News Archive

  • 179 weeks
    MSPiper’s “Autumnfall Change” [Royal Canterlot Library]

    You might want to keep a whiteboard handy for today’s story.


    Autumnfall Change
    [Sci-Fi][Slice of Life][Human] • 8,419 words

    Magic and technology may have pierced the void and blazed a path between the realms, but that was the simple part. Adjusting to the changes that follow can be far more daunting.

    Yet despite the complexities involved even in basic communication, Serendipity has found friends to talk to among humankind who can cheer her up when she’s down. And occasionally inspire her to bursts of ingenuity unhindered by such trifles as foresight.

    Read More

    6 comments · 9,133 views
  • 193 weeks
    TCC56's "Glow In The Dark, Shine In The Sun" [Royal Canterlot Library]

    A villain might just have a bright future in today's story.


    Glow In The Dark, Shine In The Sun
    [Equestria Girls] [Drama] [Slice of Life] • 27,035 words

    Despite all attempts, Cozy Glow still hasn't been shown a path to friendship. No pony has been able to get through to her, and she's only gotten worse with each attempt.

    Reluctant to return the filly to stone again, Princess Twilight has one last option. One pony she hasn't tried. Or in this case? One person.

    Sunset Shimmer.

    Can Sunset do what no pony has been able to?

    Read More

    10 comments · 9,337 views
  • 195 weeks
    The Red Parade's "never forever" [Royal Canterlot Library]

    Today's story never says never.


    never forever
    [Sad] [Slice of Life] • 1,478 words

    Lightning Dust will never be a Wonderbolt. When she left the Academy, she swore she'd never look back. When the Washouts disbanded, she swore she'd forget about them.

    Yet after all these years, against all odds, she finds herself here. At a Wonderbolts show. Just on the wrong side of the glass.

    Read More

    20 comments · 8,131 views
  • 200 weeks
    Freglz's "Nothing Left to Lose" [Royal Canterlot Library]

    Don't lose out on today's story.


    Nothing Left to Lose
    [Drama] [Sad] • 6,367 words

    Some things can't be changed.

    Starlight believes otherwise.

    FROM THE CURATORS: One might be forgiven for thinking that after nine years of MLP (and fanfic), there's nothing left to explore on such well-trodden ground as changeling redemption — but there are still stories on the topic which are worthy of turning heads.  "Though the show seems to have moved past it as a possibility, the question of whether and how Queen Chrysalis could be reformed alongside the other changelings still lingers in the fandom's consciousness," Present Perfect said in his nomination. "In comes Freglz, with a solidly reasoned story that combines the finales of seasons 5 and 6 and isn't afraid to let the question hang."

    Read More

    26 comments · 7,541 views
  • 202 weeks
    Somber's "Broken Record" [Royal Canterlot Library]

    Today's story puts all the pieces together.

    (Ed. note: Some content warnings apply to this interview, regarding current world circumstances and mentions of suicidal ideation.)


    Broken Record
    [Drama] [Slice of Life] • 7,970 words

    There has never been an athlete like Rainbow Dash. The sprints. The marathons. The land speed record. She held them all.

    Until she didn't.

    Until she had only one left... and met the pony that might take it from her...

    Read More

    11 comments · 5,347 views
  • 204 weeks
    jakkid166's "Detective jakkid166 in everything" [Royal Canterlot Library]

    Missing out on today's story would be a crime.


    Detective jakkid166 in everything
    [Comedy] [Human] • 15,616 words

    "Every pony thing evre made would be better if it had me in it."
    - me

    I, Detective jakkid166, will be prepared to make every pony fanficion, video, and game better by me being in it. All you favorite pony content, except it has ME! And even I could be in some episodes of the show except cause the charaters are idiot I'm good at my job.

    The ultimate Detective jakkid166 adventures collection, as he goes into EVERYTHING to make it good.

    Read More

    171 comments · 9,616 views
  • 206 weeks
    Mannulus' "Sassy Saddles Meets Sasquatch" [Royal Canterlot Library]

    Today's story is a rare find.


