I swear, one more mention of the name "Dresden" and I will move to the city of Dresden, Saxony, Germany, live there for a year, and write a novel set there. It will have nothing to do with wizards, detectives, vampires, or Chicago, and I will call it "The True Dresden Files" or something like that.
...Okay, I don't actually swear that. But the idea is tempting, sometimes.
Anyway, having caught up with Subjunctive, I nominate it for the Treasure Chest.
After reading that (which was a tiresome endeavour; beautiful as the story is, the purple prose makes for a slow and easily distracted read) I polished off the newest chapter of Foreigner, a great story which I will definitely nominate if it follows through on its promising start. Then I clicked open How to Remove a Unicorn Tooth... and immediately reconsidered: "No, I've had enough for tonight. I'll close this tab and go to sleep."
Turned out that was easier said than done. What happened next is described here
.
...so yeah, I'm seconding How to Remove a Unicorn Tooth. Hard.
(By the way, that story also uses "dam" and "sire", for Cadance's parents at least. Make of that what you will.)
Mache dich, mein Herze, rein...UL: I've met more than a few who admit they don't find it as good anymore, but still have nostalgic feelings for it, plus it's not uncommon to find threads where people express confusion over why a popular fic was considered good in its day and to have FoE turn up as a top-running answer.
To me, that doesn't really qualify it for the absolute statement of having held up. Maybe it's held out the best despite, but that whole "shininess wearing off" thing is definitely there.
FE: New Mystery Only Feet 7PM PT Sun, Mon, Fri; Umamusume Haru Arima 7PM PT Wed, Thurs: http://www.twitch.tv/kuroitsubasatenshiOooh! Fimfiction should totally implement Last.fm's recommendations algorithm! If you have Story X in your favourites, and a lot of people who faved Story X also faved Story Y, it will recommend Story Y to you!
BRB, messaging knighty.
@Midnight: I can see it now;
@Mon Mothra: Well, I did say "haven't updated in forever"
If it will sate your curiosity about my limited fic repertoire, then I'll also add the following fics to my vote list;
Happily Ever After by Benman
Twilight, Revised by Vimbert the Unimpressive
Shipping Goggles by AbsoluteAnonymous
The Wrong Fork by PoweredByTea
Gateway Drug by bottled_up
and I also will second (3rd?) The Battle of Fort Book
edited 22nd Aug '14 1:39:36 AM by CleverPun
"The only way to truly waste an idea is to shove it where it doesn't belong."So here's a story
. It involves a few premises.
1. Pegasi and Earth Ponies have their own form of magical arts, rather than just innate magic. These arts merely lack for practitioners, as not even most unicorns are dedicated casters, let alone are they Twilight Sparkles. ~ Earth Ponies practice a form of geomancy, basically feng shui on a very large scale. Only an Earth Pony can instinctually feel the flow of things to arrange other things to make yet other things happen in precisely the way they want it. ~ Pegasi have the power to touch the untouchable, see the invisible, hear the inaudible. Most use this power for weather working, but among the gifted few you have druids, shaman, seers and neighcromancers.
2. Celestia didn't just have unicorn apprentices, but an earth pony and pegasi apprentice whom she tutored in their respective tribe's art.
3. Twilight was/is unaware of this arrangement, largely because Celestia expected her to studiously figure it out on her own or because she felt it didn't matter.
4. Her pegasi student was/is Fluttershy. Fluttershy is a gifted druid.
@Seraphem: Well, if they haven't gotten a CM it just means that they wouldn't know what it would feel like anyway. But yeah, I'd still say that there doesn't seem to be any noticeable physical sensation; none of the cast seemed to react physically to the mark until they saw it.
Reaction Image RepositoryAgreed. The first two are fine, the third one is a bit... odd, but could be workable (though I think it would make more sense if Luna and Cadance were the mentors for the other two types), but the fourth thing would be very difficult to explain in a logical manner. It just raises too many questions about how Fluttershy and Twilight managed to stay in such close proximity for so long without catching on. The only explanation is that Celestia and Fluttershy were actively hiding it, which doesn't make much sense.
edited 22nd Aug '14 6:27:23 AM by JapaneseTeeth
Reaction Image RepositoryWell, 1 & 2 are basically my own little fanon. Fluttershy being a druid is still there. Cadance mostly uses an extension of her pegasi magic than unicorn. Apple Acres is arranged based on geomantic principles. Pinkie Pie practices geomancy from a different angle, rather than manipulating the flow she goes along with them.
3 & 4, were spurred more by two musings. A) It'd be cute, not sensical. I just imagined the two sharing notes, overseen by their alicorn matron and thought my mental scene looked adorable. B) It's a constantly asked, and fanfiction answered, question, but what does Fluttershy do for a living? My answer was, 'Be an alicorn's apprentice.' But, as y'all pointed out, that raises more questions than answers them.
My personal headcanon is that Fluttershy receives some sort of compensation from the town for taking care of the local animals. If Weather Control is a valid job, no reason that helping local animal life couldn't also be one.
Reaction Image RepositoryIf you just want a WAFFy excuse for a specific scene, then all that setup seems really excessive. Why not try a more simplistic AU? Maybe a High School AU or one of those "Celestia took different apprentices" ones.
Fluttershy doesn't seem the type to take notes, anyway.
or that
edited 22nd Aug '14 11:13:38 AM by CleverPun
"The only way to truly waste an idea is to shove it where it doesn't belong."Or "Fluttershy starts taking classes for something, goes to Twilight for help". Much simpler setup with a simpler result.
Reaction Image RepositoryThat said, I actually do like the idea of the other tribes being able to practice other 'schools' of magic, though I dunno if I'd go as far as necromancy or druidism though, though I do like the large-scale feng shui.
I may have to interpret that into my own 'verse. I already have a country in the desert that only Earth Ponies can live in because they're the only ones capable of irrigating and charging the land enough for large-scale agriculture, and a lot of their 'magic' involves engineering and fast-growing specific plants, as well as various kinds of alchemy.
Perhaps with their attunement to nature, it's just a matter of finding magical hotspots and leylines and the like, and using those as an energy source that they can't naturally provide. That could explain the Pinkie Sense - she's just extremely sensitive to certain 'f,lows' of energy that usually precede certain actions. Like how dowsers use different materials to find the no-see-um energies from certain materials.
Pegasi Spiritualism is also interesting, especially given how(Ironically) they could easily develop a vaguely Barbarian culture, but it's difficult to imagine any kind of energy that could naturally dick with spirits. Hard to say there's any kind of spirits at all in the setting, really. If anything I'd could see their magic being Hermetic to the unicorns Vancian: Heavily ritualistic, using 'natural' magic triggers to create larger-scale effects.
Birthright: an original web novel about Dragons, the Burdens of Leadership, and Mangoes.

@Pun: I went back a ways, but all I saw was your rec for Spring is Dumb.
~ Sugarfree ~