Hello, everyone! I'm Grand Moff Pony, and I'd like to welcome you to the first edition of GMP's Highlight Reel!

I'm very excited to have an opportunity to contribute to this fine group, and I want to extend a big thank you to Noble Thought for the warm welcome he has extended to me. I'll make a separate thread to more formally introduce myself, as I want these posts to be about the stories, not me.

Speaking of the stories, this first post will cover some of the stories I read during the holiday period, from Thanksgiving through now. Going forward though, I'll aim to post near the end of each month with some of the stories I read in that same period. In addition to the current month's recommendations, I'll also include a "Stuck in the Box" feature, in which I'll highlight one of the hundreds of stories that have piled up in my favorites list in the last two-plus years.

So, without further adieu, here are my recommendations for Nov-Dec 2015:

Marriage is the hardest thing Carrot Cake has ever done, second only to being a father to his two foals.
Woken by a chill and finding himself quite bereft of blankets, he finds himself pondering the canyon that has appeared between he and his wife.

There's Slice of Life, and then there's Slice of Life - and this story serves up a damn thick slice indeed (and dives into a topic the show will likely never explain). My initial read on the story's central idea was upended by a very unexpected twist, but once it sank in, Carrot Cake's inner turmoil cut that much deeper. I've never run into the same circumstances as the Cakes in my 11 years of marriage, but the idea of rough patches - and the work needed to get through them - is as real to me as it is to almost any couple.

Once every month, a mare appears on a remote beach, far from her home. She plays, she reads, she sleeps, and she wastes precious, precious time.

The cover art alone told me there was likely more to this story than might first appear, and that is indeed the case with 'Analemma'. It's tough to do this one justice through a short snippet of commentary, but I can say that the dialogue was wonderfully real, the character's perspective perfectly thoughtful yet sarcastic, and the setting very well defined. My advice: Read this once, then go research the cover art and/or title. Then read it again, and smile all the more.

She saw things differently
*than those around her
**so focused on life
***they did not live
****but she never worried
*****for the universe was
******always singing to her.
This is the story
of Tree Hugger's Cutie Mark,

If not for its recent feature by the Royal Canterlot Library, this fic would have probably passed me by entirely. And you shouldn't let it pass you by either. It's not often I read a story and immediately say "head canon accepted", but I most definitely accept this as Treehugger's origin story. Masterweaver pays his username much respect by combining potential visual impairment, chakras, and other Hindu-related ideas into a very colorful but very evocative story. And if you like, do give a small nod to the next tree you see.

As day ends and night begins, there is a brief window of time in which the two royal sisters meet on equal terms, neither one firmly in complete control.
In these times of quiet reflection with one another, their minds and their hearts can truly meet most closely. This is when they see each other the most clearly, here in the trading and in the game they play.

I have no idea how to play chess. None at all. I've tried to learn, but maybe my brain just isn't nimble enough to grasp the complex strategies and rules involved. BUT, that lack of knowledge didn't hinder my enjoyment of this piece at all. Chess is often used as a metaphor in stories (pony or not), but in this case, Chess is the story. The result was a very refreshing take on chess as a story element, and a unique way to delve into the royal sisters' thought processes.

Finally, let's dig into the favorites list and see just what's Stuck in the Box:

They said mighty Saraneighvo would never fall.
They said proud Saraneighvo would never weep.
They said old Saraneighvo could never die.
In the darkest of days, we find solace in whatever we can.

This beautiful piece was perhaps the first story I read here that focused on Octavia, and it still sets a very high bar for Equestria's favorite cellist. This story has roots in real human events, but even if it didn't, the atmosphere leaps off the page to pull you right in. It is weighty and powerful, vivid and multi-layered... and it does all that while stepping far outside the bounds of our usual definition of a story. Still, Ruirik's look at a lone cellist in a broken world is hauntingly beautiful, and one that will stick with me for a long while yet.

4993051 Thanks for the recommendation, GMP! "Strategic" is one of my shorter, fluffier pieces, but I'm glad you liked it.