What are your favorite stories? · 4:28pm Jul 21st, 2015
Good morning, afternoon, evening, or night!
I'll get right to the point.
I'm looking for story recommendations!
There are plenty of great sites and people out there that recommend quality ponyfics. With so many great writers in this fandom, you don't have to look hard to find something interesting, engaging, funny, or just plain awesome. Equestria Daily usually has a fine selection, and I have many friends that are always willing to share with me their personal favorites.
But I'm curious about what stories you guys think! Tell me what story (or stories) you can heartily recommend. I'm interested to see if they'll be things I've already read, stories I've only glanced at before, or hidden gems I've never even heard of.
I've noticed a lot of my readers have similar tastes. Many of you have the same great stories in your favorites library, which is what got me curious about this in the first place. It makes sense – if you like epic semi-dark fantasy, The Stranger and Her Friend certainly isn't the only story to scratch that itch. Obviously I'm an ardent fan of that genre as well... but then again, I love all sorts of fiction. So I don't care if it's an epic fantasy about the sweeping conquests of Yakyakistan, a romantic comedy starring Donut Joe and a time-travelling griffon princess, or a slice-of-life oneshot about the deep ruminations of Gummy the Alligator. If you like it, I want to hear about it!
Edit: Wow, you guys. I did not expect this kind of response. I don't even know where to start. And that's a good thing!
The Transient's Detail by J Winters, its one of the best stories I've read on this site. It doesn't truly get into the meat of the story til about 20 chapters in though. This is a HiE that was based on a dwarf fortress game.
The Mailmare by theamberfox, comedy done right.
Blueblood: Hero of Equestria by Raleigh, Blueblood done in the style of Ciaphas Cain.
Our Eminence by Kegisak, an interesting delve into the discovery of batponies.
A Very Happy and Sunny Life by Wearin Hat, the journal of a sociopathic pony. Much better than it sounds
Pericynthion by Skystrider, a MLP/Ender's Game crossover that works well.
Stories in Stone by TDR (The Dark Rabbit) is an awesome series that tells about the rise and fall of Nightmare Moon (which kinda sounds like a exotic dancer Pelt is right) and then the return of Luna and her guard from the past and their impact when they aren't the only ones who are freed from their Stone prisons.
The Chase by KhudzuHaiku is a never ending story about running from destiny, history and amorous pegasi, griffons, berry silly ponies and kelpies.
The Rarest of Them All the best Sparity work I've ever read.
Welcome to the Show is an awesome story about post defeat Dazlings
A Faded Touch of Blue, and the Mark of Eran take you into the mysteries of Saddle Arabia
Of Swords and Hearts takes a war weary Equestria and the broken soldiers and prostitutes and tries to fix two very different pairs.
And finally...
THE GREAT TEACHER VINYL SCRATCH and Everything this man writes!
Ok, here's a bunch of 'Adventure' tagged stories from my Favorites list that I think are exceptional. (In no particular order.)
Finished, short:
Daring Do(esn't Need a Special Somepony)
Luna, Princess of Space
The Mailmare (A different story than the one in the previous comment.)
A World Without Kindness
The Magician and the Detective
The Archer and the Smith
Words Failed Her
Finished, long:
Twilight Sparkle of the Royal Guard
Eclipse
Awakening
The Final Quest of Star Swirl the Bearded
The Best Night Ever
Whip and Wing
Finished, 100,000+ words:
The Dusk Guard: Rise
The Humans in Equestria Club
The Last Pony on Earth
Fallout: Equestria
It's a Dangerous Business, Going Out Your Door
The Flight of the Alicorn
Mother of Invention
Through the Well of Pirene
Contraptionology
Our First Steps
Unfinished, long:
The Enchanted Library
The Fading World
Our Little Homeworld
Sugarfree
Alicorn
Unfinished, 100,000+ words:
Not the Hero
Rites of Ascension
The Lunar Rebellion
Harmony Theory
The Stranger and her Friend
(I excluded all unfinished stories that are still in limbo, much as it pained me. Also, no sequels.)
Some thoughts: There are a lot of stories tagged 'Adventure' on Fimficion. I seem to gravitate towards really long stories. I was wrong in thinking that narrowing it down to only stories tagged 'Adventure' would result in a short list. And if I tried to narrow it down to my super-duper all-time favorites, this list wouldn't be that much shorter.
Also, after going through a few giant lists to make my own giant list, I must conclude that I enjoy giant lists.
Everything by Georg, try In Celestia We Trust, All Others Pay Cash or A War of Words - The Opening of the Guard for two oneshot examples. War of Words is set in a larger story arc that includes The Traveling Tutor, Geaneology - Mating Habits of the Nocturne Pegasi, and several other stories, but is still a wonderful stand-alone.
