As a quick administrative note, I’ve created an “Archives” page listing the Royal Canterlot Library’s features alphabetically by author, and provided a permanent link to it on the top navigation bar.  It’s a great way to see what sort of company spotlighted stories keep!

Another great resource worth pointing out is fanfic review blog City of Doors.  Griffin has undertaken the monumental task of collecting and linking reviews from every ponyfic review blog — including the RCL, and its curators — and compiled them into a huge master spreadsheet.  If you’re wondering if your MLP fanfic has gotten outside attention, that might just be the single most informative page on the Internet.

On to today’s feature!

One of our founding curators, Benman, has chosen to step back from the Library.  While he has expressed interest in continuing to contribute to the RCL, he will no longer be reading or evaluating stories for us.  We’re all grateful to Ben for his leadership in the early days of the project — he was truly the driving force behind the Library, and it speaks very well of him that he had the vision to assemble a team and design a process that has outlasted his direct influence.

We have extended an invitation to JohnPerry to join the team in his place, and we’re all thrilled to welcome John on board.  Over the course of his ponyfiction tenure, John has racked up an impressive bibliography, and has also garnered fame for his “JohnPerry Suffers The Featured Box” story reviews.  His keen eye and wit are already shaping our reading list and our upcoming features.

One of our curators, Vimbert, stepped down recently. Bradel has joined the team in his place.

Vimbert has been moving away from the fandom due to outside events, and we’ll miss him both as a colleague and as a friend. His influence will continue here for a while yet, since he had a hand in selecting many of the stories that are currently in our queue.

At the same time, we’re excited to have Bradel with us. He has the skill and experience to select excellent stories, and is an all-around excellent person. It won’t be long before you see his contributions in the Library.

Our first feature will go live later today, but first we’d like to extend a special word of gratitude to RBDash47, whose archiving of the Pony Fiction Vault was the impetus for this project.

The Vault featured 107 of the fandom’s top stories over its two-year lifetime; offered fascinating looks into the minds of their authors; and gave us all something to aspire to.  We are truly standing on the shoulders of giants in our work to continue that legacy.

Today, an interview with RBDash47 (consisting of both his own standard questions and those collected from readers) is going live as the Vault’s final post.  It’s worthwhile reading, and the Vaulted stories are all great as well (we decided from the beginning we would grandfather them in as honorary Library selections).

— The Curators

Welcome to the Royal Canterlot Library! Every Friday, we’ll post an interview with the author of one of our favorite pony stories. You’ll get to meet the authors and see their analysis of some of the best work this fandom has produced. The schedule so far is as follows:

• Oct 11: Princess Celestia Hates Tea (Skywriter)
• Oct 18: It Is My Fate To Enter Every Door (Cloud Wander)
• Oct 25: An Imaginative Performance (Bob From Bottles)
• Nov 1: Order from Chaos (Twilight Snarkle)
• Nov 8: The Diary of an Evil Pony (TheBrianJ)
• Nov 15: Five Hundred Little Murders (Estee)
• Nov 22: The Colour You Bleed (Kegisak)
• Nov 29: The War And What Came After (NorsePony)
• Dec 6: “The Art of the Dress” or “Expectations” (NTSTS)
• Dec 13: Home Is Where The Harp Is (Blueshift)