Fic recs, June 29th: Gay Day edition! · 11:20pm Jun 29th, 2015
I’m a couple days late, but I wanted to do something to celebrate the Supreme Court’s decision to allow marriage equality in all 50 states. Well, actually, what I really want to do is write a Rarijack story in honor of a couple friends of mine who got married yesterday, but that’s gonna take a lot more time than reading a few shipfics. :B I went into my RIL (for once!), put on the Romance tag, took off the Sad and Dark tags, and tried to find as many wedding fics as I could! (With an upper limit of 20k words and Mature off, that got me 432 stories, fyi!)
Usual romance caveats apply. If you’re not into shipping, I dunno what to tell ya. :B Well, I do, actually, you'll want to check out Twilight Sparkle vs. Bridle-zilla by Tumbleweed, at the very least. To the reviews!
H: 0 R: 5 C: 1 V: 0 N: 2
The Nightmare’s Night by soundslikeponies
Genre: Shipping
Princess Luna comes to Ponyville to partake in Nightmare Night festivities, as well as make a special request of Twilight Sparkle.
So this is basically Luna Eclipsed, redux, plus shipping. It’s actually pretty low on stakes: Twilight just has to decide whether to let Luna court her, while taking her around to various Halloweeny attractions. It’s cute, though it does fail the Luna Test and suffers from some roughness in the writing. At least it showed me that season 2 TwiLuna can actually be done.
Recommended for TwiLuna Fans
Silverware by Butterscotch Cream
Reading by Scribbler, Illya Leonov and Goombasa
Genre: Romance/Comedy
Ironclad recounts how he lost his coltfriend.
Because I knew M/M stuff would be few and far between, and I wanted to get at least one in. So, for starters, this isn’t terribly pony, being about OCs and all, but it acquits itself by using MLP:FiM's structure of social stratification, which is what this piece is all about. It’s kind of The Wrong Fork writ large, with an earth pony guard doing his level best to work around upper-class social norms, arbitrary as they are. Thus, it presents a very realistic setup, especially since Ironclad is such a solid character. What it’s really missing is backstory; I really wanted to know how these two got together. Still, it’s pretty amusing, if you’re into schadenfreude, and overall a decent piece.
Recommended
No Foals by Flashgen
Genre: Drama
Rainbow Dash doesn’t need to talk to anyone about her marriage, because there’s nothing wrong with it.
This is from an age-old writeoff, and apparently I never took it off my RIL when compiling my “list of writeoff stories I haven’t reviewed” list, so here we are! I’m pleased to see it's still as good now as it was back then (I remember it being a favorite of mine), despite oddities like being set in a future Equestria where basically nothing has ever changed. We’ve got a very powerful look through Rainbow Dash’s eyes at what goes into a failing relationship. This takes a real sharp look at just how much work a good relationship needs to be. I do have to look askance at the ending, however: It seems like nothing has really changed from the outset. I suppose it’s setting up for a tragic vicious cycle, but I’ll admit, the particular way it goes about this is surprising, and not in a good way. Still, a great look at relationships from a good writer, and definitely worth the read.
Recommended
Pictures of Lily by cleverpun
Reading by Scribbler
Genre: Comedy
Fluttershy gets set up on a date with Lily Valley. What could go wrong?
Sadly, Slice of Life has kind of spoiled the joke in this, but given the precise way that cleverpun characterizes Lily, it’s still funny. It’s maybe a little heavy-handed on the message, but it’s a decent message to have. In the end, I find I want more stories about Twilight being Fluttershy’s wingmare.
Recommended
One Day by KitsuneRisu
Genre: Mystery
Rainbow Dash and Applejack are finally marefriends. So why is Applejack acting standoffish all of a sudden?
This has a lot of comedy, especially in the scene with Pinkie, and Rainbow’s imaginary antics in the one that follows. The mystery is pretty compelling, and thankfully I wasn’t able to figure it out before Rainbow could. That said, this mostly just ends up being about coping with… well, whatever it is Applejack’s up to. And I kinda felt like it was maybe much ado about nothing, given how commonplace that is. Still, the writing is solid (minus one or two POV shifts to AJ), and the emotions were powerful, so even if it wasn’t a big deal to me, it was to the characters, and that came across well. Good AppleDash.
Recommended
A Very Long Day by bookplayer
Review #2200!
