Fic recs, September 18th · 7:15pm Sep 18th, 2014
First, I would just like to say that I am so thoroughly pleased so many people who follow me are interested in talking about shipping. :3 That last journal was wonderful, thank you all.
Second, I wanted to signal boost a fic reading. SilentBelle read his story Shattered, which I reviewed and recommended after meeting him at Bronycon. He’s a little quiet, but I think his delivery is otherwise good. Check it out!
Third, I made the unfortunate discovery that I can listen to audiobooks while playing The Binding of Isaac, which is why today’s rec journal is a tad… bloated. :B Dangerous, dangerous knowledge there.
H: 1 R: 1 C: 4 V: 3 N: 3
A Matter of Pride by Goombasa
Reading by Scribbler, et. al.
Genre: Chrysalis Redemption
Chrysalis marches the remnants of her army toward Ponyville, bent on revenge. Once again, one of the readers moves into the writer slot! This story has a few problems. Characterization felt like a stumbling block, for one. The interaction between Chrysalis and her changeling felt like something I’ve read many times before, and Twilight, Applejack and Rarity come off as shockingly cold-hearted. (Granted, that reaction is understandable if, unlike me, you consider the changeling invasion to have been anything more than a major inconvenience.) The ending also goes on quite a bit and really hammers the story’s point home. However, this really surprised me, between the tragic element and the blending of Chrysalis’s fandom motherly persona with her show tyrant persona into something wholly believable. Her character arc through the entire thing was remarkable, and that cliche interaction with the changeling turned out not to be what I expected it to. Being surprised by a story is something that does not happen often enough, and for that alone, I praise this.
Recommended
Octavia’s Melody by Madame Hellspawn
Reading by TheLostNarrator and Emogak
Genre: Horror
Octavia plays for an empty theater in the hopes that the spirits living there will be appeased. I have to give the author credit for crafting a really creepy atmosphere. This is some good Halloween-time reading, right here. Unfortunately, it’s held back by two things. Word choices could definitely have been stronger, and there was a lot of close repetition that continued to draw me out of that creepy setting. (“Crimson seats that weren't filled on this plane of existence were filled in some other plane.”) Second, this ends unsurprisingly with the reason for Octavia’s playing being Vinyl, and while it’s not the most egregious example of needless ScratchTavia I’ve ever seen, it’s still needless. I’d really have rather there been any other reason for what’s going on. (Heck, if Vinyl had been one of the specters, it might have worked.) If you’re really into creepy shortfics, or you have low standards, this might be worth the read, but otherwise you won’t miss much.
Vaguely Recommended
Sleipniir’s Ugly Face Kills Everyone by NeroBrony
Reading by The Ender Brony
Mature: Sex
Genre: Trollfic
I have read better trollfics. This one is not worth comment.
Not Recommended
An Important Letter by Eakin
Reading by DrWolf001
Reading by Crafty Arts
Genre: Love Letter
Twilight writes a love letter (actually, a proposal) to an unknown paramour. That second fact has me steaming; goshdarnit, I want to know who it is! And not just because I want to know who’s stolen her heart. I think the whole point of this is for it to be anyone, given the non-specific language used to describe all the things she likes about her other half. (Without the salutation and signature, this might actually come off as “Twilight Sparkle is in love with you”.) But a more pressing concern is how she meets this mystery pony: by finding a suicide note in a library book. All I could think was, what would make a pony want to kill themselves? Who would do it? I have no data to go on, and so I can’t evaluate how likely this scenario actually is. In that, I feel this falls down. Eakin is generally a good writer, and this is the first of his stories that’s actually left me feeling cold. It’s a decent nonspecific romance sort of thing, but the whole suicide angle just kills it, no pun intended.
Vaguely Recommended
Flash Sentry: Unlucky Waifu Stealer by RainbowBob
Reading by Akash the Reader
Genre: Flash Sentry Hate
It’s been so long since Flash Sentry was introduced to the world of MLP that it’s hard to believe people were seriously butthurt about Twilight making eyes at him. Well, for the reason that they didn’t want her to be shipped with some stupid human, anyway. This capitalizes on that hatred in vaguely amusing ways, especially via punishing pony Flash for the actions of human Flash. There’s a “the punchline is shipping” joke too that I found funny. That said, the actual punchline is bronies, and the writing is not particularly noteworthy, filled with weak similes and generally flat. This is not one of RainbowBob’s better stories, but if you’re still saddlesore about Flash Sentry stealing your waifu, well, it might be worth a cathartic chuckle.
