YMLT - January 2015 · 10:28pm Feb 13th, 2015
Okay, so I meant to post this about two weeks ago. I had it drafted and saved in a google doc and everything, but apparently I forgot. There's something wrong with me.
Some of you may recall that around a month ago I made a group advertising the You Might Like This group. Well, every month we clean out the folders and forums of recommended stories to make way for the upcoming month.
Because I’m an organization-freak, I like to keep records of things. So, this here blog will have all of the stories that I recommended in YMLT for the month of January, 2015. If you’re curious to see what I might be adding over the course of February, check out my personal forum in the group here, my bookshelf for all stories I add to the group here, and if you’re curious to see what some of the other readers in YMLT have recommended, check out the group forum. Without further ado, here are my recommendations for the month of January, 2015:
Genres: Romance, Slice of Life, TwiJack
Description:
Applejack tries to write a love letter. She mostly fails. A TwiJack story, set somewhere in early Season 4.
The first story I'll be adding this month is a TwiJack get-together story by Donnys Boy. This story was super cute, and the scenes where Applejack was trying to write a love letter to Twilight were (to me) the strongest scenes of the story. If you like cute, happy romance between applepony and sparklepony, then this should be right up your alley.
Genres: Romance, Adventure, Alternate Universe, AppleDash
Description:
Rainbow Blitz. The name has instilled fear and dread into the sailors of Seaquestria for years. Applejack meets her as she's returning from selling cider, and by that it should be understood that she fought and lost and was taken prisoner. Now surrounded by crazy pirates, Applejack has only one objective: Escape.
Even if she has to pretend to love her captor.
This story is a fun take on AppleDash. While the story itself may be a few months old, I had only started reading it recently and have only read the latest chapter update in the last few days (so it totally counts). Basically, this story is romance with pirate shenanigans. Rainbow Dash makes a great pirate captain, and so far I'm having fun reading it. There's nothing particularly unique about the story, but if you enjoy reading what is so far a fun, swashbuckling romance adventure, then you'd probably end up enjoying this.
Genres: Comedy, Slice of Life
Description:
When Spitfire, Soarin' and Misty go to judge the 'Best Young Flier' competition, Spitfire only expected to be bored to tears watching amateur fliers peruse their casual hobby; but things take an unexpected turn when two ponies fly onstage for the last performance. For the Wonderbolts, unexpected is usually a very, very bad thing.
This was a pleasant story to read. Here, we get to see Antiquated's take on what happened on Rainbow Dash's day with the Wonderbolts after her victory in the Best Young Flier's contest way back in season one. The 'Bolts were all fun to read, their relationship was well-developed, and the ending with Rainbow was quite satisfying. Thank you TiaC for recommending it!
Genres: Romance, Comedy, Slice of Life, AppleDashLight
Description:
Applejack finally decides to confess her feelings for Rainbow Dash. She heads to the library, knowing that today is one of Twilight and Rainbow’s reading days. She heads in to steal Rainbow away so she can confess to her in private, only to walk in on Twilight and Rainbow in the middle of a make out session.
If anyone here is a fan of polyamory, then you might want to give this story a chance. This here AppleDashLight is a pretty light, fluffy, and cute approach to the budding relationship between Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack. Granted, the gateway to the AppleDashLight is pretty forced. But if you can get over that or overlook it, there are a few surprisingly touching scenes that I enjoyed enough to add to the group.
Genres: Romance, Comedy, Adventure, AppleDash
Description:
Applejack, despite having worked hard all week during the Autumn Harvest, is going on a two day delivery trip to Fillydelphia, leaving behind her family and her sleepy marefriend, Rainbow Dash. Just before leaving, however, she recieves dark tidings of a mysterious criminal bent on fruit larceny...
Of course, the trip won't go as planned.
Contains Appledash and cartoon villainy. Beware.
This is an interesting little AppleDash story. Here, we have Applejack working much too hard, so her marefriend (Rainbow) decides to intervene by doing something entirely nonsensical. There are a few chuckle-worthy lines in here, and overall it wasn't a bad read at all. If you're a fan of AppleDash, then you might enjoy this.
Genres: Romance, Sad, Slice of Life, AppleDash
Description:
Following a grievous heart condition, a dramatic surgery, and an unbearably-long recovery period, Applejack finally returns home from the hospital. She returns, however, a mere shadow of her former self. With so many weeks in bed, she finds herself without stamina, constantly in pain, and more tired than she's ever been. And what's worse is her inability to return to her normal life.
There is one pony, however, who is not willing to sit on the sidelines and watch her friend destroy herself. Rainbow Dash has never been a patient pony, and is determined to help reignite her friend's dampened spirits by whatever means necessary. But hearts never heal quickly, and the pegasus may have her own wounds to wrestle with along the way.
TwilightUCrazy is a good (if not great) AppleDash writer, and this looks like a very promising AppleDash story. It's only recently been published, and as of now only has the prologue up. However, the prologue is intriguing, well-written, and was enough to get me to track it and plot out when to nag TwilightUCrazy for updates. This is the second AppleDash fic of the day, so I hope at least some of you like this ship!
