Welcome to the fic recommendation thread! We’re working for the good of the community, and it’s great to have the community help back. If you know of a gem in the rough that deserves some love, let us know, and we’ll put it into our consideration pool.

Please note that this is the official and only thread for doing so. Making a new thread to promote a fic will result in the deletion of said thread and the ignoring of said recommendation, which would hurt the author more than it hurts you. That wouldn’t be very nice at all. Don’t worry; we wouldn’t ask for your help if we don’t intend to listen!

Guidelines for recommendation:
1) Good grammar is a must.
2) No more than 1000 views; the lower the views, the higher the chance of consideration. Author popularity and age of story also factor into the decision process.
3) No self-promotions, lest we drown under the inevitable flood.
Seattle Note: Anyone self-promoting disqualifies themselves for any future consideration.
4) Nothing that has been in the Featured Box in the past three months. Equestria Daily features are okay, but they must still have a low viewcount, and you bet yo donkey that we'll be strict with those. Know how sometimes we let "better than average" fics make the cut? That doesn't happen with EqD works.
5) Please understand that not every recommendation will pass inspection. The right to accept, reject or ignore recommendations is reserved solely for Seattle’s Angels. Trust us: if the fic really is worth the spotlighting, we won’t leave it to languish for very long.
6) Follow the template. It makes it easier for categorization purposes.

Template:

Title: The Legendary Legend of Masterroxxor
Tags: [Adventure][Dark]
Views: 340*
Pitch**: This story be good because it has robots and aliens and my friend’s OC Masterroxxor. Please feature it kay? Kay?
Link: www.fimfiction.net/story/9001

Anything else you’d like to say goes here***: Please please please kay? Kay? Lurve you bai!

*Views, as in unique views, not total. If you hover your mouse over the number of views, it'll give you "total" views.
**Don’t recommend something that you haven’t read. This is not the author’s given summary; this is, in fact, yours, stating why it deserves to be featured. Basically, a sales pitch. Users with a track record of recommending good fics will be... noted, and that’s all I’m allowed to say, wink wink, nudge nudge.
***Your post is an indicator of what kind of reader you are. Our dear Dummy User, while possessing fairly good grammar, seems to have a mindset of a six-year-old, and we might approach his suggestion with a degree of skepticism. It’s fine to add a little more of what you have to say at the end; just keep this in mind.

Thank you!

If you have any further questions or want clarification, feel free to PM me.

477647
Please read the rules before posting.
3) No self-promotions

477647
>well it looks like I will be shot down for self promotion but if I don't then who will.
The idea is that if it's good enough, someone will be doing the recommending for you.

However, seeing as you're first poster, and I'm currently free, I'll have a look anyways. It won't be what you're expecting, though... not by a long shot.

477647 477684 ToaCoy, show a little self-restraint. I'm sure there are plenty of people who would love to self-promote here. I want to self-promote here; out of four stories, only one of mine is past 200 views.

Though I'm not surprised that the recommendations would come in very slowly on this thread. Each of these underappreciated fics would have found a dozen people at most who would've liked them, and getting a fic recommended here means waiting for one of those people to show up. With only 32 people in this group at the time of this posting, that's not going to start happening for a while.

477710
>Self-promotion is not allowed
>So he recommends "Somepony Else's Story"

I can check it out tonight if nopony beats me to the punch.

Title: A Day In The Life Of Opalescence
Tags: [Comedy] [Slice of Life]
Views: 339
Pitch: A fun little slice of life story from a rarely seen perspective.
Link: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/20336/A-Day-In-The-Life-Of-Opalescence

This is one of the stories that inspired the creation of the group Buried Treasures (Stories that Deserve More Attention) back in June, as it seemed a shame that it was stuck at 60-something views at the time.

Buried Treasures is a group with a similar purpose to Seattle's Angels, but it allows anyone to submit stories, as long as they meet the requirements. We never really managed to gain a large membership, since we couldn't find much way to promote our efforts, but feel free to browse our folders for stories to use in your reviews.

482249
Hmm, an Opal fic, eh? Sounds like it could be quite interesting. I'll give it a looksee sometime soon(ish).

Oh, and I'll check out this Buried Treasures group as well. Sounds like it could be quite the helpful resource. Who knows, if it turns out to have a litany of underrated gems, we may be able to plug the group and help get it some more followers.

