>>9695 I am going to throw in my two cents as well.
Fear and Trembling:'
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/66330/fear-and-trembling This fic caught me off guard in very good way. I am not sure how much of that requires what my expectations were going in and how personal they were to just me. I will be citing this fic in a later post sometime.
Rainbow Dash: Re-Animator: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/163282/rainbow-dash-re-animator This is one of those stories that I thought wouldn't be my cup of tea, but the slightly comedic and more "cartoony" mad scientist feel of it I liked. I think what I liked about the most was the "comfy" feeling of Rainbow Dash and Sweetie Belle working together and sneaking around. It is still pretty dark and serious Rainbow Dash is trying to undo Twilight Sparkle's untimely death, after all. I will say I haven't read this in years and some stories I have revisited that I misremembered or now dislike them.I still think it fits though with your requirement of something that is good but a bit off radar.
Libera Mé:'
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/96323/libera-m This one... I am the most mixed on. It looked interesting but I got 10 Chapters in and something just didn't click with me. I had planned to revisit it again. They made contact with the mysterious monster pretty early on from what I recall.
