It Is Recommendsday, My Dudes #92 · 8:18pm Dec 21st, 2022
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 couple weeks ago to do a blog one them: partially just to bring good work to light and a little bit in the hopes to prod the authors into continuing what I see as really great work. That turned out to be a bigger challenge than I thought, since after a bunch of re-reading and choosing I had managed to get the list down to just 14. It took a good couple of days more before I finally settled on four, but there's a whole bunch more that I would have loved to put on here.
So here's four stories I really enjoy, but with the asterisk that they're all incomplete and at least a year idle.
First on the list is probably the story with (to me) the strongest 'Goddamn I want this to be complete' energy: I'll Bring You Home by Kodeake.
There's one difference here versus the Equestria we know: when confronted by Tirek, Twilight Sparkle didn't give up her magic. She fought Tirek with the power of four alicorns, defeating him... at the cost of her own life. Now, it's a year later. Ponyville is still recovering. The other Elements... not so much. Some better than others. They try to move on with their lives, find some level of normalcy again -- except Rainbow Dash. She can't go back. So she goes forward: straight into literal Tartarus, because she's either bringing Twilight Sparkle back to life or she's going to die trying.
There's a reason why 'hero goes into the underworld to save their friend/love' is such a common story in mythology - it's good. And this one doesn't falter there. It's the full package. Action - from Dash in the arena to prove she's worthy of reaching Elysium to the struggle to escape the Library. Drama - chapter ten's conversation between Celestia and Spike is primo stuff. And of course romance - because Kodeake is (by their own words) filthy shipping trash.
Really, I'm hard pressed to pick moments out of this story because it's just overall so damn good. Every chapter's got sections that stick in my memory and that I go back to occasionally re-read. If I had to pick a favorite part, it'd be chapter 9 and the end of the Library escape arc. It's got prime drama going on, two separate rescue stories, a bit of a mystery to solve the puzzle, and just enough romance sprinkled on top to make the whole thing pop.
I was sold on this one from the prologue and it's one of the rare occasions I actually periodically check the author's blogs in hope for a status update.
Speaking of romances - next up I've picked Clear Skies by Amber Spark, best known for the expansive Wavelengths series.
When Princess Twilight Sparkle rose to rule Equestria, Moondancer was happy for her. It was just a bit... awkward being in Canterlot when your childhood friend was the immortal god-ruler. So she leaves Canterlot - commissioning a custom airship called the Wandering Blossom and taking her life far, far away. Of course, leaving her troubles behind gets a wrench thrown in it when she runs into Minuette in the Vanhoover docks and allows her old school friend to hitch a ride back. ...And then get dragged into a crazy treasure hunt searching for a legendary shipwreck, because Minuette does nothing by halves.
Can you say 'road trip'? Good! 'Cuz that's just what you're getting here. It starts out fairly light - lots of scenery porn and Moondancer introspection. Reflecting (and self-questioning) on why she's dropping her entire life to get aboard a boat and flee to the corners of the world, as well as wondering just what the heck she's going to do with Minuette. It morphs as things go on into the treasure hunt: that's always in the background and talked about, but it isn't until about halfway through that the Waystone's mystery starts to really become a focus.
Oh, plus plenty of slow-burn romance as Moony starts to think about how alone doesn't always really mean alone-alone. And maybe figures out a thing or two about her clock-centric adventuring companion.
It's the pace that I enjoy on this one. Sure there's some moments (like the canyon) that get exciting, but for the most part? This one's almost languid in how it moves. And that suits it well, and fits Moondancer's attitudes. You've got a mystery, but they're not so hard-pressed to resolve it. It allows the story's romance plot time to breathe and develop at a reasonable, realistic pace.
Third up is the mighty MagnetBolt and Terminal Fault.
I won't do a story summary here, since we all know this tale. Retellings of S1E1 are common, but the plot in this one isn't important. The world building here is a master class and why I want to bring it to folks' attention. See, the difference is that this is a full-on cyberpunk conversion and it hits every point dead on. The characters and the situations are so very much the same, but reinterpreted to exist within a digital, chrome-plated world.
Rarity, designer of custom cybernetics and body-artist.
Pinkie Pie, rogue self-aware AI (because of course she is.)
Applejack, the boxer who's gotten in way over her head.
Rainbow Dash, the last unaugmented racer.
Fluttershy, caretaker of lost and discarded drones.
Twilight Sparkle, fully augmented student of the digital Princess Celestia.
And they all are drawn together as the Blackout begins.
Seriously, the way this world is built is amazing work. I mean, it's 61k just on telling you where these characters we already know are coming from and elaborating on a deep and fascinating world around them. MagnetBolt's a great writer and I don't think that's news to anybody, but this one's just... phew.
And last (since I always put Mature entries last), it should surprise no one that I'm gonna go back to Scampy and her as-yet incomplete masterpiece, Best Left Forgotten.
