One of the bigger draws in the fandom is the antagonists - Discord, Nightmare Moon, Trixie, Sombra, and so on are all extremely popular in fiction and art. But I'm not sure any are quite as popular as the concept of the changelings. Not only is Chrysalis herself top tier (the 18th most popular tag on FIMFiction) but the changelings race tag is as well (26th most popular tag on the site; the next highest racial tag is Bat Pony at 64th, more than three thousand stories behind.) They're just such

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Right, so to get back on track: last week I'd planned a focus on Blueblood to dovetail with my latest First Hoof Account update. Things obviously got delayed slightly, but it's back in the saddle with that! 

He's an early fandom favorite who fell off as time went on - the lack of a second show appearance didn't help him any - but ol' Bluey still has some life to him and some really interesting takes. I'mma do two today from different sides of the coin.

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Last week I mentioned how one of the featured stories was a top tier pick of for Sunset/Celestia reconciliation scenes. And that gives me the perfect lead-in for another one from that list. I love it when the picks are easy! And while the second story lacks the same Sunset connection, it still shares a common thread with the first.

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This is gonna be a bit of an unusual set today. In my bookshelves, I keep a separate one next to my tracking specifically for stories that I want to follow but haven't been updated for 6+ months - currently it's got 256 items on it, as opposed to my standard tracking which has 46. But there's also a ton of them that I really enjoyed and keep thinking about despite the fact that they're languishing. (And often for entirely good reasons, too! People have lives, after all.) I decided a

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Right, with that bit of spooky out of the way, let's get back to some of the site's promising newbies.

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Y'know, I considered doing more horror this week. 'Tis the season and all that. But by the same note, the new column has plenty of horror already and it's only going to get thicker over the next week. So instead, I took suggestions from a few friends by giving them only the most vague connecting notes for the stuff in my ready pile. Since EileenSaysHi responded first (and none of the others were runaway favorites,) I'm going with

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And you thought Halloween Nightmare Night was over just because it's November 2nd. HA! THE NIGHT SHALL LAST FOREVER.

So have some Luna Nightmare stories.

Lead story today is a fun laugh: Day to Night(mare) by AutoPony.

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This week, I'm back to again correct an oversight. While I was going through my reserve list of stories, I realized that I'd put a story into the queue and somehow bypassed it week after week. And it's an important one, because the author's a significant part of this blog's original creation. So - time to correct that oversight!

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This week's a bit of an aside: five days ago, the staff put up a new series tag for Equestria At War. Now it isn't really my style, but it is a thing to celebrate: I believe it's actually the first time a series tag has been added for fan-made content (possible exception: SCP Foundation, which I'm not sure if that truly counts as 'fan-made'.) And as a tag it's been growing very rapidly - it's been less than a week

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So in my last quarterly update blog, I noted in one of my current projects that I had recently been inspired by a story. And I don't think it's quite fair to keep sitting on that story for this blog. I mean, I made the note, I gotta at least link it, right? Besides it was in the queue and had a match already. So this week's stories have a focus on the infamous Alicorn Amulet.

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So now that the Spring Fling contest is over, I'm freed up a bit in my recommendations. See, I did my best to avoid blogging to recommend any of the contestants for fear of coming across as biased or otherwise hinting at what was going on inside the judge's room. (It's probably silly, but it's the same sort of silly that had me holding off giving

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It's been a bit since I did a new author feature, and I realized my pile of ones I wanted to draw attention to was stacking up. Let's take a few off that stack then, shall we?

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So yesterday was my wife's birthday. As a result, I've decided to theme today's blog on BEING OLD. 

Okay, also and Twilight Sparkle being carried by reptiles but that's honestly less relevant.

(Love you hon!)

For the bigger of the two, we go to Novelle Tale and Growing Together. 

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Here there be dragons.

Not quite the usual kind, though - we're not talking Spike or even Garble and Ember. These dragons are more the traditional sort, both integrated with a little alt-u magic. But just as important as the dragons is their treasure and the hoards they accumulate. These two examples have... well, somewhat unique treasures. But I'll let the stories get into those specifics.

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Today, I'm going to lean into a bit of the apocalypse - not for any doom and gloom reason, but just because it's a fun plot device to leverage. And it gives a great chance to point out two veteran authors who are underappreciated.

I'll begin with the end of the world itself in Heat Death for Two by Comma Typer.

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And we forge forward into the future!

To begin a new year's worth of recommends, I'm gonna pull out one of the more fun themes I've enjoyed - simulations.

Our first is a play on a classic Star Trek concept: The Kathiawari Mare, by AShadowOfCygnus.

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Some weeks, I have this planned out well in advance and specific choices I want to show off. Other weeks are like this one where I sit down, look at my prepared backlog, and throw it all out because I feel like featuring Scootaloo because damn it I can do that if I feel like it.

And I feel like it.

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I'm feeling a bit melancholy today, so I think I'm gonna use one of the story pairs I've had in reserve for a while. The set is based around the tragedy of the top - so many major characters (and not just pony - it's a common phenomenon) are at or near the peak of their chosen field. And that can easily be a bad thing.

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It's been a little bit since a new author focus, and I just happen to have two on my list! So that works out nicely.

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Seeing as April First is in two days, I figure this is a great time to turn the focus on to the Element of Laughter and serve up a pair of Pinkie Pie fics today. Seems appropriate. Although this set... well, the connecting feature is that Pinkie Pie is not quite Pinkie Pie in them. Or at least for some of them.

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