ThatGuyImpious
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

Good, Glitch. Good. You have excellent taste in fiction.
 
But yeah, Splinter’s right. On all counts, unfortunately.
 
Except for the fact that FoE is bad.
Zombie_Trotsky
Fine Arts - Two hundred uploads with a score of over a hundred (Safe/Suggestive)
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

You guys really know your fanfictions…
 
@Glitch  
I think this what I was reading regarding the Cupcakes thing. It really felt like MST3k, I liked it.
Splinter17
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

@NaturalGlitch  
The original Conversion Bureau is a terrible piece of shit, though I can’t deny that it inspired many others. Have you ever read Conversion Bureau: Not Alone? If you hate CB, that’s an excellent deconstruction of the genre, and it will have you loathing the ponies for what they do.
 
@Fenwolf2003  
Dude, right now 50 Shades of Grey is more popular then Jesus, is breaking records set by Harry fucking Potter AND Twilight, and it’s getting a movie that studios are willing to buy the rights to for millions of dollars. People will always be drawn to shit like flies. It’s not much of a stretch for bad fanfiction like Past Sins or FoE to be popular.
 
Anyway, now, if asked me which fanfiction was the most influential? Cupcakes, easily. Pinkamena Diane Pie being interpreted as a psychotic murderer instead of really depressed, delusional idiot like in the show? Cupcakes. Most fanart? Cupcakes. First well-known fanfic? Cupcakes. The first one to get it’s own entry on Know Your Meme? Cupcakes. The first fanfic to inspire spin-offs and alternate endings from other authors? Fallo– haha, no , Cupcakes.
NaturalGlitch
Solar Supporter - Fought against the New Lunar Republic rebellion on the side of the Solar Deity (April Fools 2023).

The Mistake
I did read those other fics, and I completely agree with you there.
 
If you really hate the Conversion Beauvoir, you’ll love this: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/6510/28/Mystery-Pinkie-Pie-Theatre-3000/Guest-Submission%3A-Fan%2Ffic%2F-Theatre-3000-presents%3A-The-Conversion-Bureau
 
It’s people making fun of it. It’s fantastic.
ThatGuyImpious
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

Fallout Equestria deserves to be up there. People only dislike it because they’re a bunch of nacy cunt pussies who wet themselves at the sight of that manly word count.
NaturalGlitch
Solar Supporter - Fought against the New Lunar Republic rebellion on the side of the Solar Deity (April Fools 2023).

The Mistake
ILSS
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

I take it I’m not alone in thinking that all of the fics on this chart are mediocre at best, and terrible at worst.
ThatGuyImpious
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

But srsly Glitch, read the other fics I suggested. Good stuff.
EQUINE_excite
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

Don’t care for any of them. I like silly short stories more.
ThatGuyImpious
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

But we can both agree that The Conversion Bureau is shit.
NaturalGlitch
Solar Supporter - Fought against the New Lunar Republic rebellion on the side of the Solar Deity (April Fools 2023).

The Mistake
Granted it does have some plot but it’s not worth getting excited over. For example, chapter 4. Nine thousand words of pure bullshit. Starts with bullshit conversation about Rarity talking about BOYS and the different types of BOYS and which race of BOYS she prefers while Fluttershy is being all Yellowquiet in her corner and generally acting like she’s deeply uncomfortable with something just like she was in chapter 3 (which was so fucking boring) and Twilight is ogling Rarity which telegraphs exactly where this story is going and the conversation just goes on and on and on and please shut up and talk about something else for fuck’s sake and then there’s a time skip to after the date and bullshit now Rarity is making suggestive moans with the chocolates dammit this isn’t fucking funny and now they’re making out and hello sex.
ThatGuyImpious
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

Sounds like you didn’t read the whole thing.
NaturalGlitch
Solar Supporter - Fought against the New Lunar Republic rebellion on the side of the Solar Deity (April Fools 2023).

The Mistake
The focus for most of that story was Twilight being manipulated and sleeping around in a confused and retarded daze.
 
Y’see, the thing that really bothers me about Romance Reports is the… well, it’s the nothing. The author is able to get out a ton of words in which nothing happens.
 
I’m not seeing much of a story, as it’s just “Twilight is learning about romance so she can impress Princess Luna,” and that seems less like a story than it does a porn premise that’s been put through a rock tumbler.
 
There are just these little things that keep irritating me. The constantly misused parentheses. The times when the humor falls flat. The inconsistent characterizations (and OOC). The boring meandering around, and so on. Not to mention the verbosity. It’s just not well written at all.
 
That guy can’t write Pinkie to save his life – he even admits that.
ThatGuyImpious
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

Glitch, Romance Reports is good because it’s blatant clop, but it keeps everypony basically flawlessly in character. Enough so that it transcends bad porn and becomes a commentary on Twilight’s fledgling love life.
invelios
Heart Gem -
Not a Llama - Happy April Fools Day!
Happy Derpy! -
Silver Supporter -
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

Despite all the fanfics I’ve read, the only one on here I’ve read is Progress, which was pretty funny for a while. None of the others ever caught my interest. It’s a shame that Upheaval : Breaking Point and Upheaval : Reckoning aren’t on here though, that series is my favorite MLP fanfic. I would even put it up there with some of my favorite Published Novels.
Background Pony #DE82
You fool! What have you done!?
 
sees tsunami of bitching on horizon
 
Nooooooo!
sargesprinkles
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

Yay, %5
Feral_Socks
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

I love Allegraza.  
First fic I ever read, actually.
NaturalGlitch
Solar Supporter - Fought against the New Lunar Republic rebellion on the side of the Solar Deity (April Fools 2023).

The Mistake
I’m just glad the Conversion Bureau isn’t on this chart. Holy shit does that fic suck.
NaturalGlitch
Solar Supporter - Fought against the New Lunar Republic rebellion on the side of the Solar Deity (April Fools 2023).

The Mistake
Wait, Impious… you don’t like Past Sins – which I can understand – but you like Romance Reports? Everything you said about the problems with Past Sins is evident through Romance Reports, except even more so. There’s so much nothing in that fic it’s unreliable.
 
I pretty much agree with everything else you said, though.
deactivated5398f3

So many bad fanfics…
 
It does stun me how MLP has so many bad fanfics as the most popular.
 
Also, this graph doesn’t really mean anything. The most popular fanfic is Cupcakes. Simple. Done. Print it.
 
Cupcakes has changes brony fandom. Past Sins was forgotten the day after it was done. Fallout Equestria did nothing.
LordCrackle

I’ve only read Cupcakes on this list. Aside from Fallout:Equestria and My Little Dashie, I’ve never even heard of the rest.
Splinter17
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

I don’t follow >fanfiction very much, and most of the things on that list I either haven’t bothered reading or have read and said “nay, this sucks”, though I do agree that FoE is the most popular by far, though I can’t imagine why(it gets an almost daily thread on /mlp/, the board that hates everything else on this graph.) Present that door-stopping shit to a professional editor and it would be a fraction of its length.
ThatGuyImpious
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

But there are some fics that really should be more popular. The Windigo, Days of Wasp and Spider, Eternal, Background Pony, Romance Reports, Eyes Without a Face, Fallout Equestria: Heroes, etc… All fantastic fiction.
ThatGuyImpious
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

Past Sins is awful. Good enough premise, but it’s filled with plotholes, dangling threads, horribly OoC characters, and one really really bad OC, not to mention a very large period where nothing remotely interesting happens.
 
And the one big crime: Nyx’s existence basically undermines Luna’s importance as a character.