Yes I do know that we already have one promotion thread going on, but the old thread is quite old by now, and sometimes its best to start with a fresh when it comes with story recommendations instead of looking at what there was good in the good old days.

As said are this promotion thread with a twist since it is a new and improved version, and here comes the twist:

• You can't promote your own story.
• You need to give a little explanation to those looking for promotions why you promote the story.
• AND you need to explain at least one element other writers could learn from when reading the story.

While I know that a lot of the big and well known stories will get some of the recommendations do I also hope that people will take time to shine a light on some of the lesser known stories so people get a change to add something new they would never have thought off to their bookshelves, and hopefully their favourites lists.

Alright, I'll do the inevitable MNS promo (then I'll promote a smaller story).

[Adult story embed hidden]

In my opinion, it's the hands down best Fallout Equestria fic.
The main reason it's so damn good is how its characters are written. Each and every one of the main cast has an interesting, faceted personality and, more importantly, an amazing character arc.
The protagonist, Murky, is an especially strong example, and has probably the best character arc in any story I've seen/read.
The fic isn't without its flaws, most notably the slowness of the first arc or two. While the fic uses its word count very well later on, the beginning is slow.
The buildup is worth it, but it could afford to be shorter.
There's also a few chapters near the middle that are basically misery porn.

What you can learn from it:

• How to write extremely compelling characters
• How to set up a plot where pieces fall into place one after the other

Reading it is one of two things that propelled my own writing from pretty damn bad to just about decent.

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Oh good, I get to gush from every pore and other various openings about Nyerguds gift to humanity The Daily Unlife? Cause thats what Im going to do, trumpet about The Daily Unlife. Cause The Daily Unlife, my adorable admin smurf, is the best thing since sliced bread and is what we referred to in the 'hood as the bee's fucking knees. I will literally spend all day reciting my sonata of utter adulatiuon that The Daily Unlife and will further state that its made me the man I am today.

... In short you can thank Nyerguds for my continued existence here.

Whats great about it? Well, if literally everything doesn't cut it, frankly its one of the few stories here that treats its characters like actual people. No one there is absolute hero or villian, even when there acts are vile, and they feel like actual people looking for a solution to their situation then a bunch of twits flicking radioactive beans by the river bed lamenting something that probably never was. In short, if Littlepip popped out into a world run by Lemon Zest, she'd fuck back into a life of mural lamenting and self assuming inadequacy cause shit had actual gotten done and she no longer had the opportunity to spend the next few centuries being aspy horse lesbian Jesus. Don't get me wrong, love Littlepip, but she and the story do grate at times

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Wow, thats a weird way to say Nyegurds The Daily Unlife

But in all seriousness, that one does touch one what I'm talking about before. I think Number Seven does lean a bit to hard on the mope at times, but I liked it overall. Good choice

Oh, this is an easy pick for me.

TFallout: Equestria - The Hooves of Fate

• MLP: FiM
• Dark
• Adventure

A young filly in present day Ponyville is cursed with nightmares of post-apocalyptic Equestria. She finds herself influencing the course of future history in ways that she cannot understand.

• Violence
• Death
• Profanity
• Crossover
• Alt. Universe

Sprocket Doggingsworth · 488k words  ·  540  27 · 9.8k views

If I had to pick one Fallout: Equestria side-story as my favorite, it'd be Hooves of Fate. It's the most wonderfully unique side-story I've read. The main character is a kid, but this story does a better job of portraying a child main-character than any other I've read. The narration is colorful and full of child-like allusions. She creates her own lexicon of terms that come from seemingly random childlike thoughts, with duckies and brain hornets and more, and all of it makes perfect sense and is used consistently in a way that just works. It's exactly the kind of narrative style that fits an imaginative kid, but crafted so perfectly and poetically that it's clear to the reader and immensely entertaining. Just reading her narration and way of thinking is entertaining on its own, even before getting into the events being shown.

And the story itself is unlike any other. The simple summary (that avoids any spoilers beyond what can be learned from the story's own description) is that the main character is a kid in show-period Equestria, who experiences the Wasteland of Fallout: Equestria in her dreams. There's so much more to it than that, and it's all amazingly well-done. And I should emphasize, the events in show-period Equestria are just as important as the Wasteland side, and this story does such a great job of portraying that period. Heck, it's one of the few stories I've seen that even attempts to portray diegetic musical numbers, and it not only does so incredibly well, it makes one a major plot point with some serious impact!

I can't recommend it enough.

As for what writers can learn from it: be unique! There's hundreds of stories of Stable-dwellers stepping out into the Wasteland for the first time. Yeah, you can make a good story out of that, but good luck finding it out of the hundreds of others that look just like it. The great stories, they have something that stands out clearly from the rest. Some rare or wholly unique that can capture people's interests.

Ponies leaving the Stable are a dime a dozen. Give me the lost Steel Ranger scribe trying to get home, or the merchant trying to keep her business going while doing her best to avoid danger. Explore new lands, hunt for treasure, show ponies surviving the immediate aftermath of the megaspells, whatever. Tell us an interesting story. Think of something unique that you want to see in the Wasteland, and you'll have something that other people will probably want to see, too.

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Also want to second The Daily Unlife, because it's another good example of being unique, as surprisingly few stories feature a ghoul as a main character. It's also a more... down to earth story. So many stories have gigantic world-shaking events and apocalyptic stakes. That can be good and all, but it's refreshing to find a story that does smaller stakes well.

I really need to read it again. It's been too long.

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Also Lemon seems to have an actual invested interest in the Wasteland itself and seeing to its longevity and the long term stability of its post collapse society then Pips or Blackjacks tendency of utter destabilization

Okay, as promised, time to promote another story.

TFallout: Equestria - To Bellenast

• MLP: FiM
• Fallout
• Romance
• Adventure
• Drama

Amid the terrors of a world sundered by arcane fire, a young mare tries to find a nice, safe, quiet place to make her living.

• Alt. Universe
• OC

Sir Mediocre · 157k words  ·  39  5 · 1.5k views

Not what I would consider the single best Fo:E fic (that honour belongs to MNS), but it's very much underrated.
Its biggest strength is the world building. While I disagree with some of the decisions made, I find it amazing how much depth and breadth the author's managed to fit into the world.
The characters have cultural differences that aren't obvious at first glance; they'll assume things due to their upbringing, and won't necessarily bring it up, but the detail is there if you pay attention to it.
Similarly, each character has had a lot of thoughts put into them, and they feel like they exist outside of the story, like they weren't created for the story, but existed outside of it and happened to be there when the story happened.
Protagonist is also very believable, all things considered, and the fic tackles some pretty deep and mature topics with the finesse they deserve. Probably what I liked most about it, really.
Finally, the prose is really solid throughout the fic. There is very little of the bullshit you usually see in fanfics. There is some LUS, but it does play a role (i.e., to familiarise the reader with how the characters look, since there are so damn many of them).
Unfortunately, the fic wasn't a page turner for me. I did find it interesting, but never to the point of accidentally reading for 2 hours. Still, after I caught up to the latest chapter, I was sad there wasn't more.

In other words, it's a fic I primarily recommend because you can learn so much from it. Too bad that you cannot learn how to publish regularly from it :P

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I think that next time around that I make a promotion thread will it be 1 promotion per person, and then make a new thread each quater of the year so each recomendation is always fresh.