Thanks for the recommendations.
~alexmagnet

Title: When
Tags: [Tragedy][Sad]
Views: 657
Pitch: A short and sweet poem, it has certainly touched my heart and brought me to tears at the very end. The message is powerful and really gets one thinking about the days to come, It's not entirely well known, and it was powerful enough to inspire me to write a story of mine, so I would recommend this until the day I myself die.
Link: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/30799/When

Title:A Small Consolation
Tags: [Romance] [Slive of Life]
Views: 501
Pitch: A nice short and sweet story that i've come to adore (being a huge fan of fluttershy *imo best pony* but that's not the point) this story is written in 2nd person and has the ability to capture the reader (such as me) in a way that makes me feel like i'm there with a slight comedic element which i enjoy. It's a good read. (it has some grammatical errors, not many.)
Link:http://www.fimfiction.net/story/52780/1/A-Small-Consolation/

*NOTE* if you need more recommendations you can either ask me to search or check my profile for a few. the one's above are NOT written by me (you'll see) however if ever in need, just check my profile. and PM me so i can be sure to give you the one's that are not grammatically unstable and still need to be re-written (or if you wish to use one of mine). :D

Title: The Trotting Dead
Tags: [Tragedy] [Dark] [Adventure] Alternate Universe]
Views: 522
Pitch: Who doesn't like zombies?
Link: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/11363/The-Trotting-Dead

After digging through this site for the best zombie fiction available, I discovered this little gem of awesome. Written beautifully with a great description of what Equestria would be like after a zombie apocalypse, it is a must for those looking for tasteful horror. It's not just all blood and gore folks! There's also some pretty good narrative with an OC that actually has a meaningful personality. Give it a try and you won't regret it!

482676
You forgot the link. =P

482654
Thanks, noted!

482786
Whoops, sorry about that Fixed it.

Title: Lament of a Muffin
Tags: [Sad][Comedy][Slice of Life]
Views: 454
Pitch: A good story that is well written, and also gives a different perspective on one of our favorite characters. It takes an idea generally accepted in the fandom and twists it around a little.
Link: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/43273/Lament-of-a-Muffin

This was a fic that I read a while back that one of my friends wrote. I like it because it makes you think, not to mention it gives Ditzy/Derpy a little more depth as a character (or at least I think so). I was honestly disappointed when it didn't get much notice, so I figure why not try to get him a few more views here!

Title: 9-4-6-1-2-4-2
Tags:[Dark][Adventure]
Pitch: A dark story with an amazing plot twist as Twilight Sparkle receives a strange string of numbers in her dreams. This is a story marked Complete, but I think the author should continue and further the story.

Link: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/51077/9-4-6-1-2-4-2

This was a story my friend wrote a little while back, and it catches my interest as a mystery lover greatly.

483394
Interestingly enough, this actually has been on my personal "I'll get to that someday" list. Might have to actually, y'know, get to it now.

483352
Derpy, eh? I'll add it to the list.

By the way, I love dark stories, so I want as many of those as I can get my hands on.

483417
I'd recommend getting to it.

483417 I also recommend it.483420 Tell your friend well done. It was a nice fic, one of the best I've read so far. It definitely deserves to be featured, if it hasn't already.

What's this? Recommendations? Under 1000 views? Oh boy!

Have some copy+paste! Link to OP.
(Apologies if the formatting is off slightly. I did this same post somewhere else, so it was much easier to simply copy+paste. So you have extra information too )

Of Journals by RavensDagger
Tags: Tragedy, Sad, Dark
Characters: Applejack, Twist, Mane 6
Views: 535
- So, as far as I can tell, this story centers around the main character wandering a decaying Ponyville, reading journals as he goes. Through these journals, he learns what happened (or, at least, the reader learns; I get the feeling the main character knows most everything) to Ponyville that killed off so many ponies. It's quite the dark tale, so any fans of Dark stories should give it a read.

Eclipse: House of Frostmane's Few by Spectre_Crystaleye
Tags: Dark, Adventure
Characters: Celestia, Luna, OC, Mane 6, CMC
Views: 251
- So this one's already in there, but I figured I should say something about this one too. This is, put simply, black ops ponies done right. All the stuff you would expect in a realistic black ops mission (read: not CoD) is found here, and written in excellent poetic prose. Definitely worth the read.

Mantles by Ponky
Tags: Dark, Adventure
Characters: Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Lyra, OC, Mare Do Well
Views: 434
- Written by someone who may be more fanatical about Skirts than I, this is basically Batman (Nolan-style) with ponies. Specifically, Apple Bloom. And so far, Ponky has done the job quite well. Fans of Batman will like this one quite a bit, methinks.

