Top 5 Stories - In the wake of reading 100 fics · 6:41pm Jul 4th, 2015
Whoa. When I joined this little community, I honestly didn't expect to stay this long. But for the past few months it became almost an everyday routine for me to start reading MLP fics at 10 pm until midnight, when I usually go to sleep. And come to think of it, this prepares me to sleep much better than trying to improve my CSGO skills, which usually ends with me rage-quitting and loudly cursing the living hell out of all russian players. It certainly does not help my mind to rest for the night, that's for sure.
After spending 5 month on the site, I still find better and better stories. FiMFiction's rating system is somewhat confusing (at least if you are trying to search for something), but I try to find the best ones out there by following some of the more critical writers and checking the suggestion box every day. Still, I have recently found a few real gemstones, which do not have the appreciation they truly deserve. They being recommended by me may be raindrops in the sea, but oh well.
So here comes my top 5 stories after reading exactly 100 MLP fics (yes, I do count them, I am using a lot of private bookshelves to keep things in an orderly fashion). Mind you, I am not referring to one-shots, as they represent an entirely different branch of writing art. I will also add a short summary as to why I liked them and why you should totally check them out. Like, right now. Come on, don't be shy, click on those links! Believe me, I am usually hard to impress...
5. Sunset of Time by The Albinocorn
So, time travel is quite a hard concept to go for. It's very rare to see stories that not only manage to keep everything from descending to chaos, but also do it in a way that the reader can easily understand the concept. This is the situation with Sunset of Time. It's an exciting and interesting story, with a lot of action-packed chapters and a few nice jokes too. It has a unique atmosphere and some well constructed character-developments. If you want to see a truly epic adventure that revolves around Twilight and Sunset, then you should definitely start with this masterpiece.
4. Past Sins by Pen Stroke
Once I've seen the HUGE number of likes on this story, I knew this was a must. I mean, just LOOK at that number. I don't want to go all Vegeta on it, but IT'S OVER... oh you know the rest of it. So I've read it, and it's one of the most beautiful things I ever read regarding mother-daughter relations. The new embodiment of Nightmare Moon, as a filly called Nyx, starts to live with Twilight... and boy are they both lovable. I can't express this enough: I am not a guy who is easly impressed by mushy-feelings-stuff, but I was tearing up at the latter chapters of the story... oookaaay, maybe I wasn't, but I felt I was almost ready to shed some tears. I keep them in reserve for the premiere of Star Wars 7. (yes, I cried when I saw the "we are home" moment of the trailer...) Oh, back to the story. It's very good to read, builds the environment nicely, and absolutely worth a shot or two. It tackles the questions of pre-written destiny of one's character versus the person they really want to be, and also shows how a mother's love can be so grand it can tame world threatening villains. It has some quite memorable moments that everyone should know about.
3. Thunder & Lightning by Jetto
Anything that is the part of Stallionverse is cool by me. If you don't know what that is, it's an alternate universe where instead of Twilight, Prince Blueblood and Shining Armor was sent to Ponyville by Princess Celestia before Nightmare Moon escaped from the moon, and things turned out somewhat different from the canon storyline. If you want to know how this turned out, check out Stallions of Harmony - Longest Night right away. Jetto created a new alternate universe, while retaining all the show's original characters who mostly resemble their original personalities, and put them into situations and events that could have never happened within the show's boundaries. The adventures are exciting, there's always something to learn from them, and the jokes made me laugh so much and so loud that my roommates began to question my sanity. It's a very nice alternate universe that is rapidly expanding, and Thunder & Lightning is my favourite piece of the series because the main character, Thunderlane is faced with moral/personal problems that is not unknown in our world too. And the way he faces his fears and turns his life around could be a great example to a lot of people I know IRL that are facing similar situations of oppression and self-depression. There's a lot of unforeseen wisdom in this story, which is why I am grateful Jetto took the time and wrote it.