Not Recommended
Nuzzle Therapy by blue harvest
Reading by Doctor Cobra
Genre: Romance
A peek into Rainbow Dash’s thoughts on her marefriend, Applejack. This story made me glad Rainbow and AJ were dating, and that’s not something I can really say about most AppleDashes. Amorous Rainbow is one thing, but seeing her list off all the reasons why Applejack is amazing, seeing her drop her mask and allow herself to be vulnerable — “soft” as she puts it — around her, that’s just marvelous. She’s just totally in love with this mare, and that’s the best thing in the world. That said, I did find some quibble with the writing, in that it’s a bit too flowery to really sound like Rainbow, but by the end, I was willing to accept that it was her, if only because her actions and emotions seemed genuine. Also, the ending is a little… weird. (And contains a few too many nostrils for my liking.) But, I can safely say that this is one of the best AppleDash pieces I’ve ever read. If you’ve got even a remote interest in shipping, don’t pass it up.
Recommended for Romance Fans
And Then Twilight Exploded by ManlyDerp
Reading by Xycron
This guy, whoa. Deep, steady voice, a little fast on the output but fantastic quality nevertheless. He’s a keeper! There’s a second reading, by a MsShadowPaint, but it sounds like it was recorded from speakers during a Skype chat. She does a good Rainbow Dash, and the pony animation is cute, but she needs a better microphone. :/
Genre: Crackfic
After the Elements of Harmony make Twilight disappear from her home, leaving behind nothing but a cutie mark-shaped burn, her friends overreact a tad. This is the BEST crackfic I have ever read. Everyone is out of character just enough to be funny, the comedic timing is flawless (well, the part about Fluttershy’s drug trade goes on a bit long, but it’s still funny all the way through), it’s the post-MMC lampoon I wish I’d written. If you have yet to accept that OOC ponies are best ponies, go read this and discover the majesty.
Highly Recommended
Forever Dawn by ArgonGlow
Reading by Scribbler and Greg F
Genre: Dark
Death comes for Celestia at long last. This could have been another excellent “death personified” piece like RBDash’s Old Friends, but a few things hold it back. Foremost among these is the backstory getting us to where the story begins. It all comes in a rush of “here’s what happened” and, though they’re never named as such outright, centers around a New Lunar Republic/Solar Empire battle. That trope, needless to say, is garbage, and without any kind of in-world justification, its presence all but ruins the piece. The rest is pretty decent, though, until we get to the ending and the meaning of Celestia’s death. Honestly, Equestria just doesn’t deserve that. I mean, it’s useless to talk show-tone in a story where one of the characters is Death, but come on. I can’t say I enjoyed this, which is a shame, because the writing is pretty good.
Vaguely Recommended
Last Chance by Incredible Blunderbolt
Reading by sharpieboss
Genre: Shipping
Rainbow Dash tries to tell Twilight how she feels about her before Twilight moves away to a prestigious school, and screws it up big time. This story actually made me inflict physical harm upon myself: Near the end, there’s a POV shift to Octavia just so we can squeeze in two lines of ScratchTavia for absolutely no reason, and I literally facepalmed. Except it was more the side of my face, and my eye, and it hurt. :( Anyway, this story has some issues, foremost among them Twilight’s characterization. Back in season one, the mane cast’s friendship seemed a tenuous thing. They got along well enough, mostly with Twilight, but they’d known each other for less than a year. They were all barely more than acquaintances, a few side friendships notwithstanding. It wasn’t hard to believe that that could be shattered relatively easily. Unfortunately, this story makes reference to Hearth’s Warming Eve, so I have to take the author to task for writing Twilight as a huge, petty bitch, not to mention having her throw her position as Celestia’s student around to get things done. The other main issue is the drama. Everything in this story is extremely dramatic, and most of it seems to be a vehicle to have Dash mope around and feel sorry for herself. It’s at least got a good lesson in the importance of clear communication, but getting to the ending is a bit tiresome. Not to mention kissing someone is really not the best way to tell them “I love you”. I was pleased that this didn’t make Twilight reciprocate immediately, but I think an anti-shipping end would have done more for it than the “we’ll wait and see”. Had the writing been better — it’s full of adverbs — I might have enjoyed it more, but as it stands, you’re only going to want to read this if you’re into shipping, and even then, you can do far better.
Not Recommended
Diamond Tiara Gets Filthy by The Elusive Badgerpony
Mature: Sex
Genre: Noir
After seeing so much positive press about this, I couldn’t avoid reading it anymore. Turns out, all that praise is warranted. Goddamn if this isn’t the creepiest thing I have ever read, and quite good at that. A simple incest fic would be a very different monster: someone’s got a hot sister, they’re both horny teens, they fuck while calling each other sibling names, no one gets hurt. But that’s not how it really happens. It happens because one party is a slave to his lust and the other is a demoness bereft of morality who’s all too happy to take advantage of that lack of control. This is the story of a powerless man satiating desires that he is all too aware are taboo. The times he feels in charge of the situation are nothing but a ruse. The writing isn’t flawless, but in any old incest fic, it would be nothing but flaws, and you could discount the whole thing as the foibles of an amateur. This, this is effective. It's pornographic, but not meant to tantalize, only ensnare. (Granted, if you’re a leg man, which I am not, this may be inherently hotter. Hell, let's be fair: if either participant was different, it would still be hot.) This is fucking brilliant and it pushes all of my buttons and I hate it. You should definitely read this if you can.
