Read It Now Reviews #55 – Zeitgeist; Do Humans Get Wingboners?; Another Point of View; Screw It, I’m Bored: Actingverse/MLP Crossover; Not It; The Moon, The Flower, and the Door; The End of the Day · 9:16pm Sep 16th, 2015
The folks I follow have been busy of late. Seems like it is time for yet another set of recent story reviews!
Today’s stories:
Zeitgeist by GaPJaxie
Do Humans Get Wingboners? by DrakeyC
Another Point of View by Kencolt
Screw It, I’m Bored: Actingverse/MLP Crossover by GaPJaxie
Not it by Horizon
The Moon, The Flower, and the Door by Bucking Nonsense
The End of the Day by Carabas
Zeitgeist
by GaPJaxie
Adventure
3,661 wordsSassy Saddles loves her craft. But can she and Rarity reconcile their different visions of the fashion industry?
Why I added it: GaPJaxie is one of my favorite writers.
Review
Zeitgeist is one of my favorite words. The spirit of the moment, it is all about the fashion or thought or idea or feeling that dominates a time.
This is a very strange story.
Sassy Shores has invented a device that creates duplicates of a dress – an infinite number of duplicates, so that it can be sold indefinitely.
Rarity thinks it is a travesty and fires her, but it turns out, all most ponies want is the same thing – what’s hot – not what is unique. And when the price of dresses starts plummeting like a rock, Rarity goes to Sassy Shores’ new shop to find out why.
This is very much a fantasy story, and it is very long on fantasy – indeed, while it makes use of the characters, it is very easy to imagine this as a non-MLP story. But at the same time, while the invention sounds fantastic, it is actually fairly authentic in other ways; in real life, tailors and seamstresses more or less faced this down when we invented modern automation.
And best of all, Sassy isn’t evil. She just has her own ideas about how things should be.
Recommendation: Worth Reading if you want to read about the world moving on past Rarity.
Do Humans Get Wingboners?
by DrakeyC
Sex, Comedy, Slice of Life, Human
2,316 wordsSunset Shimmer and Rainbow Dash are about to find out.
For science.
Why I added it: I was trying to read every story in the featured story box.
Objectionable Content Warning: Sunset Shimmer accidentally strokes Rainbow Dash’s wings to the point of orgasm.
Review
Sunset Shimmer accidentally strokes Rainbow Dash’s wings to the point of orgasm: the story.
Sunset Shimmer is researching the Equestrian magic her human friends have and does some measurement and examination of Rainbow Dash’s wings.
Too bad they’re an erogenous zone. But Rainbow Dash doesn’t want to make things awkward by telling Sunset Shimmer what she’s doing to her…
All in all, this a piece of ecchi humor. There’s nothing terribly out of character here, and Rainbow Dash teasing Sunset Shimmer (and poor Fluttershy) at the end is amusing, but I was left feeling ambivalent about the piece on the whole. It isn’t bad, but it didn’t thrill me, either.
Recommendation: If you really like ecchi humor… you probably already read this. But if you didn’t, it might be up your alley. Wasn’t my thing, though.
Another Point of View
by Kencolt
Comedy
447 wordsTwilight responds to a reporter about rumors about her ascension.
Why I added it: It is part of Horizon’s “Never the Final Word” collection of recursive fanfiction – that is to say, fanfics of other fanfics.
Review
This is a very short piece about Twilight Sparkle trying to dispel a rumor about her and Celestia to a reporter. Alas, it didn’t manage to make me laugh, and was too short to really elate me.
Recommendation: Not Recommended.
Screw It, I’m Bored: Actingverse/MLP Crossover
by GaPJaxie
Comedy, Random, Crossover
888 wordsSomehow, the pony actors who play the characters of the hit live-action television show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic get sucked into the universe of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
Naturally, as all crossovers are required to go, they immediately get into a fight.
Why I added it: I was bored. :V
Review
This is a very silly totally non-canon story based on the characters in GaPJaxie’s Actingverse, a series of stories that started with Dressing Room and has continued on for two sequels, each fleshing out an additional character and shedding light on the universe in which MLP:FIM is a life-action television show, and the character of the actors who play the characters.