The Dresden Fillies is a great crossover with the Dresden Files (a modern fantasy series based around a wizard in Chicago, also worth a read if you want something non-pony) that stays in-character for both series while remaining entertaining. Overly snarky wizard meets ponies and has adventures. Also has two sequels if you want more.
Stardust is a crossover where Discord tests Twilight's statements about friendship by dropping her in the middle of an X-COM terror mission. Scary, heartwarming, and funny while still being true to the source materials. Has an ongoing sequel that is also worth a read.
It Takes a Village, a truly great story about Spike's coming-of-age, learning to fly, and dealing with anti-dragon fears.
On the lighter side: Book of Days is Twilight's translation of Clover the Clever's diary about Celestia's childhood, interspersed with an ongoing footnote war between Celestia and Luna in the background. Truly hysterical.
Cadance of Cloudsdale is a series of stories about Cadance's childhood, as well as a her coming-of-age. Includes adorable Twilight foalsitting stories, dramatic encounters with civil service paperwork, and a young mare driving Shining Armor to confusion.
Lots more too, but these are some highlights. Can't wait to see more of Celestia and Lucky Break also!
Here I go:
The Steadfast Sky
Que Sera, Sera
A Different Viewpoint of Equestria
Myths and Birthrights
Twilight's Life
Mirror's Image
It's The Thought That Counts
Scootamom (Cancelled, unfortunately)
The Elements of Harmony and the Savior of Worlds
Paradise
The Tears of Gaia
The Wizard and the Lonely Princess
Night's Favoured Child
My Choices, Twisted Tales Through Time
The Return of Princess Nightmare Moon
Duties
Past Sins (The very first pony fanfiction I read)
The Three Sisters
Luna's Story Trilogy: 1, 2, 3
My Little Alicorn
Discord's Game
On a Cross and Arrow
Sunny Skies All Day Long
Drop of Moonshine
Under The Northern Lights
Of Lillies and Chestnuts
The Sweetie Chronicles: Fragments
Petriculture
Sharing the Night
What Princesses Need
Princess Celestia: The Changeling Queen
Arrow 18 Mission Logs
Let the Silence Sing
Velvet Sparkle and the Queen in Stone
Crisis on Two Equestrias
BBBFFBR
Sparkling Cider
The Wanderer of the North
Guardian Angel (Cancelled, unfortunately)
Celestia's Tiny Student
April Showers
The Monster in the Twilight and its sequel
Climbing the Mountain (Lunaverse story)
Hands
Xenophilia (NSFW)
The Traveling Tutor and the Librarian
Yep, been reading a lot since I joined in early 2012.
Well, as a massive fan of epic-fantasy dark, I've pulled together a rough list of some somewhat similar stories that you might enjoy. Most of them are several 100k words long and a few involve several different stories in a series. Well, let's get started, and in no particular order:
The Immortal Game, Must read for any dark/action/adventure MLP fanfiction fans. (complete, 297,261 words)
Que Sera, Sera, To say anything about this would be spoilers, so I will merely say it is my all time favourite one-shot ever, and one of the few that brought tears to my eyes. (complete, 15,437 words)
The Wanderer of the North, amazing early life of Celestia.