Recommended If You Can Handle the Subject Matter
Hush, Little Children by RainbowBob
Reading by Akash The Reader
Genre: Parody
I went into this expecting some gross novelization of the Children of the Night fan animation. What I got instead was a hilarious sendup of it, based around the reality of stealing children during the night. The writing has a couple bobbles, but all in all, this is a really great comedy, and if you’ve seen the animation (and why haven’t you, it’s one of the few good ones) it makes for a fun, quick read.
Recommended If You’ve Seen Children of the Night
We Regret to Inform You by Waldo the Digital_Hex
Reading by DRWolf001
Genre: Family
After Mr. and Mrs. Cake pass away, Pinkie is appointed the twins’ legal guardian. Together, they work through the loss. This is based off the cover image’s text, and thankfully expands upon it. Granted, you could go on and on about children trying to cope with their parents’ deaths; there are all kinds of story ideas that could be explored, I’m just glad the author didn’t leave it at “explain the image and stop”, as so many stories tend to. That said, the second chapter, added in later (it's not part of the reading), is pretty poor, all things considered. The tone is off from the rest of the piece, and the writing is considerably worse. Granted, the writing isn’t entirely top-notch, mostly thanks to continually shifting POV, but I enjoyed what I heard of the other two. You could definitely skip the middle chapter and miss nothing, should you wish to read this.
Recommended If You Skip Chapter 2
Yay, two reviews for Bobby! And two days before my birthday too. Present made me a present! <3
I knew I should've bought you a beer at Bronycon so I could get a story of mine in fic recs (or, after you've reviewed it, in my case, fic wrecks).
Seriously, everbody's loving that incest fic. I would read it (I like dark character studies) if it wasn't by the fact that LITERALLY EVERYTHING IN IT MAKES ME INCREDIBLY UNCOMFORTABLE.
(Also I don't read clop. Hell, I barely read the clop story I coauthored, so a Filcest... yeah, no. Sorry, I'm missing that one).
So yeah. Also, two RBob stories! That's new. Nuzzle Therapy is amazing (SS&E can write an amazing AppleDash), and We Regret to Inform You left me thinking something along the lines of "eh". I like it when a story makes you sad and feels like it's not really trying, but stories like We Regret to... make me feel like the author is screaming "BE SAD NOW! THE STORY COMMANDS YOU TO BE SAD!" into my ear.
True, it's not like you can be subtle when the entire plot of the story is literally "the cakes are dead", but then again, that's exactly why I think a story with a plot consisting on the words "the cakes are death" can never work. Drama needs either subtlety or something more than just "sad thing happens" to work, at least for me.
And yet you still endorse Reach even though it has this as part of its reveal. Sure, it doesn't use the NLR name, but it's still the same idea for no good reason.
Honestly, I think maybe my hatred of that ending has gotten a bit out of control. I might need to reread most of the story to remember the good parts that the ending made me forget.
As 2464979 mentioned, you do realize Blue Harvest is shortskirtsandexplosions is Imploding Colon is Just Essay, riiiight?
I really don't see why people praised Diamond Tiara gets Filthy so much; it was pretty much pure clop with the titillation of incest to add to it. It was fairly well-written but... I didn't really see the darkness in it as being anything other than titillation.
Also, uh, that story is mature rated; we're not supposed to do direct links to mature-rated stories from blog posts.
Where do you find so many readings of pony fic? :-\
Of all the endless fanimations asking us to weep for Luna, or weep for Chrysalis, or weep for Celestia weeping for Luna, Children of the Night is the creepiest. Beautiful singing while Luna steals all the foals in Canterlot from their parents, because, um, Celestia will eat them?
I still haven't touched DTGF and have no intention of doing so. I don't doubt it could be a legitimately good, dark character study, fully intending to unsettle the audience with its incestual themes, so nothing against the author or anyone promoting it. However, this would not be the first time that I've had this exact same type of incest fic recommendation made to me. The previous encounter left me physically nauseated, shaking, and unable to sleep that night. Fool me once...
"Were"? Let me tell you, there is still plenty of butthurt about him if you look in the
rightwrong places.2465013
I thought PP was simply rebelling, reshaping the conformist mold and breaking obsolete rules.