    Sassy Saddles Meets Sasquatch
    [Comedy] [Random] • 5,886 words

    The legend is known throughout Equestria, but there are few who believe. Those who claim to have seen the beast are dismissed as crackpots and madponies. Those who bring evidence before the world are dismissed as histrionic deceivers. There are those who have seen, however -- those who know -- and they will forever cry out their warning from the back seats of filthy, old train cars, even to those who dismiss them, who revile them, who ignore their warnings unto their own mortal peril.

    "The sasquatch is real!" they will cry forevermore, even as nopony believes.

    But from this day forward, Sassy Saddles will believe.

    Read More

    16 comments · 6,203 views
  • 208 weeks
    SheetGhost’s “Moonlight Vigil” [Royal Canterlot Library]

    Take a closer look into tonight’s story.


    Moonlight Vigil
    [Tragedy] • 3,755 words

    Bitter from her defeat and exile, the Mare in the Moon watches Equestria move on without her.

    Read More

    1 comments · 4,842 views
  • 210 weeks
    Unwhole Hole's "The Murder of Elrod Jameson" [Royal Canterlot Library]

    Today's story is some killer noir.

    [Adult story embed hidden]

    The Murder of Elrod Jameson
    [Dark] [Mystery] [Sci-Fi] [Human] • 234,343 words

    [Note: This story contains scenes of blood and gore, sexuality, and a depiction of rape.]

    Elrod Jameson: a resident of SteelPoint Level Six, Bridgeport, Connecticut. A minor, pointless, and irrelevant man... who witnessed something he was not supposed to.

    Narrowly avoiding his own murder, he desperately searches for help. When no living being will help him, he turns to the next best thing: a pony.

    Read More

    14 comments · 5,329 views
  • 212 weeks
    Grimm's "Don't Open the Door" [Royal Canterlot Library]

    Today's story lingers like the curling mist in a dark forest.


    Don't Open the Door
    [Dark][Horror] • 13,654 words

    After an expedition into the Everfree Forest ends in disaster, Applejack and Rainbow Dash take refuge in an abandoned cabin until morning.

    This is probably a poor decision, but it's only one night, after all. How bad could it be?

    FROM THE CURATORS: "I don't care much for horror stories," AugieDog mused. "But this one does so much right, I found myself really impressed." Present Perfect thought it was "simply one of the best horror stories I've ever read," and Soge agreed "one-hundred percent" that "this is pitch-perfect horror from beginning to end."

    Read More

    8 comments · 4,645 views
Nov
18th
2016

Author Interview » Lost + Found Features: "Gobbling and Other Traditional Pursuits" / "The Sound Of Sunlight" [Royal Canterlot Library] · 1:20pm Nov 18th, 2016

Due to some bad luck on timing (and some eligibility goofs on our end), this week we're still waiting for all of our pending featured authors to complete their interviews.  But don't worry — we've got you covered!  We keep track of stories which have passed through our approval process, but whose authors were uncontactable despite repeated effort.  We'd like to see these great stories get their time in the spotlight too, so we're presenting a pair of RCL-approved tales for your reading pleasure.


Gobbling and Other Traditional Pursuits
By LadyMoondancer
[Adventure] [Comedy] • 11,188 words

For years Nightmare Moon was considered "nothing but an old pony tale," but what did those tales actually say about her?  See Luna, Celestia, and Discord as viewed through pony myths and legends.

FROM THE CURATORS: "If Horizon doesn't give this a maximum score, I'll eat my hat," former curator Benman said, to which Horizon simply replied: "Your hat is safe."  He wasn't the only one — this collection of Equestrian folk tales earned multiple top scores and a rare unanimous approval.  "I'd have no trouble at all believing that these stories were entombed in one of the dusty back corners of the Golden Oaks library, and the varying tones and styles help sell this as a collection of disparate tales from different times, passed down by oral tradition," Chris said.

Some of that was due to use of strong source material — as the author noted, Old Favors is a very thinly ponified version of the Russian tale "Old Favors Are Soon Forgotten", and Horizon pointed out that Coyote and the Boulder "leans heavily on the Sioux folktale 'Iktome, Coyote, and the Rock'" — but LadyMoondancer's own creativity also shone through.  "What seals the deal for me is Chapter 2, which appears to be made up from whole cloth and yet is the same high quality as the ones that crib from existing mythology," Horizon said.  And the storytelling was always vivid and evocative.  "I swear I can smell the smoke from a fireplace and the borscht boiling on top of it," AugieDog said.  "The last one makes me long for something I never knew I wanted to see: the stories each tribe tells about where the other sorts of ponies come from.  Really nice stuff."


