Best of Season Short Fics, Part 1 · 3:28am Jun 11th, 2017
No I don't have any clever comments for an opener. Well, I guess there is the fact that I've been watching HarmonQuest, which is a hilarious role playing take with animation featuring Dan Harmon and featuring a new celebrity guest each episode. So that's fun. You can view the first episode below.
Almost a year ago, I found myself getting back into the regular groove of reading fanficiton, when I got bitten with a bug that thought it would be a cool idea to make a best of list. Something that could serve a an anthology. Originally, my plan was to do a it for all one-shots/short stories. Because there’s way more stories than any one person can read in a reasonable time (on Fimfiction alone, the number of completed short stories is over 40,000), I felt the best way to proceed would be to limit myself to the more commended ones: that is six stars on EQD, winners of fic-offs, pieces that can be found in RBDash47’s vault, the Royal Canterlot Library, Seattle’s Angels, and other highly regarded reviewers. That fell through once I started to look at the number of stories from some of the more prolific and respected writers. To state the obvious, they have a lot. I didn’t want to increase my workload to the point that it would be over a year before I completed it, and got sick of certain authors.
Rather than just abandon the whole idea, I decide to limit my time frame to the first season; that is every one-shot/short story published from Oct 19th, 2010 to May 13th, 2011 would get read (some restrictions may apply), and I would do so in chronological order (to the best of my ability). While reading all those tales in that time frame did seemed daunting, but it seemed less troublesome than having to go through fifty works by the same author. It also had the added advantage of looking at how things changed over in various.
Now before I get further, I want to state a few things with regards to how I found the stories, the factors that determined if I read them, and with the final list.
1. The story had to have been first published sometime from Oct 19th, 2010 to May 13th 2011 (that would one week after season one was completed, so enough time to read response stories as a result of the season finale, The Best Night Ever).
2. The story had to be fanfic for a My Little Pony: Friendship. It could be a crossover with something else, but the focus should be FiM. This may not seem like something worth mentioning, but I’ve seen a few fanfics that centered on the other versions of My Little Pony. I’m not super familiar with them, and so I can’t properly judge them and I doubt most people here would like to read them.
3. I would only read fanfiction posted in English. Again, that should be obvious, but it’s worth stating here. I don’t mind if the story was first appeared in another language, but when it first showed up in English is what counts.
4. All fanfics had to have been published on or at least linked to from one of the following sites: Fanfiction.net, Equestria Daily, PonyFictionArchive.com, and FimFiction.net [the latter two it turned out were only used for stories whose links on EQD no longer worked]. There are other places that contain fanfics for FiM (deviantArt, any number of forums, ponychan, /co/), but either because of remoteness, lack of organization, or because I felt they were places one doesn’t really go for fanfiction, I didn’t include them. I’m willing to spend a half-hour reading a story; I’m not willing to spend seven minutes looking for one.
5. The first place a fanfic was published is the version I read. For older ones at least, stories that first appear on fanfiction.net or EQD will then get republished on FimFiction.net, sometimes with typos fixed, and sentences rewritten, added, or removed. That might seem unfair, but quite frankly, I’m trying to view as if I was there when it was first posted. The only times I made exceptions was for dead links. And I had to know who the author was in that case.
a. Speaking of dead links, if the only way to get a copy of a story is thru archive sites like the Archive.org’s Wayback Machine, I didn’t read it. They can be a pain to find.
6. A story was read if it was less than 20,000 words. While that is longer than most places online define a short story (Indiana Review has 8,000; Writing-World.com has 7,500 and other places have things around 17,000 while Writer’s Digest has more at 30,000), I felt that going for that much would allow me to get a more nice size of stories.
a. A story could have more than one chapter. Originally, I was going to have a limit, but I couldn’t decide on an ironclad number.
b. Following that, a story had to be complete as well. You wouldn’t recommend that someone drive on an unfinished bridge, and while suggesting an incomplete tale isn’t as potentially fatal, it’s still something I want to avoid. The exceptions were for those that pass 7a below.
c. There are stories that might be termed as ‘expanded one-shots’, that is stories that were originally intended to be single chapter, but got more either because of demand on the part of the audience or the writer’s own wishes. As such, the first chapter is its own complete story. Because it’s difficult to determine whether or not something falls under this, I didn’t read any that pass the word limit, except by accident.
