Welcome to the herd!
Quote: "and checking out the fanfics...Crazy stuff..."
Oooh, here are my recommendations and my opinions for the good one's I've read:
The ones you read just for expirience
Cupcakes - The most horrible gore story. Everything about this story is atrocious, and it's not a good story at all. You just read it to know about it.
Rainbow Factory - A Grim Dark story about how rainbows are made. The writing was good, and the story was fantastic idea. Beware though, this is nothing for the weak. You've been warned.
The really good ones
My Little Dashie - The saddest story I've ever read in my life. Absolutely worth reading this.
Allegrezza - Written by a fellow forum member here, he has hilarious humor and excellent writing skills. Vinyl Scratch and Octavia, two ponies with opposite personalites and behaviours, are lead together in a romantic story.
Anthropology - In my opinion a very unique concept for a story. Lyra is obsessed with humans and tries to prove they exist, however nopony listens to her. This makes her even more determined to find proof that humans once existed, and even goes as far as to make herself a set of human hands.
Antipodes - Luna and Celestia vanished a long time ago, leaving the sun and moon frozen.
Romance Reports - This story contains CLOP. If you don't know what that is, google it. Why is this on my list? Because it relates to real life in so many ways, and was one of the most gripping stories I've read. The scenes are very "saucy", but the writing is brilliant. It's a must-read.
Fallout Equestria - One of the longest fan fictions ever written. If you can buy the unrealism of an untrained young pony killing heavily armed raiders, the rest of the story is brilliant. I haven't read it all to be honest, but being 200 pages in I can safely say it's a good read.
Happy reading! And don't be afraid to cry when you read My Little Dashie. We all did.
TheComet