And it is very silly. Naturally, they immediately get into a fight, and then the actors realize that the universe they’d been put into doesn’t quite follow the rules of their reality… and immediately get distracted from fighting with playing with cursing and trying to see what happens if they discuss things inappropriate for a children’s TV show.
This is very silly, very random humor, but I think some folks will appreciate it.
Recommendation: Worth Reading if you like cartoon-based humor and GaPJaxie’s actingverse, but this is pretty lightweight.
Not It
by Horizon
Comedy, Random
682 wordsTwilight Sparkle talks to Star Power, the actress that plays her on TV in another dimension.
Why I added it: Horizon is a good writer.
Review
This is basically another scene appended to GaPJaxie’s silly little crossover piece, about Twilight trying to calm down Star Power and make it clear she doesn’t mind Star Power’s question. In fact, Star Power is probably an alternate universe version of herself, which means there shouldn’t be any awkwardness between them… 
Recommendation: Worth Reading if you like the above thing by GaPJaxie.
The Moon, The Flower, and the Door
by Bucking Nonsense
Comedy, Slice of Life
4,474 words"...The test ends when you open that door."
Princess Luna has begun searching for her own personal student, and her test has hit a small snag: Not a single unicorn, out of the dozens of applicants, has passed. In fact, every last candidate has failed the test in seconds.
But just what is the purpose of this test? And how can somepony pass it?
A young earth pony named Morning Glory is going to find out.
Why I added it: It is the highest rated story on FIMFiction right now, and it was featured.
Review
Morning Glory is an earth pony who wants to learn magic.
Princess Luna is searching for a student.
And her test is simple. Yet every single pony so far has failed it.
"Do you see the door behind me?"
The filly made a show of looking at the door. It wasn't special looking in any way, shape, or form, except perhaps that it was an old door that had seen better days, and might need a little mending where the hinges were concerned. After a moment, Glory looked back at Luna and said, "I see it, your highness."
Luna gave a regal nod, and announced, "The test ends when you open that door."
This is a fairly standard example of a Hidden Purpose Test, where a character is confronted with some challenge, but the real test is seeing how they react to it, or seeing if they can figure out the true purpose of the test, or testing their character rather than their ability.
The thing is, these tests are frequently used in stories to show off a character’s, well, character, but this story mostly felt more like it was going through the motions – I just didn’t get to know the OC filly all that well over the course of this story, and her solution to the test didn’t actually tell me much about her character, or show me why I should care about her.
While the setup was reasonable enough, there just wasn’t much real substance here – it was heavy on the idea, but without a character I cared about taking the test, it didn’t mean much to me, and thus I had no stakes in her success or failure (and, let’s face it – it was obvious she was going to pass the test from the get-go).
It was also rather telly in explaining Luna’s motivations and feelings, which didn’t help me connect well with her, either.
There’s also a random cut in this story to Pinkie Pie when Luna makes a promise which really just felt like a distraction from the story, and was pretty tonally inconsistent with the rest of it.
All in all, while I really adore Hidden Purpose Tests in general, the purpose of these tests is to reveal the nature of the characters in the story to the audience, and their mindset and the way that they think, and this test just didn’t do enough to develop the OC to make it really feel satisfying.
Recommendation: Not Recommended.
The End of the Day
by Carabas
Adventure, Historical Fiction
8,556 wordsOn a dark and stormy night, centuries in the past, Celestia and Luna walked into a bar.
They came looking for knowledge. They found a little more than that.
Why I added it: It was featured.
Review
Luna and Celestia have come to a village in the middle of nowhere in search of Starswirl the Bearded, the legendary unicorn who confronted Discord and lost, all those years ago. They seek his knowledge and power, and perhaps his aid, in confronting the spirit of chaos.
Alas, it seems the mysterious unicorn sitting in the corner of the inn is not, in fact, Starswirl the Bearded, but rather his apprentice. But that doesn’t mean he can’t help them.
