It Is Recommendsday, My Dudes #27 · 7:41pm Sep 22nd, 2021
Today, our lead is one of the underappreciated sorts - one of the 'grey bar' stories in my docket.
Mysteries of a Boring Pony by Mindscape is a side-story to another of the writer's works, but I think it actually works a bit better without it.
The story itself is relatively simple: Whisperwind is an agent for Equestria. A spy. But rather than a dangerous foreign assignment, infiltrating enemy governments and such? She's been assigned to watch a quiet, middle-aged stallion of no note, no visibly interesting activities and seemingly nothing even vaguely espionage-y. So she asks herself: why am I watching him? What's the mystery?
Essentially, that's it. It's a mostly introspective story as Whisperwind tries to puzzle out the mystery of her quarry - both who he is and why it's so essential that she watch over him. It does a good job of it, too, laying out the situation well and giving lots of little leads. Personally I wasn't able to puzzle it out until fairly deep in, but things did eventually click. I quite enjoyed the character interactions as well - Mindscape does a good job at making both Whisperwind and Dusk have their own voices. Which is important for a story that relies so heavily on their interplay (both aware and unaware.)
With less than ten votes after a year, this one's a real sleeper.
The other story - I'mma start by holding up a big Not Work Safe sign here. I'd call it borderline myself - there's on-screen sex, but it's a far cry from pornographic.
The story in question: Strange Currencies by Captain_Hairball.
Another focused on spying, this takes from the other side: Strange Mirror is spying against Equestria. Blessed/cursed with a strange ability to reflect herself as whatever someone else wants to see, she's a career con-mare and spy who uses her ability to be whoever she needs to be to get inside.
This gets complicated after she ends up with X (Exchange Rate), who mistakes her for an ex-marefriend. And when she wakes up in the morning... it's gone. She's herself, locked in and suddenly no longer filtering the perceptions of others. Now a spy who can't infiltrate anymore, she's lost her usefulness to her changeling employers... and things are going sideways.
Much more action-oriented than the previous story, this one rushes forward at a harder pace as Mirror and X try to solve what's happened to her, avoid the angry changelings, sort out the terrorist plot and try to figure out their own everything. I found it to be a fun and chaotic romp moving break-neck forward as Mirror's world gets tossed out the window. It's peppy, fun and exciting.
[Adult story embed hidden]
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These both look sooo good. You really dig up some gems
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right I'm going to have to go back through all these blogs and add even more stories to my read later list