7. Side stories and sequels are separate from the main one. They don’t add to the length of the original. Stories that are part of anthologies are also separate from each other. All other things still apply.
a. Work that’s part of incomplete anthologies or have incomplete sequels or side stories, but nevertheless are complete by themselves still got read.
8. Whether or not I’ve read the story before, it got a re-read. I don’t trust my memories, and this seemed only fair.
9. After completing any story, I would briefly note the plot/premise, what I thought it did right and wrong, and assigned it one of four grades (based on the answer to the question, “Would you recommend this?”). [These were often really small, and wouldn’t be useful as a review, so I won’t publish them. Plus, I want to keep a mostly positive vibe here by directing you towards a good piece, as opposed to driving you away from a bad one.]
a. I also took note of the when the story was first published, how long it was, who the main characters were, the genre tag it was given (I deferred to the ones on EQD, and adjusted all others to match it, i.e. romance becomes shipping, humor becomes comedy, etc.), the star rating if it had one, and other things.
i. I also did this part for the incomplete/longer/missing stories as well, for a more complete look over of the time period.
10. I also wrote down my thoughts on the time period as well (it went by month). They might be feelings on things common in the stories I’ve read, on write-offs that occurred, data on which characters and tags were used the most, and which seemed to get the better ratings, amongst other things that popped in my head. These will be published as well.
11. Once I completed the last story, I looked at all those I placed in the two highest tiers, and pored over them again. More notes were written about them, and then they were assigned another grade (two for the second-tier, three for the top tier).
12. Once I had done that, only then did I start ranking them. I started ranking the highest tier, first, and then worked my way down till I got to fifty. These ones got a larger review/commentary piece about them, which will be published here.
13. As a rule (which I made before I started reading), I decided to limit the number of tales per writer to two. That might be unfair to some authors, but part of the purpose of this list is to provide recommendations. And I believe if you enjoy one of their stories, you’d probably enjoy the others. For some entries, I will note that if a story serves as a general purpose stand-in for certain types of fanfics by the authors.
14. In general, the further from the top, the more meaningless the rank is. Rankings can be influenced by my mood, a concern for diversity (don’t want too many stories centered around one character or of a certain genre clustered together), or any host of factors. Ask me to put the list together a month from now, and I’m certain the ordering will change. As such, I don’t believe there will be that much difference in quality between story # 35 and # 36, or even # 48, but there probably is with # 12. So don’t get too upset if I placed a favorite of yours below one you loathe. (Besides, you know I am infallible).
With all that said, here are the first ten entries of the best short stories of season 1 and my notes from the month of January.
EDIT 6/12/17: I've gone back and add a few more details to my story descriptions with regards to characters, date of publication, genre, and length. Also fixed a few errors I noticed while doing so.
50. The Great and Prideful Trixie by AED – The Filly Bureau of Investigation confronts Trixie’s on her claims of Ursa Major vanquishing
Published: May 12th, 2011
Most Recent episode: The Best Night Ever, 26
Length: 300
Characters: Trixie
Genre: Normal
In mid May, Equestria Daily had a 300 word write-off where each person had to write three hundred words using one of the following premises: the story had to either start with the sentence, “Nopony could remember a time it rained so hard” or it had to star Trixie (this by the way was chosen by voting, and Seth was, let’s say, unsubtle about which one of five choices he wanted to win, hence why there were two premises as a compromise). Most of these stories were not good (there were around 101 of them and I’d say less than sixteen percent are possibly worth your time), but there were some enjoyable ones, and AED’s story is one of them. There two reasons for this: one is that Trixie remains in character throughout the few hundred words. That’s important because there’s a lot of sad Trixie stories around here that basically abandon her personality for some cheap tears. Two, there’s quite a bit of great humor, including an ending that made me snort really hard. Some jokes are easy to see the punchline for (you’ll probably guess one of them after reading the plot summary), and while not a major problem, you will need a Google account to read this story. But in the end is a good little piece of a fun and a great choice to start off this top fifty list.
49. Space Oddpony by Phoe – Rainbow Dash is launched into space as the first pony, but an error occurs and Twilight at Mission Control must find a way to make sure her friend returns safely.
Published: March 25th, 2011
Most Recent Episode: Over a Barrel, 21
Length: 3165
Characters: Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash
Genre: Crossover, Normal
The story is supposed to be a crossover with David Bowie’s Space Oddity, but not being familiar with the source, I have no clue if knowing about Major Tom and his adventures improves enjoyment of this story, but either way, I don't think it really matter.
