Fic recs December 5th: Season 5 Finale edition! · 8:57pm Dec 5th, 2015
I'm a tad late, but today I've got a bunch of those AU fics that have been clogging the featured box, plus a couple that haven't! This isn't meant to be an exhaustive list by any stretch (two of these authors have written a second story each), just a few, to get the lead out. :B First, announcements.
If you liked my last installment of “Ponies Are Dicks”, check out FanOfMostEverything’s season summary. :D Also, for the love of god, go read Aragon’s treatise on romance pitfalls.
Illya Leonov has done a reading of darf’s The Snow Is Falling! :D
Lastly, one final thank you to my Patrons for their months of support. Bradel, Noble Thought, Cerulean Voice, Alexstrazsa, Protopony350, Soge, horizon, Super Trampoline, Quill Scratch, ArgonMatrix, CouchCrusader, Neighrator Pony and Singularity Dream, thank you all for supporting and believing in me all this time. This won't be the last you hear from me on the subject. :B
Meanwhile, the rest of you can look below for reviews of I Was Nothing by ROBCakeran53, obabscribbler's Did Not, A Matter of Time by Justice*cargleblagh*, and a bunch of other stories what talk about The Cutie Re-mark!
H: 1 R: 3 C: 4 V: 1 N: 0
I Was Nothing by ROBCakeran53
Reading by Savrin Drake
I found this in the comments after reading the story, but I tested him out anyway. He’s a little on the quiet side, but he’s got good pacing and a decent voice. Plus, he does Binding of Isaac let’s plays. Bonus! :D
Genre: Post-Apocalypse
I am the greatest and most powerful unicorn that ever lived.
I had to read this story, because it covered a topic that had occurred to me only hours before I saw it go up: namely that Trixie was the villain for that final wasteland scene Twilight and Starlight ended up in. And while I decided that more or less in jest, this story takes it absolutely seriously, going straight to the heart of a lone pony wandering the wastes. The characterization is good and the voicing decent, the best part being the slow degradation of that “I am” line throughout the piece. Note that there is just a smidge of gore that might take the unwary by surprise, but it’s not graphic. For what this is, I like it.
Recommended
Did Not by obabscribbler
Reading by Captain Sand
Reading by Goombasa
Reading by Quill N. Lead, et. al.
Genre: Shipping
Maud knew many things. Love was not one of them.
The combination of the last story and this one were what made me decide to do this journal. The particular storytelling technique at play, “She knew this, she knew that”, is really tantalizing. It allows us to hear Maud’s tale front to back, while maintaining her character from the show and bending it around the future epic pony war. It leaves a lot of the piece told in negatives, which is always fun. Plus, there’s the whole “unusual ship” angle. This is frantic and touching and just really well written.
Highly Recommended
Unfair by Jay-The-Brony
Genre: Sad
Word of a new alicorn brings Princess Celestia to Sweet Apple Acres.
This one feels a little unfocused. It’s certainly not helped by the writing; passages like “To see her home in such a light… ached for her” abound. There are some interesting tidbits, like AU AJ getting trapped in a situation where honesty is key, but no one has any reason to believe her. But ultimately, this went for the bold feels gut-punch ending, and it just comes off as so much angst.
Vaguely Recommended
The Ever Ash Project by shortskirtsandexplosions
Reading by Scribbler and Gina M
Genre: Horrors of War
After the battle, a lone soldier stumbles away.
There are a couple of things going on in this story. The narrator’s identity is pretty easy to make out before the end. The reason why the Mare in the Moon is back, or why that’s so important, is not. Unfortunately, the explanation is dumped on us in the form of a stream of expository dialogue, which drags the whole thing down. Half the time, I felt like I was reading narrative when characters were talking. That said, this is worth reading for the revelation at the end; it’s the kind of thing that I hope more authors are using these canon AUs for.
Recommended If You Don’t Mind Exposition
Trust Me by Casca
Genre: Episode Followup
Luna demands an explanation for why Celestia isn’t stopping Starlight Glimmer.
Unlike the rest of these, this story takes place before the finale, setting up some behind the scenes stuff with Chessmaster Celestia. Unfortunately, it also has elements of your standard Cute Princesses Doing Sister Things story, and the two sides don’t mesh. Still, this is well-written and serves as, in my opinion, a good counterargument to everyone who ever cried because Celestia didn’t fix all the show's problems. As the author himself states, it’s not original and was written in a rush, and while both show, I think it’s worth checking out.
Recommended If You Can Forgive Tonal Issues
Waiting by Silver Moon
Reading by Crafty Arts
Genre: AU
In this timeline, she won.
I haven’t been marking these AU because they’re canonically AU, but this one’s actually an AU to the AU, another piece positing just who was the villain for the wasteland scenario. I think the reveal works. Oddly, save for the setting, this could have been written at the start of season five just as easily as now. Mostly, it serves as balm for those who wanted Starlight to see the error of her ways in the wasteland, so it’s got some fixfic elements, too. The writing’s not spectacular, and there’s at least one big typo, but overall, it makes a lot of sense.
Recommended If You Wanted More Closure in the Episode
A Matter of Time by Justice3442
Reading (part 1) by Captain Sand
Genre: Crackfic
Spike wonders why Starlight Glimmer is so fixated on this one moment in time.
I didn’t much like the setup for this, since it’s basically Spike asking a lot of “why didn’t the episode happen this way?” questions. Thankfully, the story quickly gets underway with an answer amounting to “Here’s why not”, and the results are hilarious. Best of all, this has a great reason for why Starlight didn’t become friends with Sunburst again. Well, and the other best part, which takes place in EQG land. The writing may bother grammar Nazis, but this is the kind of wacky nonsense I expect from Justice, whatever his number is, and I loved it.