(incomplete, 106,727 words)
Integration, Changeling fic done oh so well. (complete, 118,733 words)
The End of Ponies, I don't need to say anything. (incomplete, 527,556 words)
The Son of the Emperor, Ponies have always existed on earth, and the year is 1820. (On Hiatus, most likely never going to finish, 134,613 words)
The Destruction of the Self, Cold in Gardez wrote it, and I have no words. (complete, 6,147 words)
The Witch of the Everfree, Sunset Shimmer didn't go to the human world, she became a spooky scary witch of the Everfree Forest. (complete (sequal pending?), 56,028 words)
The Tutelage of Star Swirl, I have no words, only that this is the first fanfiction that managed to bring tears to my eyes in a long while. (complete, 62,193 words)
Earth & Sky, lovely piece of writing that mirrors the style of the show in a way you just don't see all that often, with an amazing sense of comedy, and one of the only time skip stories I enjoyed. (complete, 264,681 words)
Rites of Ascension, Twilight Sparkle is slowly turning into an alicorn, done well, (incomplete, 245,389 words)
Paradise, Luna and Celestia growing up, a classic. (On Hiatus (Author will post remainder of story in one), 134,286 words)
Night's Favoured Child Lunar Empire story, and was, for a good time, the highest rated story on this site. (incomplete, 151,312 words)
Darkest before Dawn, Young Twilight going through Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. Pre-S2 finale. (Cancelled, the completed note is a lie, 109,473 words)
The Freeport Venture, Sunset Shimmer runs away and becomes a rogue mage hired by the government of a less than reputable island. (complete, 111,794 words)
The Order, Fantastic FlashLight ship in a caste system AU. (one-shot with incomplete sequel, 11,693 words)
The Sword Coast, Baldur's Gate crossover/ponification. Must read if you enjoyed the games, still worthwhile if you haven't heard of them before. (complete with incomplete sequal, 161,399 words)
The Best Night Ever and it's sequel This Platinum Crown. The Best Night Ever is a groundhog day of the final episode of season 1 for Prince Blueblood. (complete, 52,935 words), This Platinum Crown, Unicorn politics are serious business. (incomplete, 783,698 words)
The Upheaval saga, the first story of which is Upheaval: Breaking Point. Twilight finds out Equestria, and the world, is a lot bigger than she ever thought it was before. (first story is complete at 177,716 words,)
The Age of Wings and Steel, Equestria vs Gryphon kingdom war fic, with the most interesting take of the Alicorn-OC trope I've ever seen (apart from in The Immortal Game) (complete with incomplete sequel, 239,641 words)
The Sunfallverse (I believe is it's name), the first story in which is Lines and Webs, There is something very suspicious about both her cutie mark, and the stallion Celestia introduced Twilight to. (complete, 161,563 words)
Of Skies Long Forgotten, the first in the series of 'A Song of Storms'. Details Commander Hurricane's rise to power and the life of his empire as they fight a losing war. (complete, 106,447 words)
Well, have fun
Harmony Theory
Best if read slowly. It started as a guilty pleasure for me and then practically turned into a detective novel. So many small details end up being important and we're got one of the most loathsome villains I've ever read.
So much awesome that I can't hint otherwise I'll spoil it. Unfortunately the place to join it to experience the most hype and excitement is past but it's still a wonderful fic.
Death By Dragon a dark, comedy story about a world gone mad, with Spike as the protagonist. Completed
Unnatural Selection where um, basically the ponies we love are predators. Again, Spike as the protagonist. A dark comedy. Probably won't be completed.
The Pink Samurai Where Pinkie is thrown into a dark universe. Probably won't be completed.
Breaking Twilight I don't mean for these all to be dark, Nightmare Moon wins and all hell breaks loose. Completed
Grossly Incandescent A dark souls crossover, probably will be completed.
Nightmare Night Spooktacular Random Halloween short stories. Completed
Through the Well of Pirene by Ether Echoes.
Three wishes: The Cutie Mark Crusaders Before They changed the World by Xepher. the sequel is also good, but not yet finished.
Gears in the Void by Lab. one of my favorites.
A Voice Among the Strangers by Tystarr.
Exit Through Canterlot by TheBrianJ
I could go on, but these are just a few. I don't recommend stories often, nor lightly. But then again, there's little chance this will be really seen among the swarm of other recommendations.
-C.Storm and
~K.Fie
I really enjoy stories where we can see relationships in various forms between the characters which would explain the larger number of shipping stories my list has. Some of them includes;
The Demesne of the Reluctant Twilight Sparkle , A comedic story in which Twilight unexpectedly gains power over Ponyville and its inhabitants. (Incomplete)
Maidens Day, A short, mature-type tale that does a little world building about Ponies and their magic and culture. (Complete)
Just A Couple of Ponies, A romantic comedy where Applejack and Twilight who are together deal with the inclusion of Rainbow Dash into their relationship. (Incomplete)
Green, A Fluttershy and Rarity shipping story that soon becomes more than that, but retains its Slice of Life feel. (Incomplete)
Longing, A nice, short story that starts off a series about Twilight and Spike. (Complete)
Xenophilia, One of the times a story with a Human tag gets my interest, it is a mature-type romance between Rainbow and Lero the Human who are later joined by Twilight. Also it is the start to a rather interesting universe with various side-stories and spinoffs. (Complete)
Yours Truly, A more letter style story that's mainly about Twilight and Applejack and their relationship over the span of many years. (Complete)
Rites of Ascension, An ascension story that is more slow paced about the process, but has a great plot and world building with it. (Incomplete)
The Seventh Star, Another Twilight and Spike story that deals with their relationship and what Spike is to Twilight. (Complete)
The Lavender Letter, A Twilight and Celestia shipping story that's nicely written and its an enjoyable read that's not too long. (Complete)
The Many Secret Origins of Scootaloo, A random comedy style story that is part of a larger series, this story is about Twilight and her search about Scootaloo's origin as the title implies. (Complete)
Faith and Doubt, Another series starter and it's a darker tale, but it is written by the same writer as the above story and it's also quite good. (Complete)
A Bluebird's Song, An older Rainbow and Twilight shipping story, but one that's still enjoyable. (Complete)
Past Sins, A series starter that has inspired other writers to use the OC Nyx the Alicorn filly. It is a different take about the character of Nightmare Moon in a sense. (Complete)
The Powers of Harmony, An ascension story for the Main Six and the adventures of how they get there. It is on break, but what is out is good. (Hiatus)
Composure, One of the first Pony stories I've read and still one of my favourites despite how long it can be between updates. It is very good and and features an amazing dream sequence. (Incomplete)
A Cup of Joe, This is a story exploring more about Pony Joe the doughnut shop owner in Canterlot. One of the writer's various stories about more background and one-shot characters in the show. (Complete)
The Railway Ponies: Highball, Same writer as the above and this is also well written. This story in particular is about an OC which like the Human tag is one that usually does not get my interest however this one also builds quite a bit about the world of Equestria itself and it is an example of an OC-centered story done well. (Complete)
Ascend, A shorter story with a more humorous take on the ascension process. (Complete)
3258072 You and me both. I have read the vast majority of the stories on your list, do you have any other recommendations?
