amazing work done with Rarity vs self and Rarity vs other as she has to get through a lot of her own personal struggles and issues with other ponies.
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
The Flight of the Alicorn

Rarity's exploits in "Sweet and Elite" set in motion a chain of events that will find the unicorn dressmaker taking part in the greatest airship race in the world, the Alicorn's Cup. Excitement will give way to terror, as Rarity soon finds herself the victim of a plot against Equestria, and shipwrecked far from home with her least favorite stallion, the boorish Prince Blueblood. Rarity will learn of treachery in Canterlot and abroad, and will have search for something of substance beneath the prince's obnoxious veneer as she struggles to not only save herself, but her entire nation.
The Flight of the Alicorn takes place following a Season 2 episode, and it is, in my opinion, the definitive Rarity adventure fanfic. Not that there are many of those in the first place, but it stands heads and toes hooves above what I've seen. You get the obvious early-series weirdness as a result, but it's fairly minimal. Rarity absolutely grows well as a character in the story. The plot premise is she goes on an airship race with Fancy Pants, only to end up in an accident and get stranded in foreign lands with Prince Blueblood, and have to fight their way through a conspiracy against Equestria. Prince Blueblood is very boorish to start, but he also grows.

Highly recommend it.

There is also a sequel that has been basically abandoned for 6 years with only three chapters. Ignore that this even exists. Flight of the Alicorn can be easily read as a stand-alone fic, and it's worth it. There is a single sequel hook at the very end, but it can be disregarded.
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
Changeling of the Guard

Idol Hooves holds a special place in Equestria. He's probably the only exiled changeling to serve in the Royal Guard, or at least, that's what he expects, as exiles don't really broadcast that fact. However, it's well known that Princess Celestia loves all of her little ponies, and her guards perhaps more so, and that makes it one of the best ways for a changeling to discreetly feed.

But how does a changeling even get there, let alone get exiled in the first place? For that matter, why would it ever go to Canterlot? Set a number of years before the series proper, before Luna’s redemption, Idol details how he was exiled, the ponies he’s met, and the series of misadventures that led him to joining the Royal Guard, and should continue a good ways into the series, as something of an alternate perspective.

Soon, he’ll have to deal with a boisterous new princess to serve and a royal wedding in the works bringing a third to power. Will his old instincts bring this new life crashing down around him? What precipitates Chrysalis’s ill-fated assault on Canterlot? Is it really so wrong for a changeling to enjoy good craftsmanship to an obsessive degree?
Possibly the best longfic in the pony fandom, and if not the best, it makes a good argument for it. The story starts roughly ten years before the start of season 1, and the main protagonist is Idol Hooves, a Changeling from Chrysalis' hive. Idol Hooves is a Changeling who deviates from standard Changeling behavior by attempting to modify the engineering design of his hive, and gets kicked out for it. Despite that, he doesn't hold a grudge. Instead, after a series of misadventures, he moves to Canterlot, and joins the pony Royal Guard, obviously incognito as a pony.

As a faux-pony, Idol Hooves is very much a fish-out-of-water, with all the social faux-pas that you would expect of that type. To make it worse, he has a near-complete inability to understand jokes or sarcasm. Despite that, he is very competent, and a pretty chill guy. The story tells of his growth through the story, and of the many hilarious situations that result from his inability to understand pony customs, or taking words for an exact interpretation.
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
Bullet Point and its sequel, Bullet Storm. These are ponyfics with Danganronpa scenario and set-ups, so basically 16 ponies getting trapped in an unescapable location and being forced to play a murder game. As you can expect from any Danganronpa-style story that plays the concept straight, it gets extremely dark really quick and never lets up. Pinkie Pie is the main character for both stories. As long as you can tolerate the endless deaths and gore, the writing is fairly well done and plotted. All ponies in each killing game are canonical characters, though it brings in a few truly obscure background ponies in both stories.

The stories were written prior to Season 5 airing, so the lore and cast are all only really up-to-date with Season 4, so there's no Season 5 and later characters popping up, obviously.
 
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