I'll start us off this month!

For my spotlight this month, I went with:

The author actually made an original character that didn't just smother you with their broodiness, cut you with their edginess, and give you depression from their tragic backstory. While he did have some of those aspects, the author kept it reigned in and made the OC bearable. Something I'd never thought I'd say to the character type.

The character also filled his role as the example of what would happen to Sunset Shimmer if she gave up on friendship as he had at one point. So in a way, he helped developed her character which is what he was meant to do. For once, the brooding OC played their part to where it wasn't a cringe worthy effort to read.

For that, it get's my spotlight.

Cheers!

I don’t think I’ve read another story quite like this one, a story in which the main character absolutely drips from every word (in third person, no less).

The character, Flitter, is mostly a blank slate, and the author draws up an unlikable portrait of her. To be blunt, she’s a bitch. The phrase “Professional Bitch” comes up in the third paragraph, and Flitter dislikes it solely for the fact that somepony else thought of it. But she loves her job, as she sees it, and it sets up this story perfectly.

The Sad tag is here, and it’s pretty easy to see what’s coming by the description and by the one thing Flitter loves: pet death When it comes, the truth is as unkind to Flitter as she has been to others. The story also has a fine depiction of Fluttershy to counter Flitter’s nature, and the two of them really make this a good read.

While the author mentions the story takes place in a continuum of some sorts, I can attest that it can be read without knowing anything else about the surrounding universe. I saw no reason to think of this as an Alternate Universe, nor is there an AU tag.

I hate to rec a story that's already kind of popular, but this one was simply the best of the bunch this month. As I said before, it's a slow descent into madness that you're either gonna love or you won't. If you liked White Box, this one's for you. If you didn't read White Box... well, what are you waiting for?

Memoirs of a Royal Guard by Anzel

So, let's be perfectly honest here, OC centric stories tend to have a bit of a stigma against them. To a point, there is good reason for it. We've seen way too many fics where the OC is a complete Mary Sue/Gary Stu, befriends and then beds the entire Mane Six and/or Princesses, or happens to be the secret seventh Element of Harmony.

In the immortal words of Slappy the Squirrel: Somebody shoot me.

Enter Anzel and his personal universe of OC fics, mostly centered around various royal guards.

I'll admit, for a while, I looked at this thing whenever it popped up in the feature box and passed on it. But, on a whim, I checked it out last Thursday... and couldn't stop clicking the "Next Chapter" button until I ran of out chapters to read.

While no original character is perfect, I'll say that Anzel did his best to make these believable and compelling. The main character, Silent Knight, comes off as socially stunted and a bit dense at first, but he slowly starts to grow out of it and act like a regular pony as his newfound friends pull him out of his shell.

It's incomplete and, admittedly, the length of the fic could scare readers away, but for those interested in a long fic that's well thought out and has an author who clearly loves the universe he's working with, look no further than this one.

As someone who is very happy with superseding actual movement of the plot of a story for character development/exploration or wordldbuilding, I almost could not have asked for a better story. It moves slowly, and at least in so far as I can see, the overarching plot is not as important as the characters or the world are to the author. And they sure are something.

This story probably has the most detailed and intricate characterisation of Luna that I've ever read, and while I can't be so sure about Twilight, she is certainly up there too. Celestia, while she doesn't get as much screen time (page time? Word time?), is also handled extremely well.

The wordldbuilding is also excellent, for the most part keeping it spread apart and just feeding us bits and pieces for us to get a taste of the world, giving us the impression that it is much richer and more detailed than we are shown.

However, the area which I feel I must give most credit to this story is the tone. Throughout, this story deals with a number of rather dark themes and serious discoveries. One would think this would lead to a very heavy read. While that isn't entirely incorrect, I have to say, the use of wit and humour in both narration and dialogue just keep it light. It very rarely feels truly serious, and every time it is is a time when it truly needed it. Aside from that, the tone is kept sharp and clever. Because of this, even with most chapters above 10k, it never seems to drag.

Er, better late than never, right?

Anyway, my lateness aside, I (as always) had a very tough time picking a spotlight this month, and (as always) implore you to check some of the other stories on my rec list that were most certainly just as worthy of spotlighting.

Anyway, I chose this story because I think it's one that has probably been overlooked a lot, and one that I think people would enjoy more than they expect to. Much of the really good fanfiction I read on this site is good because of new and interesting things that it does. This however, reads exactly like an episode of the show. And that is it's strength.

What Trinary has managed to do, is take an episode of the show and make it better, not just once, but twice. So if any of you feel like delving a little back into the magic that drew you into MLP in the first place - well, you could certainly do a lot worse than this.