Crisis of Infinite Pinkies by shortskirtsandexplosions
Tags: Comedy, Random
Characters: Pinkie Pie, OC, Discord, Other
Views: 612
- Yes, Skirts has fics with under 1k views. A couple, actually. Anyhow, this is entirely insane and full of Pinkie time-traveling. So many Pinkies, so much insanity. And Skirts does a fantastic job of writing Pinkie, even though he despises her with every fiber of his being (that may or may not be an exaggeration).

And The Stars Will Set Her Free by RazgrizS57
Tags: Slice of Life, Alternate Universe, Human
Characters: Luna
Views: 544
- This story is supposed to detail what Luna (not Nightmare Moon) does while she's banished for 1000 years. Turns out she was sent to Earth. But right now, all that's there is an excellent prologue detailing how Nightmare Moon came to be. Even without any updates, that backstory is worth reading.

Breeze by spacebrony
Tags: Sad, Adventure, Alternate Universe
Characters: Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, OC, Other
Views: 215
- Not a direct sequel to A Rose is a Rose, but it is set in the same universe (so, basically, a couple references here and there, but nothing major). This one stars AJ and an OC who's looking for his wife. He's determined to find her on his own, but AJ is far too stubborn for him. Anyhow, it's quite the tale, and I strongly recommend it.

Statues by TypewriterError
Tags: Sad, Dark, Slice of Life
Characters: Celestia, OC
Views: 289
- Celestia's garden contains many statues. What are they and where'd they come from? A very well-written tale of sacrifice and finding purpose in life.

To Her Surprise by Askesalsa
Tags: Sad, Random
Characters: Pinkie Pie, Other
Views: 335
- A story about the origins of Pinkie Pie. About how she came to be the character we see on the show. It wasn't just the rainboom. There's more to it than that. Definitely worth the read.

The Last Tears in Tartarus by shortskirtsandexplosions
Tags: Tragedy, Sad, Dark
Characters: OC, Other
Views: 726
- The gates to Tartarus broke open. All the creatures within spilled out. They took over, killing all who resisted, enslaving those who didn't. Fast forward a few years, and the tale begins with Number 83, a pony enslaved by the ruling demonic creatures. So far, it's my favorite Dark fic. Definitely worth the read.

Falling Leaves by Deathscar
Tags: Sad, Slice of Life
Characters: Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy
Views: 320
- "I would like to be a tree," said Fluttershy. Such an odd statement. But to everything, there is a reason. And there is a very interesting reason why Fluttershy wants to be a tree.

A Flier's Inner Fire by Deathscar
Tags: Sad, Slice of Life
Characters: Spitfire, Soarin'
Views: 862
- Similar to Falling Leaves, this focuses on a particular character's backstory and how it shapes her motivations and reason for being. In this case, it's Spitfire. It explains her motivations, her strengths, her weaknesses and how they all came to be.

Professor Layton and the Equestrian Silence by Crystal Blue
Tags: Crossover, Adventure (no Human? Lolwat?)
Characters: Celestia, Luna, OC, Other, Mane 6
Views: 636
- To clarify: Yes, it lacks a Human tag. No, Layton is not ponified. Anyhow, this is an example of how all Crossovers should be. The author successfully combined the environment of Equestria with all the gameplay and story elements you'd expect to find in a Layton game. The story really feels like Layton, and it really feels like Equestria as well. And yes, it does have puzzles. Any Layton fan should give this a read.

Remembrance of a Dear Friend by Deathscar
Tags: Tragedy, Sad, Slice of Life
Characters: Mane 6 (But it's mostly Dash and 'Shy)
Views: 597
- Deathscar does a lot of backstories, and this one's no different. This time around, he deals with the friendship between Fluttershy and Dash and how all that came to be. And no, the title isn't fooling you. It is a "remembrance." Anyhow, it's wonderfully told, I thought. One of the better Sadfics I've read (and I've read a lot of those).

487550

Holy God, CSquared, what a contribution

And we've actually been looking at Mantles today, so it seems we're on the same wavelength

487567
I might have more. I'll take a look in my archive...

Wow, there is some very good stuff in this thread.

Well here's three worthy of more attention, in my opinion at least.

The Sweet Meet and Greet by Mr Numbers. Views: 655
[Comedy] [Slice of Life] Status: Complete.

Pinkie Pie, Ponyville's Party Prodigy.
Before Twilight, Pinkie came to Ponyville and changed the lives of all the residents, hopefully for the better.
What, exactly, did happen during those arduous first days?
Leaving the farm with no plans, no money and, worst of all, no baked goods, how does Pinky 'settle' into her new life of love, laughter and the eternal search for the perfect pastry?

