It's throwback time! · 8:48am Apr 19th, 2014
Alright pony peeps, it's story time. Way back in August of 2011, a younger ArcheonZ was strolling the never-ending pages of TV Tropes and kept coming across references to another version of My Little Pony. Her knowledge of such heretofore had been the original G1 series and the various spinoffs that followed in the 90's and late 2000's, like G3.5 (*shudder*). Running under the subtitle of 'Friendship is Magic', our protagonist mentally stamped it as 'lame' and paid it no mind.
But more references kept appearing, on pages where she wasn't expecting to see entries from something in the My Little Pony franchise. Inevitably, curiosity overcame the stigma of 'lame' and for 'little girls' and she watched an episode.
And then another.
And then another, and then another and suddenly she had finished the entire first season, bookmarked Equestria Daily, began looking up anything tagged MLP:FIM on FFN and was regularly scanning TV Tropes for more references. And a new member joined the herd.
It was a different time, guys. I came in just before Season 2 aired, before we knew anything about it, other than "Season 2 is coming." Back then, animations were super rare, and all we really had were PMV's, most of which consisted of Dash doing the Sonic Rainboom while a different soundtrack played over top of it. Music consisted almost entirely of remixes of songs from the show. I mean, they still do, but original stuff was rare. Not unheard of, but still pretty rare. Memes were based more on fan speculation than on bits from the episodes. Everything we knew about Luna at that point came from her 15 seconds of screen time, so her characterization was mostly left up to the fans. We ended up painting her as this shy, reclusive, soft-spoken young pony who was still remorseful over what she'd done to get herself banished in the first place. As you can imagine, seeing her show up in Luna Eclipsed as a brash, scenery-chewing ROYAL CANTERLOCK speaking ham was not only unexpected, but the funniest thing I've seen in a long, long time.
Anyway, back then when we were still a small-ish community of curious newcomers and 4chan refugees, instead of now when ponies are as much of a pop-culture staple as Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad, fan fiction was a big deal. Fimfiction had yet to launch and just about everything was published on Google Docs and linked from EQD. By the time I showed up, Past Sins had the same clout as Fallout: Equestria. The community was still trying to get over the horror of Cupcakes, dealing with it in the same way we've always dealt with bad news - by making fun of it. Giggling at the Ghosties, if you will.
But there was one story that became something of a landmark. One that worked hard to do some genuine world building; not just in Equestria, but the lands around it. It was a story about friendship, about hope, bravery, risk, sacrifice, and love. About coming face to face with your own fears and finding within yourself the strength to conquer them. About going to the ends of the world to save your friend, no matter what it costs along the way. And now it's here on FimFiction.
Nooblets, if you haven't read "It's A Dangerous Business, Going Out Your Door," do it right now. This story is legendary. When all the other stories were just about OCs, or some sort of shocking or tragic premise, or a pony verbing a noun, this one stood out as a serious adventure. This is the first story that took a good, long look at Equestria and said, "You know, I think this is a good place for some high-fantasy storytelling." And he was right. It's a rare universe where fluffy slice-of-life stories and epic adventures can happen to the same characters with no changes to their personalities. The story is a little outdated, since it was written just after Season 1, so lots of stuff has been overridden by canon. For a while, though, this was the standard for fanon. If you've ever heard the terms 'horn rot', 'Gildedale' 'deerish' or 'the Dreaming', it started here.
This story will always have my highest recommendation. It is quite probably my most favorite story that I've ever read. It is the reason Applejack is my favorite pony. And it also has the honor of being the only story to ever make me cry tears of joy at the end. So, respect your roots, nooblets, and go read it. You won't be sorry.
Seconded, that story is just absolutely fantastic, and if any fanfic is worth your time to read, it's that one. Amazing world building, character development, awesome action, new magic powers, and the list goes on, not to mention the first thing I'd read that contained a ship with an OC that I really liked.