4757524
Quantum -fucking- Castaways.

Article 2.

Pillow Case.

RIP In Peace, goodfics.

4757524 I know two I like that will probably never be finished.

Repeat Customers are Everything

Proofreading Clopfics Sucks

4757545 Article 2 just got an update yesterday.

4757524 On The Wings of Angels was my first thought as well. Still a Favourite rather than being kept just on Tracking.

Same for Higher Flier Mach 2, Arrow 18 Mission Logs: Sparkle's Notes, Charlie the Unicorn: Friendship is Insanity, The Doctor of Oz, Six Brides for Two Sisters, and several of the Ponyfall stories.

4757524
dead fics... hm... that I liked... certainly a good number in memory.

Here's a couple from... about 4 years ago. Some ran longer than others, and this is a sample of some from that time.

Just root through my Favorite's shelf, and you'll find a lot from days gone by, when I read a lot.

The first two might be recognized by someone, but I guarantee no one will remember the third (which is positively, clearly marked as dead, btw). Just felt like showing off stuff I somehow can remember.

4757552
At least A18: Lone Ranger intermittently updated. Also I have the first comment on Sparkle's Notes. Lol.

4757524

Celestia in Excelsis.

Like many 'history of Celestia' fics, it got murdered by the canon, but I still really enjoyed it and was sad to see it fall by the wayside. It made Philomena an important character. If that doesn't catch interest, what will?

-Lumino

Hmmm. I guess Blue Angel would be at the top of my list, although I will eternally hold out hope for it's resurrection.

Same goes for Merlosthemad's HiE series. An ambitious undertaking.

Feels weird complaining about fics I wish weren't dead when my most popular story basically is one.

End of Ponies. So freaking long, so freaking nihilistic... So nihilistic I think the author himself couldn't continue it.

4757524
Salvation, by Cold in Gardez.

Best story on the site that's apparently never going to be completed. Wish he'd either finish it or finally just cop to it being dead, because one way or another I want closure on this thing.

4757524
There are a couple of really great stories in the Fallout Equestria setting that sadly ended up dead. My favourites amongst those are "New Beginnings" and "Misfits", but there are quite a bunch more. I'm still holding hope for a couple of them, though it might be in vain

Besides that... Merlos's wonderful universe, including My Little Marriage : Mary is a Mare and A Twilight Landing offers a wonderfully fresh view on the concept of a pony/human crossover, and he hasn't worked on any fics in that universe in over a year. Though he's still around, so maybe... just maybe

Another brilliant but sadly dead gem is The Legend of Star Swirl the Bearded, which is based on the fact that "Star Swirl" is an earth pony mare in the Hasbro toy line, and from that fact spins an excellent story about a con-mare in the pre-Equestrian era of the Three Kingdoms, who pretends to be a powerful unicorn wizard for the purpose of tax evasion and scaring off bandits. This works great until she somehow ends up in the royal court of the unicorns, where keeping up this pretence proves to be quite a challenge.

And I should certainly not forget Luminary's Unbound Skies, a fantastic dystopian steampunk alternate universe, in which a philanthropist/noblemare/spy Rarity tries to get out of Canterlot and to the mysterious and nigh-mythical "Celestia"... if she even exists. Lumi, if you see this... get on with it!

There's a ton more, though. From Canterlot With Love (though the first story was better IMO; FCWL kinda drags on a bit), Greenfire, Ork In Equestria, Twilight Sparkle: History's Greatest Monster... so many great ideas, with great execution too, that never got completed

Foal Necromancer

4757524

Try Not To Die

Moira Brown is uniquely suited to meet with ponies and baffle them.

4757600 It actually updated a couple months ago. I'd like to think Cold will eventually finish it. Could just be wishful thinking, as it's pretty high on the list of my favorite fics.

Equestria's Twilight - A wonderfully engaging story about Twilight struggling to keep Equestria alive after the death of Luna and Celestia. Dead for three years, it came back briefly with a surge of updates, and then vanished again.

Bad Future Crusaders - Probably dead, but the author claims he will get back to it. Based on a set of alternate-Equestria artwork, it tells the story of survival and revenge in a land ruled by an evil Twilight. One of the better stories in this genre.

4757614

And I should certainly not forget Luminary's Unbound Skies, a fantastic dystopian steampunk alternate universe, in which a philanthropist/noblemare/spy Rarity tries to get out of Canterlot and to the mysterious an nigh-mythical "Celestia"... if she even exists. Lumi, if you see this... get on with it!

The scandal of Rarity being a filthy, deviant nudist was too much for me.

4757728

The scandal of Rarity being a filthy, deviant nudist was too much for me.

this is laughable coming from you.

4757729
I don't know what that means.

4757733

The scandal of Rarity being a filthy, deviant nudist was too much for me.

>implying you don't want filthy, deviant, nudist rarity

4757735
I get her almost every week, during the pony airing season.

The Literary Appeal
On a Whisper of Wind
Twifire being a crack ship, yo
Still waiting for Scoots to update :)

I like romance.

4757524 A Stranger Among the Voices
Cultural Artifacts
The Lively Adventures of Anonymous

4757524, I have tons of them sitting in my Favorites folder but these two stand out for their incredible premise, worldbuilding and cyberpunk:

Starworks - a William Gibson-esque cyberpunk reimagining of the pilot episodes. Highlights include Celestia and Luna being an advanced AIs; Nightmare Moon as a computer virus; Dream Valley as a group of Luddite terrorists; Sweet Apple Acres as a hydroponic farm; the Wonderbolts as cybernetic flyers. And so much more!