2. Twilight Falls, Sunset Dawns by DrakeyC
This story is the reason I joined FimFiction. When I started watching the show about a year ago, I somehow found this site, and after a few months of self-debate, I decided to give it a shot. I just started to read the first thing the catched my eye, and I'm lucky I found this incredible story first. I'm still stunned how DrakeyC was able to put it together so well. It revolves around Sunset Shimmer trying to take Princess Twilight's place as her "rightful own", as she were the one destined to be the new Princess long ago. They switch bodies - not that Twilight was okay with this - and they put each other in a series of interesting/awkward situations thanks to this. While Sunset clearly takes the role of the antagonist in this story, I can't help but feel that I understand her character much better than Twilight's and can relate to her much more. The process of self-forgiveness she's going through is... rough to say the least, but it is something inevitable to begin with. After reading it, I also made a few self-discoveries myself - the world around you somehow reacts to you trying to be someone else you are not, and if you watch the signs carefully, you can determine what your role in this world should or shouldn't be. Oh, and also: "Redemption and atonement are in the eye of the beholder" - DrakeyC© 2015.
1. Top Wings by outlaw4rc
I am usually a little bit afraid of the romance stories the involve a member of the Mane 6 and an OC, but outlaw4rc definitely deserves the top spot for this list. Top Wings is actually the second part of a trilogy, with the story Return to Flight preceding it and Brayside Crush being the sequel. The trilogy is close to being wrapped up, I believe that there are only a few chapters left of Brayside Crush as I am compiling this list. What makes this trilogy unique is the fantastic worldbuilding that outlaw managed to subtly get away with. A lot of people - including myself - do not feel secure when they read about a lot of different OCs, as there is a possibility that we will feel severed from our connection to this world we all share our love of. But the new characters, events and locations outlaw made up are both interesting and fit into the MLP universe quite well. This particular story takes a look at the question of "How would a Grand Prix look like in Equestria?" and promptly answers it. We can quite easily get lost in the excitement of the coming race, while trying to figure how our central characters will deal with the multitude of problems and dangers that pop up throughout the race. I did not think that I can read about a race and be excited for it without actually seeing it. All the characters are very lifelike and we feel them as a part of this living, breathing world. The main OC, outlaw's own Swift Flying is a lovable pegasus with his own strenghts and weaknesses, and we see a ton of interesting character development regarding him as he tries to make up for his mistakes and learns to differentiate right from the wrong. His romantic connection to Rainbow is also a unique one that I haven't seen here in FiMFiction so far. Rather than making Rainbow lose her well-known personality to make herself compatible for romance, outlaw examines the situation of Rainbow staying true to herself while struggling with the feelings she starts to have for Swift, as we all know that Rainbow just can't be wooed so easily. It's just... part of her nature to rebel against tender feelings. But because of this, her feelings are clashing with the way she tries to behave, and this created sometimes amusing, sometimes awkward, and sometimes very romantic situations. And I'm not talking about full-mushy romance. Outlaw handles this part very well: it's a kind of subtle romance that everyone can enjoy regardless of gender or age group. It can also keep us more interested than any other romance story in the site. I might be able to relate to it so well because I have been in the same situation with one of my female friends... and I am curious to see how that could have turned out.
This might be the first story that I will definitely consider to read again sometime in the future, and that is the highest praise you can get from me. So if you have time, check out these stories, especially the Swiftverse (dibs on the name, by the way it's the #1 on this list), as it is receiving much less love than what it actually deserves.
...now that I look at this list, only #3 and #1 are under-appreciated. Huh. I will have to make a new list to share some others that truly need more love. As for now, back to Read-Later-Cave!
I've heard or read almost all of those except the last one!
Wow, that's a lot of writing!
Oh, then have you ever listened to 'You'll Be In My Heart'?
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Yeah, I realized in the end that these are mostly well-known stories. I will create another list which has 10 different authors and stories, who truly need some more attention. I hope that maybe with some appreciation we can keep up their motivation to write more
You mean the song from Tarzan? Yeah I heard it, although I don't really follow how this connects here... maybe it's something I wrote? Help me out please
3215851 Cool
It's from Tarzan? No, just look up 'You'll Be In My Heart PMV'
Thanks for the follow, BTW!
3215851 One of the versions is this one:
Of three as far as I know
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Wow. This was cute. Not sure how it avoided me so far. Thanks for posting it
3218540 No problem, there are other versions you know, and I commented it
It is always interesting to see new folks join the fandom and come across various stories.
I found this blog post via City of Doors, a place where like, every review is stuck on a gigantic list.
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Never knew that list existed. Thanks for showing it to me, I will definitely check it out later.
It's interesting to see that even my review happens to be in that database. Wonder who put it there? Well, I wouldn't even say that these are reviews, I'm far from a professional reviewer. It's more like my thoughts on these ones and the main reasons they should be given a shot.
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The guy who runs City of Doors, clearly :V
How he found it, I have no clue.