The Royal Canterlot Library is a project to spotlight exemplary My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfiction. We publish one feature per week, taking a look at a what makes the story great and offering an in-depth interview with its author.
Your curators:
Present P. Perfect is an Equestria Daily pre-reader who reads and reviews fic for fun on the side. Stories he’s written include The Elements of Awesomery, Dance ‘Til We’re High and Epic Unicorn History: The Beards of Harmony. He enjoys seeing fanfiction that pushes the boundaries of what’s possible in the show: crossovers, world-building epics, post-apocalyptic dystopian futures and the like. Also shipping. All the shipping. (So much shipping.)
Horizon, who is not a changeling, wandered in off the street one night and started helping us evaluate stories for the Library. Ever since then, he’s been too useful and/or scary to kick out. Hivemates speaking on the condition of anonymity allege that this former newspaper editor has himself written fanfiction (Fugue State, Hard Reset 2: Reset Harder), pony poetry (Melt), and acclaimed fusions of the two (Thou Goddess). He habitually drools over stories (no matter the genre) which offer a self-consistent, thoughtful, and immersive look into a world unlike our own — the more ridiculous the premise a story can successfully sell, the better.
AugieDog is another of those pesky Equestria Daily pre-readers. Among his stories, Half the Day is Night was featured in the Pony Fiction Vault, and In Their Highnesses’ Clandestine Corps was featured right here at the Royal Canterlot Library. He also, for reasons that are unlikely to become clear any time soon, participates in the Writeoff Association‘s monthly contests under the name of Baal Bunny — where his best finishes so far have been a gold medal for Fiddlers Three and a silver medal for Collaborators — and writes his own original science-fiction and fantasy under the name of Michael H. Payne, with stories that have sold to places ranging from Asimov’s SF magazine and the annual Sword & Sorceress anthology to Tor Books and Sofawolf Press. His favorites are light stories that open slowly to reveal their hidden depths, but he isn’t averse to the dark, heavy stuff if it’s done with style.
Soge has been consistently lurking around the fandom since the Season 1 hiatus, and has spent a good chunk of that time reading fanfiction. He isn’t much of a writer, but has done his fair share of reviewing. He loves stories that focus on characterization, synergy between plot and thematic elements, and develop novel and creative ideas. That or anime references and puns — can’t go wrong with those.
FanOfMostEverything isn’t an Equestria Daily pre-reader, but he has literally made more pony-based Magic: the Gathering cards than the rest of the fandom put together. Aside from being the Prince of Card Games — not the king; he doesn’t have the hair for it — he’s also written Oversaturation, Fruit of the Problem, and RCL feature Mandatory Fun, among other stories. He reads a possibly unhealthy amount of horsewords and enjoys most of them, but he gets the biggest kick out of stories that feel like windows into well-constructed worlds, especially if they can throw in some novel twists on the basic Equestrian formula.
RBDash47 used to be relevant: once upon a time, he ran the Pony Fiction Vault and even wrote a few things, including the RCL-featured short story Old Friends. A technical writer, software developer, and occasional book reviewer by trade, he’s a stickler for rules — and loves finding authors who know how and when to break them.
Former Curators
Although these curators have left the project, we owe them a debt of gratitude for all their hard work:
Chris
Bradel Bound
JohnPerry
Pascoite
Vimbert the Unimpressive
Benman
Royal Canterlot Library 
Hacks. All of you. Hacks.
HACKS, I SAY!
HEY, LET GO OF ME, YOU JACK-BOOTED GRAMMARIANS!
POLICE! HELP! HELP!
FREEEEDOO ##NO CARRIER##
BACK TO THE ARCHIVES WITH YOU! *cracks whip* You’ll get featured and you’ll LIKE it!
Can someone contact Knighty@fimfiction? I can’t log on the fimfiction site and the e-mail bounces back undeliverable . . . Such a pickle. thanks in advance
This isn’t really the place to ask about such things. I suggest logging on to the Fimfiction Discord (the login is separate from the site itself) and asking in the site help channel.
“Horizon, who is not a Changeling”
You just ruined my hopes and dreams.
Don’t lose heart! This is an equal opportunity workplace. Non-changelings, actual non-changelings, and fell-beasts-of-the-dreaming-who-definitely-aren’t-changelings are all welcome in our princess-certified, 100%-normal-pony office.
Just so long as they’re princess-certified, 100% normal ponies, anyhow. (If you need princess certification, drop me a line. I might know a dude.)
NO.
Changelings are best.
Everyone else (except for Rainbow Dash, Lightning a Dust, and Vinyl Scratch) can vacate the premises that are my attention.
Who is the librarian of the Canterlot Library please?!
Hi there! If you mean who runs this site and handles the features, it’s the individuals listed on this very page.
If you’re referring to the “Royal Canterlot Library” as seen in the show itself, I’m pretty sure that’s never been established. Twilight went into the restricted archives in S2E20 “It’s About Time,” but the only pony she met was a guard, not a librarian.
If you’re referring to the school library of Canterlot High, as seen in the Equestria Girls movies, then one of the librarians is canonically Cheerilee.
Thank you for replying. I mean in the show. I have been asked by my son as it’s a question in a MLP magazine.
I’m stuck on this question too. The entry needs to be in by tomorrow. Can anyone help please?
I answered above as best I could. To the best of my knowledge, we haven’t seen who the Canterlot Library’s librarian is in the show itself.
I guess I would answer Cheerilee for the magazine’s question, since she’s a librarian in Canterlot High in the Equestria Girls movies, but I can’t promise you that’s correct. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Thank you