First, let’s start with the things I didn’t like. The solution to Dash getting back to Equestria comes really fast and seems too easy for it to serve as the main conflict for the story (consequently, it also means Twilight doesn’t really do anything of import during that part). Not helping was some jokes that feel out of place, but I also found a few to be really funny (She could imagine the headline: “30 million bits spent to learn: Sun is ‘Stupid huge’”. She leaned back, crossing her forelegs behind her head. In another... hour and 28 minutes, none of that would matter.).
On the plus side, everypony feels in character despite dealing with a situation their end (such as Dash being an astronaut, Pinkie being the wife, and Twilight being mission control), and Phoe’s prose is not only mostly error free, it’s engaging and has great word choice that it keeps it from being boring for the most part. And I feel if nothing else, that might be something you find worth reading.
48. Yes, I’m Only Doing this for the Ticket by I0X0R – It’s April Fool’s Day, and to Rainbow Dash that means one thing: pranks. However, could things go too far when she decides to play a practical joke on Fluttershy?
Published: March 31st, 2011
Most Recent Episode: Over a Barrel, 21
Length: 7972
Characters: Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Main Cast
Genre: Normal
Released as part of the April Foals competition, YIODTFTT wasn’t the funniest entry by a long shot (although I personally liked it better than the story that won it’s round). In fact most of its jokes are more cute and chuckle worthy than gut busting. To put it in cartoon terms, it’s more Disney than Warner Brothers, especially when you how Dash’s friends react to the pranks. Doesn’t make YIODTFTT bad or anything, just more slice of life. What is a problem is that the writing can be slow going at times, especially in the early parts where I0X0R is both setting up the character and their current situation before they experience the results of Dash’s impish personality. Plus, there are a few grammar problems in the form of a few cap errors and I’m sure the ending will a little too cute for some people. But I’d like YIODTFTT overall, and hey like me, you can get past it’s weaker aspects.
47. The Roar of the Crowd by Yappy – The Great and Powerful Trixie lives for the roar of the crowd
Published: May 12th, 2011
Most Recent episode: The Best Night Ever, 26
Length: 279
Characters: Trixie
Genre: Normal
This is another entry from the 300 word mid-May write-off, The Roar of the Crowd isn’t a as funny as The Great and Prideful Trixie, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have things that make it worth reading. For one, this remains a decent character piece on Trixie and her need for praise. And as with above, Trixie remains in-character throughout. Going into more detail would give too much away, but for a flash fic, I think The Roar of the Crowd does a pretty decent job.
46. Correspondence by Friendly Uncle – Spike accidentally sends to Celestia Twilight’s personal diary (full of some very steamy descriptions of the unicorn’s feelings to her teacher), and Twilight’s panic only worsens when a note arrives from Celestia saying she wants to visit Twilight alone.
Published: February 3rd, 2011
Most Recent episode: Fall Weather Friends, 13
Length: 4469
Characters: Twilight, Celestia, Main Cast
Genre: Shipping, Comedy
I’m not going to lie, when I first came to this story, I thought I was going to hate it, or at least be irked. After all, the only description on the Equestria Daily page was that it was a Twilight/Celestia shipping story, and out of the many possible shipping pairings there are, that’s on the high end of couples that make me cringe the most (the only thing worse would be any that containing any amount of incest or children/adult relationships). And yet, Friendly Uncle surprised me with this tale of Twilight’s infatuation with her teacher, I actually enjoyed it.
There are a few reasons for that. One, this isn’t really a shipping story like most (the kind where two characters get and spend most of the time declaring their love for one another and making out without any real conflict), instead much of the time is spent on Twilight’s fear of being rejected by mentor, and her eventually acceptance of the fact that she needs to talk to her about her feelings (though I did feel that the time between the two events was essentially nonexistent, meaning it gives resolved way too fast). Two, there are a lot of good jokes here, though as a warning quite a few of them are crude ("If the princess comes and finds out I broke Twilight she'll give me her 'I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed' look! The last time she gave somepony that look the guards all manured themselves!") or even random for random’s sake (Pinkie shouting things fandom references for one).
For what it’s worth, I’m not a huge fan of some of this story’s quirks. Reading Celestia being referred to as “god empress” (although not going any further than that) made me raise an eyebrow and I would recommend reading the FimFiction version of the story given that the Google Docs version got a little to happy with the return key (this is true in general, but more so here).
But overall, I found Correspondence to be a fine and easy read. Even if I still maintain that Twilight-Celestia is a troubling pairing.
