It Is Recommendsday, My Dudes #59 · 7:11pm May 4th, 2022
So I'm having a deviation from my planned schedule this week to fix a mistake on my part. Last week I did a focus on changeling stories and I skipped over what is probably my favorite one because I thought I'd already featured it.
I hadn't.
So now I'm correcting that oversight by coming back around. (Fortunately I already had one lined up for the future that fit with it, so that worked out!)
And to get right to the point: the story in question is Unchanging Love by Azure Notion.
I'm not sure I can adequately express how much I love this fic. At core, the story is straight-forward: Sweet Leaf isn't Sweet Leaf, co-owner of the Sweet Roast Cafe and wife to Fine Roast. She's Firefly, undercover changeling collector in the days leading up to the Canterlot Wedding. The story details those chaotic days as Chrysalis' gambit fails and the changeling empire falls into chaos, all from the perspective of a 'ling on the ground.
But damn is it more than just that summary. I absolutely adore the characters throughout this one - Firefly acts as a wonderful protagonist as she tries to balance her duty, her fears, and the fact that she's thoroughly gone native; Fine Roast is a delight, both in playing balance to her and being his own damn sweet self; and the other changelings like Bobby Pin/Spindle add some wonderful flavor and counterpoint to Firefly's own perspective.
The whole thing's a beautiful look inside a fascinating point in the timeline and into the lives of characters/situations the show didn't/couldn't focus on. Azure makes them feel real, and it all comes to a climax in chapter 6 - a scene that still makes me squirm with delight and try in vain to capture the same feel.
This is one of my all-time favorite fics period and I'm embarrassed to have missed recommending it for so long.
To pair with it, I've selected something much lighter: Hugging It Out from _Moonshot.
The Crystal Empire is under attack, but all the named characters are out of town. So without a Princess or a Shining Armor to save them, the residents have a simple plan to get rid of the incoming horrible vine monster: supercharge the Crystal Heart and blast it with love. That works when the main characters do it, right? So the guards give the command: everypony in the Crystal Empire is ordered to love. As hard as possible. NOW. So poor vacationing Redheart scrambles through the city to find someone to express warmth and love to. And she finds poor Kevin. Now she has to hug him as enthusiastically as possible or the city dies.
In this case, the story's what it says on the tin: it's light fluff as two characters must hug for survival. And it becomes hilarious because Redheart has a terminal case of I-wasn't-even-supposed-to-be-here-today and Kevin is an unreformed changeling and thus has Issues with emotions.
But not every story needs to be deep and dramatic. This one's just a delightful bit of fluff with some good laughs and two characters who are quite uncomfortable with the ridiculous situation they've been placed in. And you know what? That's all it needs to be to be fun.
New or catching up? Try Recommendsday: The Index for your story needs!
When I saw the preview of this post in my Feed, I started thinking "His favourite changeling story, huh. Wait. He couldn't mean…" Lo and behold, you could, and did.
I love Love LOVE Unchanging Love so much. Well, actually, I love the in-progress sequel Unending Love even more, and am not blind to the kinks Azure worked out by the time of the second, longer, ambitious work. Truth be told, that story is one of those "three novels as one" sort of stories, with the first act (which is complete) overlapping with this one so much that I consider it to belong to this story more than the sequel proper. If that makes sense. Apart from being far longer and really dwelling on scenes (it clocks almost 98.3K, that first act).
Anyway, yes, the characters here are wonderful and the mood is so immersive, and it just feels so fresh and different than most changeling stories (the lore is something else), and gets so much mileage from its cast of OCs (my other favourite changeling story, Without A Hive, is also a primarily-OC work – sensing a pattern here…!). As you say, some scenes just squirm, and others feel so much in whatever given tone they're trafficking in. Good authors' work practices a kind of telepathy with the reader, compelling them to imagine the details in a scene they're not strictly told, and this does that in spades. Azure actually joined all the way back in July 2011, over eight years before publishing this story, and it shows in how polished both it and its packaging is (though, granted, I've only read the version after EqD featuring, which reportedly was cleaned up quite a lot).
I'll leave it there, before I run the risk of over-gushing, but: if anyone reading this hasn't read Unchanging Love, and is still unsure after TCC56's praise, take it from another Ponyfic reviewer: it really is that great. Read it, you'll be so glad you did. And also the sequel; if you can bear it being in-progress, or are willing to wait the next few years for to to complete, it'll be worth it too.