Genre: AppleDash
I kind of feel like I shouldn't actually review this (go figure), for two reasons: first, it’s bookplayer’s first fic, and doesn’t really hold up to her stuff today; second, it was rewritten to be the final chapter of The AppleDash Project, ending up considerably better for it. I guess I’m just mentioning it because I read it without realizing, and, well, she left it up as a solo post. :V
No Rating: Go Read The AppleDash Project Instead
Twilight Sparkle vs. Bridle-Zilla by Tumbleweed
Genre: Comedy
Twilight Sparkle makes the mistake of volunteering to plan Lyra and Bon-Bon’s wedding.
So this story isn’t perfect. It shows its age with some formatting quirks, isn’t exactly show-tone for all that it’s episode-like, and I forget what the third thing was, but there was a third thing. Fact is, that’s all made up for by this being hilarious. When she’s not “Special Agent Sweetie Drops”, I want Bon-Bon to be like this all the time. There are quite a lot of excellent running gags, and everyone feels in-character, in a funny way. A lot of major things are glossed over, but ultimately that’s a good thing, as it keeps the story moving along at a good clip. Again, this is super-funny, and involves Best Ponies Getting Married, so why aren’t you reading it yet?
Recommended
A Pink Wedding, a Purple Reception by Rated Ponystar
Genre: Comedy
Twilight and Pinkie Pie get married.
Unfortunately, we’re ending on a low note. This story is rushed, flat, and could stand another editing pass. The writing really doesn’t sell the primary relationship, and there’s a bunch of background shipping that I found awfully distracting, to say nothing of the references and asides to the reader. Every joke feels misaimed. I skipped the vows because they were just huge blocks of dialogue I didn’t really feel like reading. I dunno what else to say, I wish I’d stopped with the last story.
Not Recommended
You mean Tuna.
3192974 Is it wrong that I saw that ship name, and thought how it could fit a terrible clop fic?
3193090
Behold, the fulfillment of your desire! Well, sort of. Close enough?
3192974
No, it's Tirek + Luna that's called Tuna.
3193090
Probably.
3193152
This is why nobody knows me for my shipfics.
3193181
Oh God...
3193185
To be fair, it's notallmy fault. 80%, maybe 90% max.Ooh, better idea: I said "sort of" because one of the specifications was "terrible" and Tuna obviously doesn't fit the bill. See? It's high praise!What's the Luna test?
3193310
Proper usage of Early Modern English. This one fails for not conjugating the helping verb, leading to constructions like "will thou walkest". (Should be "wilt thou walk".)
3193152 Oh god. Not at all what I imagined, but the troll is strong with that one.
3193440 Ah, makes sense. Did the episode itself pass that test, I wonder?
Ahhh, poor Rated.
I remember that fic, and it immediately struck me as one where Rated gave the commissioner exactly what he wanted. Maybe Rated (who is normally one of my top fave writers on the site) suggested to drop a few things that the commissioner didn't want to drop… or maybe he kowtowed to exactly what the commissioner wanted without mentioning what doesn't work.
It's one of the reasons I am leery of commissioned fics… not out of any nonsense about artistic integrity or that kind of crap, but just in that a lot of people who pay for something don't actually have as great an idea as they think they do… and then you get A Pink Wedding, a Purple Reception.
I... I don't agree with any of that. <.<
I don't think "Slice of Life" hurts the story too much; the flower ponies all had the same characterization even before that episode. Twilight even makes reference to it in the first part of the story. Someone who's seen "Slice of Life" will be aware of her personality in the same way as someone who's seen "The Cutie Pox" or "Applebuck Season".
The message was probably a little blunt, especially at the end with Twilight's monologue. I definitely wasn't projecting my own romantic experiences onto Fluttershy, don't be silly
Either way, thanks for the review
glad you were able to enjoy it despite its flaws.
3193576
I want to say yes, but honestly I never checked.
3193588
As soon as I saw it was commissioned, I kinda had a feeling I was in for something less than stellar.
3193948
You shut up. :V
3193964
It's more, with a direct acknowledgement of the Flower Trio's characters from that episode, stories like this are no longer surprising. That said, you gave us distinctly more than just "she freaks out about everything", so it stands even now. :D
3194376
I retain my self-deprecating right to hate everything I've ever made... and that I still haven't re-worked that Power Ponies fic.
I'm going to keep calling you senpai and pretending you haven't noticed me as it better fits my narrative.
3194929
you're a butt :V