---///---

My Mountain by LunaUsesCaps Views: 418 Status: Complete
[Slice of Life]

With the Ponyville Circuit coming up soon, Rainbow Dash thinks it would be a great idea if Derpy decided to compete in the race. However, something like that poses its own set of problems.

---///---

The Little Pegasus That Could by CosmicAfro Views: 212 Status: Complete
[Cross-Over] [Slice of Life]

Scootaloo’s kite is stuck at the top of a very tall tree! Can she get it?

Based off of the original children’s story, “The Little Engine That Could”. I don’t own My Little pony nor the children’s story, this is a shameless parody.

---///---

I hope you guys enjoy these. I know I did.

476633

*Views, as in unique views, not total. It’s the number that’s not in brackets, next to the eye.

Just thought I'd mention that actually the number not in brackets is the number of views the most-viewed single chapter has received, and the number in brackets is the total across all chapters. Not sure whether either is unique.

488042
That's an eye-opener. Well, all righty, thanks for pointing that out! Although, I'd think the non-bracketed views is still a good gauge of relative exposure, even if that were the case, since most of the views usually fall to the first chapter, don't they?

488283
That's the case at least 90% of the time, but not always. I'd agree with you though in saying that it's a good judge of relative exposure. Generally fics don't have a handful of people reading the same chapter over and over again. So, it may not track unique views, but for our purposes, it might as well.
>inb4 we get a fic that has 500 views by the same guy under 500 alts.

488283>>488305
Yeah, it's not unique views but it's close. Just bein' a pedant.

Well, since I've been here for a while, I guess I could take a stab at this. Let's see... no... no... no... no... no... this could work. Oh wait, this one's author is planning something of an overhaul, and giving it a recommendation now and not later might be an injustice to him/her/it.

Okay then... no... no... n-oh screw it!

Title: Survivor Shy
Tags: [Sad] [Dark] [Adventure]
Views: 622
Pitch: Fluttershy must save a post-apocalyptic Equestria in which she is the only surviving equine. She is so screwed.
Link: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/43363/Survivor-Shy

Huh, I never thought I'd be plugging Dark stuff here, but there you have it. The story, though not complete yet, consists of a series of short, anachronic segments in which Fluttershy tries to survive and undo the apocalypse.

488955
[Dark] you say? Hmm, I'll set this one aside for myself as well as add it to THE LIST.

Title: Archaeology
Tags: [Dark] [Random][Alternate Universe]
Views: 74
Pitch: This is a story about Roseluck, who becomes disenfranchized with the method of societal organization in Equestria. It's one of those fics where Equestria isn't necessarily the greatest thing in the world. It starts with maybe too much telling, perhaps it's needed to set the scene, but the last few chapters have more narrative.
Link: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/29867/Archaeology

490153
More [Dark], eh?

I have two...

a) Title: Chaos Theory
Tags: [Comedy][Slice of Life]
Views: 604
Pitch: A simple, innocent, and story that goes into Discord's point of things as he realizes there is somepony out there who cares for him.
Chaos Theory

It's an adorable fanfiction, to strangely describe it, and decently written, too. Not saying it's the best, but it certainly has potential and should at least be recognized because so. It was out for a while before he took it down to rewrite it, and it's going along much better. The least it deserves is a few fair reviews/critiques aside from mine.

b) Title: Breaking Free
Tags: [Romance][Dark][Sad]
Views: 475
Pitch: A gorgeously written story that blends romance, drama, tension, and even hints of comedy into one of my more favorite fanfictions that challenges the ancient (non-cannon) love of Celestia and Discord, and Discord's eventual descent into evil.
Breaking Free

One of my favorites, honestly; really, it's amazing. People need to realize that good fanfictions like these exist behind others that are more popular, whether or not they are better. Hopefully, I can help them with that.

493041
Thank you kindly! Noted.

Title: Returning Survivor
Tags: [Comedy], [Random], [Adventure].
Views: 395
Pitch: Returning Survivor was actually the fic that brought me into MLP: FiM fanfiction. It's very well-written, with a good balance of humor and action, and I found the character portrayals to be very well-done (and often comical as well). The story also introduced several new species and characters, which I'm a sucker for! Other species take on larger roles (without giving too much away, I'd like to say that goats and organized crime go rather well together). Perhaps the aspect that intrigued me most about this story, however, was the fact that it's really more like a series of episodes paralleling the FiM series in a sort of "alternate universe," if you will. It's definitely worth a read!

