IMO #5. Home is Where the Harp Is; Dusk Falls; Alarm Clock / Alarmaverse; Arête - Princess Alicorn of Hackers; Octaves; Practical Nightmares Only.

As of now doing away with the ratings, that was a stupid idea in the first place. Anyway, here goes.

• Home is Where the Harp Is by Blueshift
Another fic I've re-read recently; one of my first Lyra fics iirc and I still love it a lot. Haven't watched any of G1 though, so I've got very little idea of the Smooze's portrayal there, also glad that both they and Lyra received some character growth in the end.

• Dusk Falls by NorrisThePony
Another fic featuring the Smooze, another fic I enjoyed immensely back in the day, that was also the fic that made me start following Norris, I just loved their portrayal of Celestia in this and other stories (Sadly, still haven't finished reading Synthetic Bottled Sunlight because of the reader block back when it came out of hiatus and it having grown too big in size (currently sticking to shorter stories to avoid burning out on reading again), maybe someday). Anyway, got really good dark vibes from this one, gotta re-read it someday.

• Alarm Clock and the Alarmaverse series by Meta Four
Revisited this series recently and it's still a fantastic read! As I mentioned in the previous post, "Derpy sees what no pony is meant to see" is one of my favorite fanons/tropes. And, like, from the premise, to the plot, to the humor, to Ditzy and Doctor's characterization, to the various Cthulhu Mythos references, to various other references (some of which I get and some don't)... Yeah, this fic is just about perfect. Oh, and back when I first read it I hated the "Derpy is Dinky's lone mother" fanon with a passion so not making her that was another huge thumbs up from me back then (though I've warmed up to the idea since). And Old Res cranks up the Lovecraft-iness to ten but even then managed to subvert it into a Lovecraft-Lite with Twilight's reaction to all that. So yeah, this verse is still in my top faves list and most probably won't leave it any time soon. Also just realized that the author's name is a pun haha.

• Arête - Princess Alicorn of Hackers by Lise
Another story where Derpy is not Dinky's mother. Also cyberspace but with a magic twist (still works like a cyberspace though). Also the fundamental cyberpunk trope, a mega-corp conspiracy. Also... "less meat more l33t". Yep. Good story. Wouldn't call it cyberpunk per-se, more like, uhh... cyberpunk-lite...?, but it's an engaging read regardless, I'm not much of a cyberpunk fan anyway.

• Octaves by JapaneseTeeth
A top-notch Vinyl and Octavia origins story. Not much else to say, just that I enjoyed re-reading it recently just as much as the first time. First discovered it through Meta Four's side-story and yeah, that was a great find. Side note: Dream Theater are meh however. Those vocals... nah, not my thing, even though the music itself goes hard in what I've heard of them.

• Practical Nightmares Only by Impossible Numbers
Not too fond of Derpy's characterization here (in the first part in particular) which is probably why I didn't fave it after the first read (maybe also of the above-mentioned fanon since I first read it at around the same time as the two Derpy fics above) but the last half sure does pay off. And Golden Harvest's portrayal as an annoyed but loyal friend is lovely. Also, Dinky called her by her given name in the end, aww! Also also, da heck is that comment section, seriously guys.