Quick Fic Recs (Seven-Years-or-Thereabouts Edition) · 5:23am Apr 18th, 2019
It's been a busy season, but I've got some great fic recs in this set. Also I've just reached seven years on Fimfic, so yay I guess. 
Last Light by ScampySuicide/Self Harm, Dark, Sad, Tragedy
15,895 wordsLosing her friends was the start of a self-destructive spiral for Sunset Shimmer. Convinced that she will never escape the echoes of her past, she tries to take her own life.
The attempt leaves her severely injured and she falls unconscious. As days pass, Sunset shows no signs of recovering. In her dreams, she is repeatedly visited by Princess Luna. The two have much to discuss, whether Sunset likes it or not.
(For those of you who aren't following the comics and are also living under a rock, the context for this story is the story of Anon-a-miss from the Equestria Girls Holiday Special way back in 2014.)
Last Light explores the nature of depression in a person who is pushed beyond self-harm to the point of attempting suicide. The story doesn’t pull any punches in doing so; it’s a whirlwind of shame and shock and guilt that upon rereading still gets me months after I’ve originally read the story. I also want to applaud Scampy’s ability to add a high degree of suspense into this story—right until the end of the story it’s unclear what Sunset’s ultimate fate will be—which serves to amplify the many tender, hopeful and heart-wrenching moments she experiences on the way there.
Fly Me To The Moon by GrimmRomance, Slice of Life
9,809 wordsRainbow Dash dreams.
She dreams of stars. And then, when she is visited by the Princess of the Night, she dreams of other things, things that Luna assures her will provide answers and solve her problems. If only they weren't so painful to relive.
If only Dash knew what Luna was trying to help her with in the first place.
When it comes to character studies for Rainbow Dash, one of my absolute favorite things to see is exploring her personality when she's at her most insecure. We see it in the show during episodes like Sonic Rainboom or The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well and probably other episodes that don't pop into my head immediately. In Fly Me to the Moon, Rainbow Dash introspects upon various memories (with some delightful commentary from Luna). Most of the memories are regretful, but all of them involve Fluttershy. As Rainbow reflects upon her doubts, we see that she thinks of Fluttershy most of all because Rainbow looks up to her. This is huge! My main gripe about most FlutterDash stories is that they often take the Hurricane Fluttershy route: Rainbow Dash wanting to make Fluttershy realize how cool she is. But that's very different from Rainbow Dash wanting to be as cool as Fluttershy and I find Grimm's execution of reversal to be very powerful.
Bookplayer once said that the greatest love story on FiMfiction is a FlutterDash story that no one has written yet. I think Fly Me to the Moon is a premium example of how such a story would work from Rainbow's side.
Message in a Bottle by StarscribeDrama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Human
514,321 wordsThere are 100 billion stars in the Milky Way, and humanity is determined to explore every one. We send probes, probes with the blueprints to reproduce human explorers upon arrival. Uninhabited worlds the galaxy over can be colonized and populated, until after many years they too can join the vast throng of interstellar civilization. But if a probe is very, very lucky, it will land on a populated world instead. Equestria is one such world.
Even so, it's far from perfect for colonization, not with an environment lethal to human life. But each probe is resourceful and armed with the greatest machine intelligence mankind has devised. If placing a human mind into a newly manufactured human body won't work, it will just have to get a little more creative.
It's really, really hard to encapsulate a meaningful amount of information for a story as lengthy and far-reaching as Message in a Bottle in a short number of words, and if I couldn't manage it with a 600 word comment, I certainly won't be able to in whatever the heck this blog series is supposed to be. In any case, I guess I want to start by saying I found myself absolutely captivated by Message in a Bottle, to the point where I read the story from start to finish in like four days. This story tackles everything from the classic first contact scenario to ancient Equestrian history to government conspiracy and so, so much more, yet manages to mold them together into a cohesive and thrilling epic. If you're excited by worldbuilding and alien cultural exchanges and discovery in general, I think you'll find Message in a Bottle to be right up your alley.
Love, And Other Felonies by PatchworkPoltergeistRomance, Dark, Alternate Universe
27,165 wordsIt's Equestria's first, foremost, and simplest rule: Nightmare Moon comes first in your heart. Always. To betray one's devotion to Her Majesty with love for another is unthinkable. It is an act of high treason: a Heartcrime.
Night Chamberlain Rarity is not perfect. She's had the occasional liaison with her favorite Night Guard, a couple of incorrect feelings here and there, but she is certainly not a criminal. She is sure of it.
But then, Rarity's been wrong before.
First off, gosh isn't that a wonderful title? Patchwork has a habit of writing similar such beautiful phrases and lines in her stories, but I think Love, And Other Felonies takes it up a notch: you have lines like
Rainbow Dash held the horizon in her eyes and rushed to meet it, teeth clenched in a spitfire grin.
and so many more gorgeous sentences interspersed throughout the story. It's a masterpiece of style that seamlessly and laconically builds this rich, atmospheric rendition of Nightmare Moon's AU from the Season 5 finale. It's Rarity to the nines - full of drama and intrigue and of course some wonderful, wonderful romance. It's really just so thrilling to see Rarity trying so hard to thread the needle between her love for Rainbow and her duty to Nightmare Moon, whom she has convinced herself she loves even as she trembles at her mere presence. I honestly cannot recommend this story highly enough.
I hope you get a chance to check out some of these stories and I'd love to hear any thoughts, positive or negative, on any of them. Thanks for reading!
