One of the fun things about changelings as a species is that they're pretty far removed from the rest of the world. Ponies? Griffons? Yaks? Hippogriffs? Sure, all operate under roughly the same biological principles and follow similar-ish rules. Changelings and dragons? They break the mold, and changelings far more so. They survive off of feelings; their shapeshifting ignores damn near every rule of physics; being insects alone changes a huge number of biological assumptions. And that angle's

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So the original plan was that next week I was going to do a big push of new writers (for reasons), but something came up just before my vacation that I wanted to get in here ASAP. Fortunately, it just means I'm extending the new writers blogs out a bit further to let me get more of them and that's a great thing!

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One of the groups I'm part of (Time Action Glory Challenge) has a simple enough stated goal: helping all the character tags reach 100 stories. A part of that is tracking just where characters are in their story count - a list that was maintained since late 2016 by Impossible Numbers. In that time, the top tier - 10,000+ stories - has been occupied by

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So tomorrow I'm heading up to spend a few days with my in-laws. Between Covid and my wife's injury last year, this is the first time we've seen any of them in two years and it's been almost five since the whole family was together. And while I don't always get along with them, I know they're an important part of my wife's life and they're good, well-meaning people. Even if they drive me absolutely insane sometimes. 

So let's do a week dedicated to that: in-laws. 

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Usually the connecting themes I pick for this blog are pretty straight forward - both having the same character; both being the same genre; so on. Occasionally a theme's a bit more obscure or unusual though, and this week is one of those: pegasi who have lost the ability to fly.

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Food is a pretty universal thing - obviously - but there's more to it than just what you eat. The experience is important, too.

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Y'know, I had a set on today for my schedule, but I'm not feeling that pair today. Instead, I'm feeling just kind of… weird? Weird, yeah. So let's do something a bit surreal instead. (Expect me to have some trouble summarizing things because hooboy these are a bit odd.)

So first up is Trixe. It's a shortskirtsandexplosions jam, and it really shows.

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Okay, so changing gears again-again. This time mostly because I have no time. This is one of those weeks where everything happens at once, and I've been positively hopping with how little free time I've got. 

But that's no excuse not to talk about how absolutely cool stories are, and honestly I've made it this long without missing an update so I'm hardly going to start now. 

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So way way back at the very beginning of this blog series, I did one about how I'm not a fan of the Human in Equestria subgenre. To re-summarize: they're boring. Half of them are the exact same story, just with the main character's name switched and a rotation of which Main 6 pony they end up dating. The humans involved are usually the thinnest self-inserts or power fantasies and the stories themselves are

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So this is kind of-sort of a new writer blog, though it's kind of on the edge? They're all less 'new' and more authors with low story counts that haven't grabbed a lot of attention. I guess that still counts? Ish? Or something close enough if you squint.

Anyway, here's Wonderwall Flurry Heart.

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So it's been bothering me for months that I have yet again managed to take a blog which does two stories a week and ended up with an odd number of stories on the shelf. Today, I'm gonna finally get around to doing something about it.

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So last year I let myself fall behind on one of this blog's primary goals: helping to shine the spotlight on promising/up-and-coming new authors for the site. I ended up having to do time-and-a-half for the entire five week month of December to cram in all the ones I wanted to feature. This year, I'm going to get ahead of it and not trip all over myself.

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So this week's a little self-indulgent for me in a roundabout way.

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It's been cold as all hell this week. I'm used to a cold winter, but seeing single digits at noon (before wind chill) is enough to make me take shelter in three layers with a protective ward of hot chocolate.

So while it's warming up again, this is a great excuse to focus on some Crystal Empire stories!

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I'm feeling a little meta today - so let's do some meta stories.

The first comes from the frequently-appearing Casketbase77 with Extras.

This one's a two-parter.

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Swords are awesome.

...yeah that's what you're getting this week.

SO!

We'll start with one of my favorite authors, I-A-M and their Why Should I Dance.

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Some weeks, a theme for this blog really jumps out and demands to be written. Other weeks - like this one - lack such a demand. Fortunately there's no shortage of deserving stories still, and the opportunity just means I can pick whatever two I feel like rather than having to sort through for something more specific.

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Y'know, it's only fair. I focused on Celestia last week, so I should focus on Luna this week.

Also, she has a gun.

Speaking of! Let us lead today with Pistols At Dawn by naturalbornderpy.

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Pets are an important part of our lives - as Groucho Marx said, “A book is man’s best friend outside of a dog, and inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.” I'm sure nearly all of us could talk for hours on the habits and stories of our favorite pets. And just as long spent wistfully remembering that they've left our lives.

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So I'm having a deviation from my planned schedule this week to fix a mistake on my part. Last week I did a focus on changeling stories and I skipped over what is probably my favorite one because I thought I'd already featured it.

I hadn't.

So now I'm correcting that oversight by coming back around. (Fortunately I already had one lined up for the future that fit with it, so that worked out!)

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