You know that feeling where its like the inside of your stomache feels tingly/tickles because of a sense of longing/nostalgia/euphoria? Thinking about the stories on that list gave me that feeling... now I probably won't do anything productive at work today as I contemplate why the hell I'm so emotionally invested in stories about cartoon horses.
Just remembered another that you really shouldn't skip.
Quantum Castaways is quite the complex story. Twilight is abducted and wakes up on a mysterious island, and finds a US Navy Pilot who has been trapped, alone, on the island for at least 5 years. After a rough start they grow on each other, and begin to explore the strange island. The story is frightening, suspensful, and dramatic, but the real draw is watching Twilight and Marshall (the pilot) interact with each other. They have philosophical discussions on the island, the wildlife, their homes, Twilight's cutie mark and Marshall's callsign, and the Equestrian phenomenon of spontaneous musicals.
And then Marshall starts singing, and pulls Twilight into a song by Sir Mix A Lot. Yes, that one.
Austraeoh, by Imploding Colon. It is an ongoing epic about Rainbow Dash suffering great loss and heading out east in an impossible quest that will probably cost her her life. At first that's actually kind of the point of even doing it in the first place, but as she goes along, she sees many places and meets a lot of people that leave their mark in her, and help her spread Harmony. She discovers that there's a mechanism and a struggle far bigger than anything she imagined, that heavily depends on her, and so she acquires new purpose and focuses her efforts on seeing just how much she can draw this quest out.
The fic is absurdly long, but it is definitely worth it. It starts out very slow, but it has quickly become one of my favourites ever.
Background Pony broke my heart.
I also suggest like most of what ShortSkirtsandExplosions has written. "I Met A Pony in Hell" is super fun and silly and badass. "Loyalty Starts With an L" and "Hello Sedna" are particularly good.
Background Pony broke my heart.
I also suggest like most of what ShortSkirtsandExplosions has written. "I Met A Pony in Hell" is super fun and silly and badass. "Loyalty Starts With an L" and "Hello Sedna" are particularly good.
All of these stories are from my personal favorites and are 100% completed. NO WAITING FOR UPDATES REQUIRED!
Story by premise:
"You're dead and this is the afterlife, what do you do?"
My life as a receptionist in the afterlife
No Hero
"What happens when you break time itself"
Hard Reset
A Stitch in Time (sequel)
You can Fight Fate (sequel 2)
"Everyone forgets a pony exists, literally" (You will become a masochist reading this, it will hurt and you'll love it anyway)
Background Pony
"Adventurers must save their home in a post apocalyptic wasteland"
Antipodes
"Nightmare moon was never Luna"
The Return of Princess Nightmare Moon
The Affection of Princess Nightmare Moon
"A space ship appears and induces a technology based culture destabilization of the entirety of the planet"
Machine and Might
Machine and Might: Reawakening (sequel)
Machine and Might: Far Horizon of Stars (sequel 2)
"Twilight is immortal, her friends are not..."
Mortal
"A little filly finds out she was once a monster"
Past Sins
Trinkets
Winter Bells
"Memories keep a mare alive..."
Forgotten
"Magical Zombie plague afflicts Equestria"
Don't go outside
Don't go outside II (sequel)
Never go outside (sequel 2)
3488401
I am actually currently reading A Stitch In Time! The first one was very interesting -- kind of like a pony Edge of Tomorrow.
I'll have to give these others a look! Thanks!