The Sound Of Sunlight
By Chicken Vortex
[Slice of Life] • 5 chapters, 25,000 words

When it comes to music some ponies have natural talent, while others have to struggle for it. The story of how one pony learned that in the end it's not who's playing that matters, but who they're playing for.

FROM THE CURATORS: How's this for a classic — it was published to Google Docs back in the days before FIMFic was collecting the MLP fandom's fanfiction!  It was one of the first stories the RCL considered, too, and even then it gave us some lovely tinges of nostalgia.  "Oh man! I had forgotten this story, but right when she ran into the homeless pony, it all came flooding back," former curator Vimbert the Unimpressive said. "This was damn good."  And Chris agreed: "It's held up much better than many of the stories from that era."

It was one of the earliest stories exploring the show's background ponies, but even at the time it painted a vivid picture.  "I will give the story kudos for its portrayal of Octavia's (and others') musical life, which are sadly representative of some prodigies' childhoods, and for not flinching away from showing just how damaging to a person those kinds of regimens can be," Chris said.  As Present Perfect put it, "It hits a lot of the usual tropes — she hates playing, she has strict parents, she's a shut-in with no friends — but elevates them to something more."

[Note: Readers report that the Google Docs links in the story's Equestria Daily post are now broken.  Other methods of reading the story include nallar.me's archive of old Google Doc-based fanfiction; and a google search reveals that it was crossposted to Deviantart, either by the author or a fan.]

Read more features right here at the Royal Canterlot Library, or suggest stories for us to feature at our Fimfiction group.

Comments ( 13 )

I miss Lady Moondancer. :(

PresentPerfect
Author Interviewer

4307531
After having read that story, I do, too. :(

RQK

Ah... The Sound of Sunlight. That takes me way back. That was the very first fanfic that I read religiously (yes, it's a short one, but I got all giddy whenever I saw an update for it on Equestria Daily). I absolutely adore this story and it is, in a way, painful that I can't add it to my bookshelves.

While it's been years since I've read the story (because I rarely can read through a story a second time), it's one of the ones that I have not really forgotton and definitely one where, from time to time, I've thought to myself (I wonder where that story is floating about now)? And for a while, I thought it had disappeared from the net forever, only to accidentally stumble upon it through an archieve binge a few months ago.

And now it's featured here and I can say, wholeheartedly, that it deserves it.

4307531

Amen to that. It's been almost three years since LadyMoondancer last logged in. A comeback tour is loooooooong overdue, and it would have been interesting to see how Beware Geeks Bearing Gifts turned out. Canterlot Follies was great, and ended up as a bizarre but welcome blending of Equestrian high society and the classic tropes of the Jeeves and Wooster world. Got me introduced to the latter, as well.

RIP, Canterlot Follies. Here lies an incomplete magnum opus, cut short in its prime. :pinkiesad2:

4307532
4307817 I first met here on RPG.net. She was doing a reread of the old G1 MLP comics. Here is a link to one of the threads. Sadly abandoned. I think she does a Tumblr, too. And it's still active. I'll have to look it up. Sorry.

4307938

I'm guessing you mean this tumblr? Also, thanks for the link! Nice to know LadyMoondancer is not e.g. dead or totally inactive, and is still enjoying MLP.

Perhaps Canterlot Follies will be finished some day, though I doubt it. But if not, at least what we have is still well worth reading.

PresentPerfect
Author Interviewer

4307961
4307981
...This is exciting.

If it is still on fanfiction.net, LM's G1 story "Justice League Ponyland " is worth looking up. Funny but incomplete.

Found it
https://m.fanfiction.net/s/965024/1/Justice-League-Ponyland

Comment posted by Pimapifi deleted Nov 20th, 2016

HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT SOUND OF SUNLIGHT SOUND OF SUNLIGHT

Oh my god, I was not expecting to see this here. Sound of Sunlight was the first fic I ever followed from beginning to completion, and still might be my favorite fic in the fandom. It's an absolute fucking travesty that this isn't on FiMFiction.

PresentPerfect
Author Interviewer

4309309
Sorry, the Royal Canterlot Library is not involved with general site things.

Login or register to comment