'Round and around and around and around we go...

Time for the spotlights! If you want to read any of the stories we've added to the group this month, be sure to check these out. They're the ones that stood out to us the most.

For a story tagged as Comedy/Dark/Tragedy/Random, it somehow manages to hit all those notes.

As seen in Testing Testing 1, 2, 3, Rainbow Dash has an unusual gift, and Twilight is willing to exploit it for everything it's worth. Whether Rainbow wants her too or not.

There is an underlying horror in the details of this story that belies the light-hearted tone of the narrative, but Rainbow Dash staves off her insanity by claiming what small victories she can. Having control of your life stripped away from you is a strange approach to take with comedy, but I found some humor in Rainbow's struggles. Evil as that may sound.

Sunset Shimmer is really a fascinating character. In the Equestria Girls movies we've seen her go from Celestia's prized student to a tyrannical bully to joining the Elements of Harmony in defeating the Sirens and learning the values of friendship. All of this makes Sunset a very versatile character to work with, which is why I've found myself guided to stories that focus on Sunset Shimmer in the last few weeks.

This story in particular stood out from the crowd and is one take on a single question: what if Sunset never went through the mirror? For Magnet, that meant Sunset fleeing to the Everfree Forest where she became known in Ponyville as the witch of the Everfree. What makes this story delightful is how well it works itself into the fabric of canon story and, more importantly, how Sunset finds her own path that leads to understanding friendship and becoming a better perso—err, pony. The story ends where the first two episodes of the series end, and it's a gripping read from start to finish and is one of my favourite takes on Sunset Shimmer that I've found so far.

A Convenient Arrangement by Juntao112

Okay, so, I had an off month guys. If you haven't noticed, I forgot to actually link my stories to my thread page—which is completely my bad. May was a bit of a whirlwind with finals, graduation, and just general shenanigans in real life. However, I did manage to pick a spotlight and do that much correctly!

So, changelings. OC changelings. I love them. Quite a lot, actually.

I kinda stumbled upon this one and gave it a shot. I won't lie, it took a bit for it to jive with me because of the way Juntao wrote the dialogue, but it works surprisingly well. It feels stiff—but that's by design. The characters are both heavy into the military intelligence scene. That said, double-speak and passive insults are their bread and butter.

It's nice and short, so it can be a quick little read for an afternoon. It's also got a sequel out, so if you like the first, there's more!

I didn't read much this month, but I still found some good stories.

A short, simple darkfic. Don't mistake its brevity for having a lack of depth or substance; it shows up, puts exactly as much detail in as it needs, and it ends on the right note. It's hard to find a darkfic this good with this low a wordcount.

Uh, better late than never, right?

Anyway, my spotlight for this month is, as always, an agonising one. There are half a dozen stories that I could have easily spotlighted, but this time around, it's this. Fahrenheit is, for those of you not in the know, easily the best new author on Fimfiction, and her latest effort is nothing short of a comedic masterpiece. The slow descent into chaos is not exactly a new comedic trope, but it's done so perfectly here that it really doesn't matter. You would be doing yourself a disservice if you didn't read this.