The New Black Gold - Since only one chapter (the prologue) was written, there is almost no information about it, but what is present shows a dark, gritty, technological corporate police state. The setting is also reminiscent of Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

-------------------

Here some honorable mentions:

Nectar - It's a dystopian science-fiction story set in a futuristic Equestria that tells the tale of a young Pegasus ecologist who stumbles into Canterlot's dark underworld.

Under Construction - a comedic First Contact fic that details the hijinks that a man goes through once he gets three new alien roommates: a Minotaur, an Earth Pony and a Gryphon.

Bad End. Basically a look at what could have happened to Apple Bloom after the bad ending of Story of the Blanks (ie Apple Bloom self-aware zombie).

4757524
It appears a good number of these dead fics are already on my read-later shelf. Let's see…

There's Want Me, Need Me, Love Me, a deliciously dark and well-written Twilight-is-a-Changeling story that came out in a short burst several years ago. The author has been playing hide-and-seek ever since, popping up every year or two, posting a blog that he's finally gotten back to writing… and then disappearing again.

There's the sequel and side story of Smoke and MIrrors, which fell to a two year (and counting) bought of writer's block.

And, though it has already been mentioned, Quantum Castaways. Although the author is still hanging around, saying he'll get back to it when real-life-problems settle down.

Edit:
And then there was this really good Doctor Whooves fic, When the Doctor Came to Equestria. The author has been MIA for nearly three years, now…

I can't believe no one has mentioned "My Twisted Tales Through Time" yet. It's not actually cancelled, but on indefinite hiatus, because the author couldn't handle the pressure some impatient readers put on him, but it is unsure whether it will ever get another update, so it might very well be dead.

4757829
Ugh, don't remind me of Starworks, I talked to the author for a bit and he helped beta one of my stories. Seeing that sit forever unfinished in my favorites is heartbreaking.

Honnenshy, just Honnenshy. A wonderful look into the pokemon world with some excellent characterization

It Must Be Tuesday

4758545 gods above i wish that fic was still alive

4757524
why did you make me remember all the good fics that will never end?!

4757596

Even if it will never update, I wish SS&E would just give a primer on 'How it would have ended' so we could have outline-level closure

4761615 I agree.

But why do I get the feeling it's something that wouldn't be out of place in Butterfly Effect?

4757524
I still miss Rainbow Dash and her Marvelous Mechanical Wings; It was one of the better AU stories I've seen where Celestia went evil instead of Luna. Instead of just being banished, Luna had to use all the magic from the entire pony race to imprison Celestia, and without their magic, all ponies were born as earth ponies, no horns or wings on any of them. Hence the kind of steam punk, technology based world. Rainbow Dash's desire to make mechanical wings comes from knowing that she's descended from pegasi.

Two more I completly forgot to mention.

To make old friends- It may not say it, buts been two years there has been no update to the writer's status

Brotherhood of the moon-I...I remember when this fic was on EQD

4757524 Surprised that no one mentioned this fic, Three Wishes: The Hole In The Sun. No chapters have not been made since its debut but the author is still active so it may or may not be dead. Who knows?

4757594

I guess Blue Angel would be at the top of my list

I've given up.

4763677 NEVER

Ok. Maybe it's time to let go. But I love that story SO MUCH. I'll hold a candle for Volare and PTSD Dash for a while longer.

4764020 I agree that the story was great, but after 1.5 years of not updating, I've stopped waiting. I've already forgotten what the story's about, and I'm not going to reread it all just to get caught up.

4764030 I... Don't forget plot threads. I could probably write a pretty thorough synopsis of 90% of the stories I've read. Since like, I was 8. What a useful trick memory I have.

But aside from that, what if it updated tomorrow? You know you'd jump on that chapter like a tween preppie girl on a 50% off prada sale.

My story satisfies two-thirds of this thread's title.
(It's no one's favorite.)

4764086 Actually, it was in 741 bookshelves, so I don't think that's entirely accurate.

4764093

Lots of people also drink tea and like Call of Duty, so strength in numbers really isn't an indicator of good taste.

4764060 nope

4764101 All you said was that it was nobody's favorite. I've found that trying to argue about your writing being good is pointless, so I'm avoiding that topic from now on.

4764123

Funnily enough, I don't actually recall meeting you.
(Though I do recognize your name. I thought I may have read a story of yours, but I checked, and I haven't.)

4764129 We had that conversation about fics being similar and the Immortal Game. I'm pretty sure your story came up in that conversation as well.

4764132

When The Immortal Game is around, its wanna-be knock-offs inevitably come up, so yes, no surprise there.

4764139 This was exactly how the last conversation went. I remember being staunchly on the other side, not caring if they had similarities. History repeats, eh?

4764141

Oh, it has nothing to do with their similarities. The Immortal Game was my inspiration for doing a fic of that particular... atmosphere, so my story's status as a knock-off is inarguable.

The salient point here is my writing's quality (lack thereof), not its similarity to anything.

And yes, history does repeat.

4757524

This fic was one of my first ones that I read when I just got into the fandom. It helped to draw me into this wonderful world of ponies and people, but it's cancelled. It originated with a unique and amazing premise, with interesting developments continuing all the way to the second or third to last chapter. After a certain point, it seemed that the author just didn't put their original love and care into the fic.

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/151735/secrets-shine-brighter

Composure is a very intriguing Twilestia fic which has been dead for two years now.

The Foal in the Basket is an interesting story about Twilight being given Chrysalis and Shining Armor's foal in a... well, basket, which last updated in December of 2013.

Twice Shy by Professor Piggy.

It only got as far as one chapter, even if that chapter was 9k+. But it had a lot of potential, and I really would have liked to have read more of it. Alas, it was published in 2012...

--arcum42