Recommended
Synthetic Bottled Sunlight by NorrisThePony
Genre: Dystopian
Celestia has but one purpose.
This is a fun, dark look at a Celestia brought low by the Flim-Flam Brothers after fending off Equestria’s greater threats by herself and suffering for each. It’s with this in mind that one must approach her dialogue, because it is bitter, and thus hard to reconcile with the Celestia we know. It really does portray someone who’s been locked away for ten years with only her guilt and shame as company, though. Otherwise, the writing is fine, minus a handful of typos, a few odd word choices, and one POV shift to Shining Armor. This won’t knock anyone’s socks off, but it’s absolutely worth reading.
Recommended
Starlight Glimmer Overreacts to Everything by Yukito
Reading by Captain Sand
Reading by VisualPony
Genre: Crackfic
I will admit, I don’t really get the major joke in this. I mean, it would be just as funny starring Sunset Shimmer. But watching ponies get unreasonably angry for no reason, not to mention Twilight’s reaction, is funny. The glibness of the narrative goes a long way toward selling the humor, as well. I’ll note the final joke is a mite tasteless, but overall, I enjoyed this.
Recommended for Laughs
(The funny thing is, the last time I reviewed something by Justice3442 was in October, and he was 3442 then, too. So I only just now noticed. Ha ha. c.c)
Aww, you didn't read my post finale short! I feel betrayed!
Anyway, I'm going to read "A Matter of Time" now...
3595350
You didn't write one, you mong! D:
3595364 I did! You'll have to save it for some other time tho.
3595370
Oh, pssh. I'll be getting to that eventually. :B
Good to know I put good stuff in my Read Later list. Also, thanks for the plug.
So, I read "A Matter of Time". I can't say I really enjoyed it when everything just goes bonkers in the end. Kinda ruined it for me. I expected something crazy when Twilight suggested revenge, but... I didn't expect to suddenly have to whip down my suspension of disbelief so desperately by the end of it. It didn't earn a dislike, but it certainly didn't earn a like either.
I think the comma in the title isn't the fundamental problem: rather, I tend to expect the modifier more tightly bound to the base noun to be closer, hence "bottled synthetic sunlight." To me, "synthetic bottled sunlight" is suggestive of the existence of a native thing (bottled sunlight) that comes in natural and synthetic forms, but what is bottled sunlight, what would natural bottled sunlight be, or the process for synthesizing it? In contrast, reversing the order gives bottled (or non-) [synthetic or natural] sunlight. The concept of synthesizing sunlight, then bottling it, strikes me as more obvious than the reverse.
I still probably wouldn't use the comma there, though.
Hm, so the comma looks weird, huh? Maybe I should drop it then.
Thanks for the recommendation, typos and POV shifts aside. Out of curiosity, were "armour" and "colour" amongst the typos you found? If so, then my whole life has been a lie.
3595623
Celestia is the native thing (sunlight,) Celestia is imprisoned (bottled sunlight), and Flim and Flam are trying to create something to unnaturally lift and lower the sun to replace her (synthetic bottled sunlight.)
That all being said, none of that was really on my mind when I titled the story. I just thought it looked abstract and ironic enough to be intriguing
3595685
If you subscribe to any written version of English other than American English, then no, they're not typos. USA is the only country (that I know of at least) whose English involves dropping the "u" from various words. They also famously drop the second "i" from aluminium for some reason I never understood. "Manoeuvre" becomes "maneuver..." I mean I could go for days.
There's only one instance when "Armour" could be considered a legitimate typo: when writing out Shining Armor's name. As his name is actually canonically spelled "Armor," correcting this to "Armour" is wrong.
The most important thing is to be consistent. Don't switch between using words without the u and words with the u. Pick a side.
3595751
The second U in "aluminium" is gone as a result of a typo when Alcoa, the Aluminum Company of America was founded by Charles Martin Hall (the discoverer of a cost effective process for refining the metal) back in the 1800's. Their stationery was printed up with the error and since at the time they were a startup, they didn't have the money to reprint, and so it stuck.
I heard this story from my father, who worked at Alcoa for almost 25 years and was well versed in the company's history.
3595751 I look at it more as: why do all the British English speakers feel it necessary to pack words with unnecessary letters? Last I checked, Brits were busy trying not to be French.
3595782 thanks for the fun fact!
3595685
Of course not! I'm an equal-opportunity linguist! D:
3595782
That's fascinating. :O I hope that's true, cuz Imma remember it!
3595983
#sickburn #shotsfired
3596109
Well, I can't confirm it, but Dad knew a lot of facts and factoids about aluminum.
3595782
By Jove, that explains everything. I had thought it was an Australian thing to not have the u in (as it turns out Alcoa is pretty sizeable in Australia).
And hurrah for conditional rec!
3595983 Our problem is that we can either spell like the French or spell like the Americans. Asking the average Englishman which of those he would prefer is like asking him which type of microwave he'd like the water for his tea heated in. We therefore pretend the issue doesn't exist and try not to think about it too much.
(This is, in essence, how Britain came to rule the world: by not thinking about things too much. Once we actually started thinking about what we were doing, the British Empire rapidly fell apart.)
3595685
I'm so glad you got rid of it, and I have changed the review to reflect this. :D
3595751
3595782
What I'm wondering is, why doesn't "platinum" ever have a second "I" in it?
3595782
3596160
Guys... the issue isn't the second "u" in Aluminium. It's the second "i".
Just thought I'd let you know in case you didn't realise you made a typo.
3599287
Because "platinium" would just be silly. :V