Notes for the month of January (and before)
- The oldest fanfict for Friendship is Magic I can find dates date back to 14th December of 2010 (or to put that in perspective, there were only 9 episodes released, so after Bridle Gossip but before Swarm of the Century). Obviously, there has to be older fanfics than that (after all, one of the oldest FiM AMVs was uploaded to YouTube a day after The Ticket Master was) and it’s plausible that some of the stories originate from other places first (like /co/), but I didn’t find anything indicating such, so it feels like there exists a gap.
- G1 references are somewhat common back. Probably a greater percentage of the earliest fans of FiM were also fans of earlier incarnations of My Little Pony and the small number of episodes meant there wasn’t much to draw on when it came to things like world building (not there was a lot of that back in Jan. 2011), so going back to the old shows actually makes a degree of sense. Such shoutouts have become far less prevalent (not including those like Tirek, which have since been incorporated into the show proper), although a few still do hang around (Firefly will still make appearances, although the fanon idea that she’s Rainbow Dash’s mom is a more recent thing).
- One thing that does plague a quite few stories is bad presentation. These include not indicating new paragraphs with tabs or, preferably, empty lines, or failure to even properly separate paragraphs, like when two different characters talk, or in the case of presenting your story in the form of screenshots but forgetting to remove the underlines that indicate spelling errors. (While I haven’t seen them yet, bad font choice and excessive use of horizontal lines also belong on the list). More than anything else, they convince you the author doesn’t care. The reason is simple, people notice these bumps on the road before they start reading (unlike things like typos), and they persist until the story ends. A good work of fiction can handle spelling and grammars errors, thematic missteps, and weak characterization (although, they should be avoided, of course). Not even the best stories can withstand formatting problems.
- If there’s one pony I haven’t gotten used to in their old form, it’s not Luna (who didn’t have any canon personality back then, outside of Nightmare Moon) nor any of the main characters, but instead Big Mac. While he’s still a stoic big brother in most portrayals, he also talks a lot more and his sentences are as long as the other characters. Now in fairness, this was early on and Big McIntosh (apparently this is has been the official spelling since 2012) had two speaking appearances then: Applebuck Season, in which he plays a small but important role and talks much like everyone else does, and Winter Wrap-Up, where he’s more like later on and his few comments are two words at most. So the idea that he was a laconic stallion wasn’t quite established.
-Speaking of which, another attribute that takes to get used to are a lack of things that were established in the latter half of season 1. Things such Sweetie Belle being Rarity’s little sister, Scootaloo being a big Rainbow Dash fan, how the characters got their cutie marks (and their backstories in general), the Wonderbolts not having names (or different ones), and the like.
- Junior Speedsters Forever sticks out like a sore thumb. One thing with a lot of these early fanfics is that they’re not good, but a big reason why that’s so is that they’re not really stories. They’re short scenes or bits (often little more than 2000 words) that are lacking in basics like conflict and theme. Junior Speedsters Forever, by comparison is over ten thousand words long, has plenty of conflict, a theme, good characterization, and a plot. I’m not even saying that Junior Speedsters Forever is the best story I’ve read thus far, but I do understand why it was the oldest six star on Equestria Daily. Having said that, even its status will plummet if presented as it is on Pacce’s fanfiction.net page (as said above, not even the best stories can survive bad formatting).
- This is still a time when pegasus is capitalized (as a result of Microsoft Word and Google being behind the times; yes, pegasus existed originally as a proper name of a certain flying horse, but after decades of fantasy fiction and D&D, not to mention over a millennia since Pliny the Elder wrote about them, the word has been redefined to describe flying horses in general), but what’s really annoying is when people capitalize unicorn, pegasus pony (sometimes just pegasus starts uppercase), earth pony, or even zebra. Come on.
- Derpy was a presence back then as now. Of course, her portrayal varies from her name (Derpy Hooves, Ditzy Doo, and Bright Eyes) to her personality (happy-go-lucky if clumsy to resentful at being laughed at to mentally challenged to a normal pony that just speaks word salad), however, a few of her memes that still remain are present and accounted for here (she’s a mailpony, she loves muffins). She remains the only background character who really gets any use at this point.