The incident with the Memory Stone is past, but there's still scars. Wallflower's whole life has had to change - she had grown too dependent on the Stone's power, and now a lot of what she used to survive is gone. She can't even go home, having edited her parents' memories too many times and removed their entire awareness of having a daughter. So Sunset Shimmer comes to her aid, combining the broken remnants of the Memory Stone with the power of the Geode of Empathy to try and retrieve older, lost memories and help Wallflower get her life back together. But there's some things in there that Wallflower removed for a reason - and when they come back out, it creates a whole new buffet of trauma.
So this story, long ago, was my introduction to Scampy's work. And this is her prototypical Wallflower - which has become pretty widely the fanon, so even a casual reader likely knows roughly what to expect. So before reading, take that Mature rating and particularly the self-harm tag very seriously. And also that statement should be enough for a bunch of you to immediately know if this is a story for you or not.
Because this story doesn't mess around. It shoves the trauma right up front and center - some of it gets implied at first just to give you one last chance to hop off the ride, but then it's full in your face about why there's some events a teenage girl would prefer not to ever remember again. No punches get pulled, and even the brighter moments (like the SunFlower romance) in this are weighted down by the fact that not a bit of what is going on is healthy.
This is a story that hurts to read. It turns my stomach and makes me flinch, but that's why it's great. Being able to evoke that kind of emotion and reaction takes skill and power, and it's a hurts-so-good throughout the entire story.
As one commenter put it:
It was horrible.
Disgusting.
The worst thing I have read.
Yet it's also one if not the best chapter of a story I have read in a really long time.
By far.
[Adult story embed hidden]
New or catching up? Try Recommendsday: The Index for your story needs!
Hm, that policy of having a separate tracking list for stories that updated in a good long while is a good one. Good enough I might steal it!
Granted, my Tracking list is notably shorter, as even apart from my carefully scruntising what longer stories I read carefully before plunging in, I stopped reading incomplete stories (with very few exceptions, like your First Hoof 
) once I started reviews.
Regardless, you won't mind if I nick it, I'm sure.
As for these stories, not gonna give them a look for the reasons stated above, but I'd say the first one, of Dash chasing a faint hope to the ends of the earth to bring back Twilight, is the concept that grabs me the most, for what it's worth.
I really do need to finish that thing ._.
That said I'm glad it's had the impact that it has so far. Obviously it's personal for me, and weirdly enough the better my life has gotten the less I think about writing the really heavy stuff, but the things I drew on to write it are still there, just waiting for me to look back. I kinda feel like the narrative itself is also just so layered regarding the morality and messy nature of the relationship that develops, all in a way that I really like, but it does make it kind of intimidating to approach.
It's a story where there's no clear right answer and a lot of readers have very different options on the character's actions, especially in the more recent chapters. The balancing act with the relationship is hard too, cuz like you said it's really unhealthy for a lot of reasons and I try to show that through the prose without the actual POV characters realizing it themselves. It's tricky to inform the reader of something via the thoughts and feelings of a character and not have the character herself recognize what's being done.
I still maintain that Best Left Forgotten is the best thing I've ever written, and again I do intend to finish it, if only for my own closure. Maybe I'll learn some more about myself along the way, who knows. It's just hard, y'know? Back when I felt like I was surrounded by nothing but trauma, it was all too easy to let it worm its way into my head and just channel that into stories. But now, living in a different place, a safer place, so far removed from the people and places that hurt me and with a year of intensive EMDR trauma therapy under my belt, it's harder to sink into the memories that inspired this story and not come back out with my day ruined.
Anyway. I'm really glad you liked it, and I hope the rest of it eventually lives up to what's there now🙏
oof
My 'dead' shelf is at uh
1441 stories hot damn
And I'll be updating it at the end of the year like I usually do.
I always wanted to do a blog of unfinished fics -- specifically ones that will never be finished, either because the author is long gone or actually marked it cancelled -- but oh boy, there are so many to choose from D:
5704446
It's one of the best choices I made for my shelf organization. My Tracking was really clogged with a lot of stories that were years dead. I still wanted to be aware if they updated, but it made keeping the ones I was actively reading easier to stay aware of and look over.
5704448
As I said: there are very good reasons why some of these haven't been finished. I would never begrudge anyone for "I'm having trouble finishing this because I'm safe and happy now" because holy shit that would make me a horrible person.
5704464
I had exactly that issue, and for likely the same reasons. Even cutting it down to just 14 was difficult, and to the final 4 was just torture. I had to impose a lot of criteria (author had to still be active, not updated in at least a year, etc etc) and drop a ton of absolutely excellent stories. (It Takes A Princess, Reflections in Black and Pink, A Daughter and her Dragon - just to name a couple.)
hiatus booshelves are so last gen.
May I interest you in a resurrection bookshelf containing finished and unfinished fics with multi year gaps, some 4+, between chapters?
5704446
As someone who followed I'll Bring You Home while it was coming out (and will resume doing so if it ever continues), can confirm: it's great!