I imagined PP attempting to run over the chain link fence of some government institution with a Rascal that goes five seconds per minute, while throwing pony minifigures to all the good little nonconformist boys and girls :D
(Spoiler: it didn't work and he bounced off the fence repeatedly while the guards just watched with their gleefully perverse eyes. "Look at the nonconformist making a nonconforming. We will make a point and laugh!")
As for Diamond Tiara gets Filthy... think Sin City coming out in theatres recently might have something to do with the popularity? Or just coincidence? Actually, yeah, it's prolly coincidence.
2465065
Watch the animatic they released a year before the final product; it looks like Luna is dropping the foals in midair because they sometimes disappear.
Obviously, Luna is running a stork service. All the cabbage patches died, so she's been forced to reuse abandoned product off the street.
Well, I'm sold that she's throwing them into the infinite maw of Celestia :3
2465169
I have learned that calling him "Ass Entry" gets you a bajillion red thumbs. However, it seems the name is welcome in smutfic comments to some degree.
I wonder what will happen if I tell D G D Davidson about Flash's nickname... hmm...
I bet he'll get super excited and write some smut about it :D
2464978
Doo eet. Get him to review some Dr. Panacea. You can still send him beer via mail. I wouldn't expect it to make it there in one piece. It's the thought that counts, eh? But to be on the safe side, throw in a pony minifigure, an Oreo, and a small juice box.
What? Minifigures have feelings, too. It'll get hungry and thirsty and it might get intoxicated with all the beer sloshing around.
2465011
How many alts does SS&E have?
2465065
Well, given that the original song that they used is from a witch stealing away all the children of Salem so she can devour their souls...
2465250
It isn't a bad clopfic, don't get me wrong, and it is reminiscent of that style of storytelling, but I don't really see it as anything deep or meaningful. It was a clopfic that used incest to titillate people's ocelots.
2465273 at least those 4. It would be interesting to do an analysis of word choice for each account to see if they are similar in writing style.
2464959
I realized I've been posting a lot about my "one story per author per journal" rule and here you go and break it. :V Enjoy, Bobbola!
2464978
I'm kind of surprised that I haven't reviewed any of your stories. o.O Because I haven't. I know I've read some...
Or maybe I haven't. Well, I'll just have to change that, won't I?
2464979
See, I'm horribly uncomfortable about incest, but I've also got nothing against reading clop. So if it was just the one, I'd say go4it, but if it's both, then don't push yourself.
2464995
Yeah, I don't remember that at all. >.>
2465011
Yeah, I mentioned that the last time I reviewed a blue harvest fic. :B
2465013
No, you're not supposed to link to off-site NSFW in journals. The rule was put into place and then changed almost immediately. Like, you missed where I consistently link to NSFW stories in my journals. :B
2465014
YouTube! I just started out by looking for "my little pony fanfiction", found a few readers, and kept going with YouTube recommendations. Now I've got plenty that I'm following, plenty more still to follow, and every once in a while, something like those We Regret to Inform You readings will come across my dash.
2465140
Sounds like a reason to avoid it then! :V I skipped over the actual sex, of course, but then I always do.
2465169
Fans are stupid and will always hold onto stupid grudges. :V I do too.
2465278
Considering that I couldn't get more than five paragraphs into the last incest fic I tried to read (it had something to do with the description of Pinkie's breasts), this one definitely has something going for it.
2465418
Tch. What kind of sicko writes anthro porn?
And uh... from my understanding, you aren't supposed to link to NSFW stuff of any sort from blogs which aren't for NSFW stories. Look at Obs's post for The Last Roundup for this story; it isn't a direct link to the story.
2465418
You know, the part where Celestia and Luna were waging war on each other and trying to use the Elements of Harmony in that war, and the author forgot to explain why they were acting so out of character? Or do you find New Lunar Republic stupid for a different reason?
2465454
A lot of people still operate under the rule because they don't know it was changed. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
2465744
I literally have no memory of what the explanation for the conflict in that story was.
2465797
And that's the only thing I can really remember. I should fix that.
2465266
Oh dear. You like Panacea, eh?
2465418
This could go very well or very poorly, depending on which story you pick .
Oh. Well this certainly explains all the sudden faves I've been getting lately. Thank you once again for your words...
... even if you still can't see just how obviously serious my fic is supposed to be taken. I mean, Twilight exploded you guys! Serious business. Feel, darn you. FEEL
2466800
Glad to be of service. :3
2465014
Sometimes they pop up in EQD round-ups too.
2466855
2465418
Thanks, dudes! You boulder! :-)
...no, wait, that doesn't sound right...
2466874
Oh yes, Scribbler's right. Though those tend to be the readers I'm already following, but that's a good place for you to start! :D