FaleYur's Monthly Fic-Picks #2: February 15, 2014 (Top five fics updated on my page monthly)

Round two is here! Still no pictures, 'cause my computer's a finicky douchebag that only wants to size them at about 4000x2000, and some of them not sized at all. Eeyup. Also, if you want more review-y goodness and an awesome group of people to yell at, you need to check out the review group I'm part of, The Pleasant Commentator and Review Group.

But, y'know, it's a free country. Do what you want.

5). Shut The Blinds
-Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have your dreams crash down around your ears? To have all your goals and aspirations crushed into dust and thrown back into your face? How about if one of your best friends was the one who caused it? In The Rainbow Blunderbolt's Shut The Blinds, that is exactly what happens. I have nothing but praise for this story, as it makes me want to curl up in a corner and cry for Dash whenever I so much as look at the coverpage. Like any story, it has its flaws, the most noticeable being the terribly infectious 'Lavender Unicorn Syndrome'. If you don't know what that is, consider yourself lucky, but go see a doctor just in case. Horribly depressing and mentally damaging, this fic has forever burned it's way into my mind as one of the most powerful TwiDash stories out there, showcasing how fast, and how far a person (or a pony) can fall.

4). Noir 1: The Apple's Ransom
-I love Noirs. And I mean dark, gritty, smoke-and-gunmetal Noirs, not the cheery "Everything was okay and nopony important died" Noirs, though those are occasionally good too. This fic just screams the aforementioned traits, evident even in the first couple paragraphs. Any fic that can create an oppressive air of dirty corruption, cigar smoking lack of ethics, and innocent naivety in face of death and mutilation is a fic well worth the praise. Although there is only a solitary chapter so far, the reader knows by the end of it that our librarian-turned-detective will be wither deep in corporate swill and corpses by the time the case is closed. Truly a Noir, in every aspect of the word.

3). Inner Demons
-It takes skill to take the ordinary, predictable world of MLP and turn it into a deep, feels-stuffed narrative. It takes REAL skill however to take the flat, two-dimensional characters in this colorful utopia and twist and warp them into actual, deep, meaningful characters that resonate with you long after they take to the sidelines of this story. Every single character that passes across the screen leaves a lasting impression, kept fresh in your mind by the intricate web of events that eventually leads back to all of them. SapphireLibra3 has expanded the universe and characters into such vivid clarity, that you can't help but sympathize with their plights and seemingly insignificant quarrels. Every character has a personality, and every one of those personalities clashes in beautiful, meaningful ways as the events of the story progress, twisting the expected enemies into friends, and allies into antagonists. And behind this quilt of blazing empathy and rage, lies the dark comedic effects and friendship destroying suspicions that are backed by the perfectly scored musical numbers that frequent the fic. All my sadistic yes.

2). Omega
-One thing I love in an author is the ability to commit yourself to a story, to be able to see where you went wrong in that story and go and fix it. Goldenwing42 is a prime example of the steadfast willingness of a writer to strive to make their fic better than it was. Why do I say that? Well, let's just say that it has something to do with the fact that this story has been through three rewrites. Three! That's a huge chunk of free time lost writing a 100K story completely from scratch. That shows incredible willpower, and as you read this review, it is currently going through another! This guy completely deserves any attention at all that you can give him, whether it is an upvote, a favorite, or even a view. Go do it; don't let his efforts be in vain!

1). Diaries of a Madman
-Read this monster. That's all the advice, and all the spoilers I'm gonna give. I've stated previously how I can't write long stories worth garbage, so as soon as I saw this story's word count, my jaw hit the goddamn ground. Even then, I was skeptical of it because I don't usually read HiE's where the human stays human, because humans and ponies are the Francium and Water of my headcanon; they just don't work out very well. But despite this, the story keeps a compelling and wrenching storyline, even when whatmustido reveals the plot twist in the first chapter (a weird way of doing it, but he pulls it off flawlessly). If you have a week of spare time, you absolutely need to give this a read, regardless of your standing on HiE's, clop, swearing or controversial issues. Brutal and indifferent, it is most definitely one of a kind; a work of absolute art.

So yeah, check these out, head on over to the review group mentioned at the top, and if you can spare the time and the generosity, check out my own story, Temporal, which is currently not doing so hot on the views category. If you want me to review a story of yours, submit it to the The Pleasant Commentator and Review Group in the Adventure folder, (only if it's Adventure of course) and send a PM my way, and I'll probably get to it some time in the next forever.

The next round of my Fic-Picks will be up on March 15, 2014. Leave me some feedback, because it's always good to have some people let you know how you're doing, even if they hate on you. So if you have any suggestions, dangerous chemicals, comments, or want to tell me to break my computer and go kill myself, you know where to put it.

Yeah, right there.

Just stick it right in.

There's plenty of space, I'm sure it'll fit.

Yup. Just like that.

#Innuendos

Regards from that obscure nation above America,
~FaleYur