Genres: Romance, Comedy, Slice of Life, Human, SunLight
Description:
After putting on the Element of Magic, Sunset Shimmer was shown just how much of a monster she really is. But that wasn't all the Elements did to her.
Sunset has now been forced to serve penance by answering any question truthfully and by doing anything asked of her, whether she wants to or not.
And she really doesn't want to.
Until all of the hatred in her heart is gone, Sunset is at the whim of her peers, unbeknownst to them of course. Can her new "friends" help her down the road to redemption?
If not, there's always that other Twilight Sparkle she keeps running into.
I'll come out and say it: I'm not a big fan of Sunset Shimmer. She is quite possibly the weakest villain that the MLP universe has ever introduced, which is saying a lot. Our wonderful little show isn't known for producing the best villains (*cough*Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis, and Sombra*cough*). Granted, I haven't watched Rainbow Rocks and I don't know how her character's changed between movies, but going into this story, I dislike Sunset... which makes it all the more impressive when I upvoted and fave'd this story. Albino does a simply marvelous job in portraying the character of the despicable Sunset Shimmer and is giving us a wonderfully paced story about her transformation from bitch to bitchy friend. I greatly enjoyed the scenes between Sunset and Fluttershy around chapters 7-8, in particular. If you haven't been keeping up with this story yet, I'd highly recommend you do so.
Genres: Romance, Slice of Life, AppleDash
Description:
Ribbon Red is a gift-shop owner who doesn't get out much, and has a comfortable life selling his wares to ponies for their friends and family.
Rainbow Dash comes in with a special request: she wants to get Applejack the best gift ever, and she wants Ribbon's help in finding it.
Ribbon knows a lot about giving presents: He knows how to appreciate the value of a simple gift, the significance of a beautiful ornament... but above all, he knows that the most precious gifts come from the heart.
What's that? Another AppleDash addition? Man, I need to get out more. This story here is another short one by HazardPony that focuses on an old shop keeper by the name of Ribbon Red who helps Rainbow Dash find the perfect gift for Applejack. I don't want to spoil too much of this underviewed story, but if you're looking for a surprisingly well-written OC, then I'd recommend this story. Ribbon feels like a genuine character, and Hazard does an even better job of capturing Rainbow's character than he/she did in The Fruit Thief up above. Hazard's writing is steadily improving with each story published, and this particular story is testament to that fact.
Genres: Comedy, Slice of Life
Description:
Being subtle isn't Rainbow Dash's strong suit. At all. So when Applejack asks her point blank what she thinks of Rarity, she doesn't hold back.
Not her best idea.
This story is just fun. When I first saw it posted, I avoided reading it because I thought it would be one of those dime-a-dozen comedy stories that has an okay punchline at the end of the first chapter. Those kinds of stories are not particularly enjoyable for me most of the time, and I was pleasantly surprised to find the Fire Gazer here is making Rainbow's callousness part of a larger conflict in the story. Will this end up as a RariDash romance? Given the lack of a romance tag, probably not, but so far I'm enjoying it regardless. There is also a small bit of dialogue in the first chapter that implies Applejack has the hots for Twilight. I'll take TwiJack in just about any form, including implied.
Genres: Comedy, Slice of Life
Description:
After a discussion in class, Twilight has a very important question to ask her mentor Princess Celestia.
An adorable Slice of Life story for anyone who's having a gloomy day and is looking for something to make them smile. Foals does a great job capturing how insecure, afraid, and lonely Twilight is during her early years under Celestia's tutelage. I personally felt for Twilight, and the mother-daughter relationship between Twilight and Celestia that I really like seeing developed in stories is presented wonderfully here. I read this on my phone on the bus ride home after a long day at university, and it left me grinning and feeling warm on the walk from the bus stop to home. Unless you despise Twilight, Celestia, or seeing their relationship really getting underway, then there's no reason you shouldn't read this.
If You Give an Alicorn Princess a Ribbon by HoofBitingActionOverload
Genres: Clop, Romance, TwiDash
Description:
On Hearth's Warming morning, Twilight has all of her friends over to exchange gifts. On Hearth's Warming afternoon, she has a bedroom covered with discarded wrapping paper and ribbon. She hates to be wasteful, and she loves recycling, so she finds a new use for all those spent wrapping supplies—tying up stubborn pegasus ponies!
Fun fact, this is the first mature story and the first TwiDash story that I've added to the group (December's Spotlight Pick doesn't count 
). Now, Hoof is generally a great writer, having written one of my favourite AppleDash stories and my top RariDash story, so I was happy to see him writing TwiDash. I walked into this story expecting it to be a well-written clopfic (which it is), but was even happier to find that Hoof went into detail about how special Rainbow and Twilight are to each other, how much they value each other, and how much Rainbow trusts Twilight. The way he portrays their relationship is touching, and I found myself smiling not because of the sex, but because of his characterization, which is (normally) spot on.
Such failure, Tim.
Wow, late much mate?
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Shaddap, the both of you. I was so sure I posted this, but apparently I was being dumb and didn't.