494473 Helps if you provide a link. Don't worry, I got it... or at least I think I got it.

494496

That's the one. Sorry about that...

I'd like to nominate :
The One That Wrote
It is tagged [Sad][Adventure], as well it should be, because there's not yet a [really good] tag to sit up there with them.

Views - 17 as of writing this. That's right. Seventeen. I could fit more ponimoticons in here than that.

Pitch! - The last adventure of Daring Do, and the impact it bears upon the writer behind the beloved character.

extraneous words: -right in the feels-

495564
mfw it has 17 views because it was published today...

Regardless, I've been looking for a good Daring Do fic, so I'll give it a read.

495649

Published today? What?? It said October... I am confuse.

Either way, I apologize for the derp. (I derp often)

Should there be a rule that the story needs to have a certain age to be considered? Say at least 3 months since it was published? Is that information even accessible to the general public?

495785
That would be when the chapter was last edited. It didn't go live until today.

495989

Ooooh. That makes a little more sense.

Possibly a case for precendent? That three month rule seems a good place to start.

495989>>495999
Technically there is no set rule for how old a fic needs to be in order to be considered for recommendation, but the general consensus is that older fics are more likely to be featured. That is, after all, our purpose: to dig up the gems hidden amongst the rubble, not just scratch the surface in the hopes of sifting out some gold.

Is that information even accessible to the general public?
Yes it is. If you look to the left of the Title/Cover Art, and below the author's avatar, you'll see the date it was published. Unfortunately it doesn't show the year it was published only the month/day, presumably because FiMfic hasn't really been around long enough to necessitate that.

496238
Yeah, I would expect a focus on older fics. Newer ones are ones more likely to be found by people on their own. Plus the author could be planning to get them EQD'd or something and get exposure that way. And it shows how I often I actually bother to read that thing. I knew that was there, just pretty much ignore, because all the info I'm interested in is to the right of the cover art Hopefully they'll add a year soon.

Anyway, I had a fun little idea today: I've added a "Buried Treasures" favorites box to my profile. Basically where I slap some fics with a low view count but positive ratings, that wouldn't make your typical favorites box, which almost always contain fics with lots of views. Something people might consider doing as well. Maybe It results in those fics getting some views they wouldn't otherwise have, or maybe just give an author some satisfaction of seeing his fic in a favorite box. Certainly doesn't hurt anything and a way anyone can help to promote some undiscovered gems. There's a couple of older fics in that box I haven't gotten around to reading much of yet (too busy writing), but once I do, might have a couple of recommendations for here.

496289 Yeah, you're right, I was going to submit it to EqD. Don't have high hopes though, based on my track-record.

495564 Thanks for the nomination anyway.

Title: What Dreams May Come
Tags: Sad, Human
Views: 415
Pitch: I think that this story is similar to The Strange Case of Lyle Hartman, in that it's a Lyra story and messes with the reader's perception. There are a few cool concepts like explaining why Bon-bon has so many voices as well.
Link: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/22202

This was on the last page of my favorites list, and the only one that qualifies for the review. But I do like it, so please consider.

Hey, quick question to the reviewers. Do you always wait until Tuesday/Wednesday to feature the next batch of under-appreciated fics or do you put up each subsequent round as soon as you find three that deserve to be up here?

503151
We do it weekly. So, yep, the time range is Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday.

Why the arbitrary 1000 number? I can't find any story in my favourites that has less than one thousand views but still are relatively unknown.

Wouldn't it make more sense to increase the view number cap with the age of the story?
For example:

Less than one week = 500 views or less
1 week - 1 month = 1000 views or less
1 month - 2 months = 2500 views or less
2 months - 5 months = 5000 views or less

Something of the sorts. To give older stories more of a chance.

506379 By that logic, you could also scale the number of views to the number of chapters the story has, since that would increase the amount of time it gets on the front page.

Both ideas sound good, but bear in mind that even with the simple 1000-view cap there are more than 20,000 published stories on this site that have less than 1000 views. (Which I found out sorting all of the stories by number of views of the site's search tool and tweaking the web address.) Compare that to the six thousand that do have more than 1000 views. (The search ends after about 27,000 stories, which leads me to believe that more than half of the 60,000+ stories on this site are unpublished.)

While my, um... research... doesn't properly compare the age of the stories to the number of views it has, having about 78% of this site's stories below the 1000-view mark makes it pretty easy to believe that there are plenty of older, underviewed stories.

506441
I suppose. I just feel a bit bummed that I can't recommend any stories from my fav list.