-Most commonly used main characters of the main cast are Rainbow Dash and Twilight, followed by Pinkie and Applejack, Fluttershy, and then Rarity (some things never change), and Apple Bloom and Spike are below that (more things that never change). Derpy is a main character for quite a bit (more than Rarity), with Luna and Celestia (who usually appear together), Trixie, and Big Mac having a few big roles. Strangely, I’ve found only four story that starred at OC (and if you’re curious, none on them are on Equestria Daily), one for Gilda, and zero for Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo (who to be fair, had just appeared as actual characters at the start of the month), and Zecora (who to be also fair about, is tricky to write), and one with a human.
- Common Authors: JimDimitri (also known as Jimbo), Bookish Delight (she’s only on fanfiction.net) EDIT: Not true, Pacce, RaginingSemi, A Man Who Shall Keep His Promises, ButterScotchSundae, A.J. IrinxooACj; overall, a mix of familiar names with a mix of some I’ve never heard
-Overall thoughts: Most of the fanfics here are not recommended. There are definitely good ones, but most of them can’t be said to be more than curiosities if one wants to look at tales of old time. They have problems; the biggest being (as stated) few can even be called stories as opposed to scenes.
45. Powerful by Larathin Bradley – Since the Ursa incident, Trixie is forced to take residence in Manehattan and work at a clinic to get herself back on her feet. This is a day in her life there.
Published: May 7th, 2011
Most Recent episode: The Best Night Ever, 26
Length: 3746
Characters: Trixie
Genre: Normal
If you’ve been reading my blog or comments elsewhere, you’ll know I’m not a fan of the Great and Powerful Trixie (and if you’ve read as the same amount of flash fiction I did for the May 300 word write-off, you’d be sick of her as well). What I’m loathe is what might be called “Sad Trixie,” the ones where Trixie is somehow made blameless from the events of Boast Busters (setting aside the question of whether or not Trixie is responsible for bringing the Ursa to Ponyville, her behavior wasn’t that much better than Gilda) and that she’s really just a sad and lonely and overall nice pony inside. While Powerful does share some tropes with Sad Trixie, it would be a mistake to confuse it with one.
Instead, Powerful is about how Trixie has changed, even though she hasn’t quite realized it herself. I will admit that not everyone will agree that Trixie’s dialogue and actions are reminiscent of The Great and Powerful Trixie of the show, given that she’s too self-aware of her egotism and nice, and it’s thanks to the ending and her internal thoughts that make this less of a problem than it would be otherwise. But this is still sweet and cute read.
44. Secret Tub Fun: Fluttershy by LawnPygmy- Fluttershy goes bathing in a small cave pool to deal with her get away from her anxieties. And what horrible thing has followed her?
Published: February 23rd, 2011
Most Recent episode: Sonic Rainboom, 16
Length: 2055
Characters: Fluttershy
Genre: Normal
The Secret Tub Fun series is an anthology where there’s very little connection in matter of tone between the various entries on the list besides the titular tub (tub being in this case being a body of water for bathing like a spa or a pool). So you might yourself going from a rather silly story about Pinkie acting like a monster on a miniature town of Ponyville in a parody of Cupcakes and then next come up to a solemn look at Dash’s past and how she ended up in Ponyville. And Lawpygmy’s take on Fluttershy is the best of the lot by quite a bit.
I attribute that to two main reasons. One, this good introspective take on Fluttershy and how she feels different from pegasi, and consequently, the effects this has on she feels about herself. The second reason I can’t give away without saying more than there’s a nice surprise near the end.
Beyond that though, there’s not much to recommend Secret Tub Fun: Fluttershy (and if I had to point to one hard bit of criticism, I did find it slow in a few parts both times I read it). But if those things interest you, than this is a decent read especially at little more than two thousand words in length.
43. Apple Blossom by Nukeiffium – Pinkie Pie has died, and in order to preserve the innocence of his younger sister, Big Mac lies to Apple Bloom about what has happened by saying that Pinkie has gone on a long vacation. What will happen when she learns the truth?
Published: March 23rd, 2011
Most Recent episode: Green Isn't Your Color, 20
Length: 8052
Characters: Apple Bloom, Big Mac, Cutie Mark Crusaders, Spike
Genre: Sad
In writing, death done properly can be a great tool to dive into characters’ mindsets, push themes and messages, and spark sincere emotions from one's readers. On the other hand, death can also be a crutch meant to do nothing more than make ones audience cry and draw in votes and views. So let me just say that as far as death goes that Apple Blossom doesn’t feel offensive in that regard. Dying is handle as a serious object, but it’s also unrelated not the main point either. What Apple Blossom succeeds in doing is representing how a child deals not so much with death, but the realization that an adult they hold in highest regard in their life told a big whopper. As such, I bought everything that Apple Bloom did, thought, and said following the revelation of Big Mac’s lie. (And if you think that it tends towards melodrama at times, keep in mind what character this is and what show you’ve been watching.) Granted not everyone is going what to spend their time reading about a kid going through the five stages of grief, and the climax of the last chapter feels both blunt and unsatisfying to be honest.