But it doesn’t mean he will, either. Luna and Celestia are barely old enough to even remember what the world was like before Discord, after all, and he’s seen too many young fools rushing around with arrogance in their hearts and glory in their eyes to help two more of them accomplish nothing.
A piece of historical fiction about ancient Equestria, this casts Luna and Celestia as half-sisters who have been wandering the lands under Discord’s misrule in search of some route to victory. Luna is a born noblemare while Celestia is a commoner, but they still care for each other and watch each others’ backs as they try to find some way to free Equestria.
This piece feels more like the first chapter in a longer story than a full stand-alone piece, but it is reasonably engaging – the fight scene is rendered well enough, Starswirl’s apprentice fills his archetype decently enough, and the overall piece had decent enough flow.
But if you’re not into that sort of thing, you’re not going to see anything here that changes your mind. This piece is an entirely standard “Go into a tavern, fail to get information out of a recalcitrant local, fight the evil guard of the mad king, impress the locals enough to make them want to help you” sort of piece, and while it is decently executed, it doesn’t really stand apart from such pieces in general – you’ve likely read the same thing in non-pony fiction before.
Recommendation: Worth Reading if you want to read this story, but starring Luna and Celestia as a pegasus and earth pony.
Summary
Zeitgeist by GaPJaxie
Worth Reading
Do Humans Get Wingboners? by DrakeyC
Not Recommended
Another Point of View by Kencolt
Not Recommended
Screw It, I’m Bored: Actingverse/MLP Crossover by GaPJaxie
Worth Reading
Not it by Horizon
Worth Reading
The Moon, The Flower, and the Door by Bucking Nonsense
Not Recommended
The End of the Day by Carabas
Worth Reading
All in all, this has been a reasonably good week for ponyfic.
Now, to add my own voice to the chorus.
Number of stories still listed as Read It Sooner: 85
Number of stories still listed as Read It Later: 338
Number of stories listed as Read It Eventually: 1668
Man, I still think Do Humans Get Wingboners? should be Mature tagged, but apparently I'm more of a prude then the author or whichever story approver gave it a pass. Didn't that old story about Dash and her similar ticklish hooves problem end up Mature? Couldn't find it the other day when I went looking to double check.
3397439
I have no idea.
I agree that the story is essentially pornography, but I'm not sure that it is the sort of thing which actually warrants a M-rating as it isn't too explicit.
It is borderline, though.
But... why would I want that? My world is Rari-centric!
3397455
Well then, you'd better not read it :V
Holy crap! Three reviews in one week! Plus a side story?
You must really like Actingverse.
Well... I guess that means I have to finish it then. I finally started writing it today. A little sneak peak.
3397487
I look forward to reading it!
3397439 Hiccups, by shortskirtsandexplosions, is rated T.
3397574 Huh, okay then.
3397574
To be fair, it is a lot less explicit, and not at all porny.
Just... weird.
The Moon, The Flower, and the Door. I had given it a pass so far but after seeing your review I decided I had to know what the twist was. I was pretty disappointed that the reveal amounted to realizing that Luna never actually said what the test was.
The test ends when you open the door... Okay what is the test?
3397588
Oddly though that one doesn't have the sex tag.
The links to things that aren't entire stories is a weird twist.
Yay reviews!
I think I liked The Moon, The Flower and The Door better than you did, but yeah, it was a little more lightweight than I was expecting, though I think it handled its central conceit pretty well.
I am vaguely amused that nobody has yet commented on the title of "Not It". Maybe people aren't thinking about it in the context of the title of GaPJaxie's original work.
>not because Carabas is a good writer
RIP Carabas
3398195
"X is a good writer" is pretty much my way of saying "I am following this person."
I actually am following Carabas now :V
I seriously lost it when The Test Ends.... described a filly named Morning Glory as "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed". I just stared at the screen, thinking, "Are you f***ing kidding me?" I just couldn't take it seriously after that. Not while expecting the whole thing to end in a bawdy joke.