Given that this is a story about the Apple Family, I should mention that Nukeiffum also writes out their accents phonetically that actually feels overdone, as well as the fact he’s one of surprisingly larger than expected number of writers I’ve seen spell Apple Bloom as one word. But otherwise, this was a well-edited and well-written story that maybe worth taking a look into.
By the way, this is a spin-off of Bittersweet, which I haven’t read. But given the focus of Apple Blossom, I feel confident in saying you don’t need to read that other story to enjoy this one.
42. Leaf-ing the Dream by Twinkletail – It’s April Foal, and Dash decides to prank Fluttershy by tricking her into thinking she’ll turn into a tree
Published: March 31st, 2011
Most Recent episode: Over a Barrel, 21
Length: 2020
Characters: Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash
Genre: Comedy
The second place winner of the April Foals Competition (it was a tight race between this and the overall victor), while Leaf-ing the Dream is thoroughly predictable (if you don’t know what’s going to happen after reading my description, then you’re less acute to tropes and clichés than most or I need to do a better job writing story summaries), though it makes no pretenses about the fact. This is all just one setup for one big chuckle worthy joke, where everyone is in character (besides Twilight, who comes across as crankier than seems justified), and the pace is fast and the tone light.
Personally, I don’t think this was necessarily the second best to enter the April Foals contest, even amongst those that made it to the final, but that’s not the same as saying it’s bad. It’s simple, it’s fun, it’s enjoyable. What else could you ask for?
41. The Truth about Pinkie Pie by Batty Gloom – After being confronted by her friends to explain her strange abilities, she decides to come forward about her origins story.
Published: May 1st, 2011
Most Recent episode: Party of One, 25
Length: 5025
Characters: Pinkie, Main Cast
Genre: Random, Crossover
I read this a long while back, and didn’t care much for it then. That was years ago, and since, upon re-read, I’ve developed a much more favorable opinion about. The premise that Pinkie’s origins as an actual cartoon character that somehow ended up in Equestria does make my inner classic cartoon fan raise an eyebrow(mostly because there’s more Disney than Looney Tunes in the show proper, and let’s just say that makes some of Pinkie’s antics seem out of place; there’s a reason why even Donald and Goofy don’t take as much punishment as Daffy and Sylvester do), but it’s done well.
The meta-commentary on Pinkie’s literal cartooniness and how it ties in with both her past and her personality is well done and doesn’t diminish her as a as a character, all while making a few decent jokes at the same time. Granted, that’s all the story really is, but that’s hardly a major complaint. A minor one though is that the lack of anything really happening besides just the characters talking. And some parts of this story are basically nothing more than Batty Gloom, through Pinkie, ranting about the various bad reboots of the Looney Tunes. Then again, Batty Gloom also integrates it such away that the words could plausibly come out of Pinkie’s mouth (of course she would find a world where everyone that you know and love has gone all grim and edgy, like a goth phase, like something out of a bad joke). The only noteworthy flaws are some TV Tropes links and cases where periods appear where commas should with regards to dialogue. But otherwise, The Truth about Pinkie Pie is one of the more interesting backstories I’ve read.
Man, I look at this list and take it as a challenge. <.< This is really, really cool that you're doing this, though!
Excited to see you doing this. I'll look forward to the rest. It's so weird to think back to when you could semi-plausibly imagine reading most of the good+ fanfiction for the show--felt like through around some point in season two or a bit after, when things started moving from entirely EQD-focused to FimFic.
Oh, and I couldn't agree more about capitalizing the pony types, zebra, etc. Seriously, what gives? For me the worst one was "Earth pony," which specifically indicated not thinking things through.
Agreed so much on story presentation. I honestly can’t understand why anyone would think taking a screenshot of text is acceptable.
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I prefer uncapitalized over capitalized tribe names, but I think lack of consistency is the only unforgivable sin. “Earth Pony, Pegasus, and Unicorn,” is a style I happen to dislike, but “earth pony, Pegasus, and unicorn” is just plain wrong.
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Sorry, I meant specifically people who capitalized "Earth" but not "Pegasus" or "Unicorn."