Fic Spotlight » Everfree Northwest Fanfiction Spotlight #36 · 6:50pm Mar 11th, 2016
Fanfiction Spotlight #36
Published 3/5/16
Hello my little authors and readers! Welcome to the return of the Everfree Northwest Fanfiction Spotlight! We’re back and working hard to give you some lovely pieces to read, review, digest, gank ideas from, and as always, we try to bring you a little bit of everything as reviewed by the writing track team! I’m Heartshine, and I’m taking over for Xepher as editor!
But enough about us, to the stories! This week we have Sunset Shimmer solving a mystery, Celestia’s response to being constantly under the influence of the Worf Effect, and an emotional story that explores the deep connection between Princess Celestia and Twilight.
---- Review by Silver Flare ----
Feedback
by RQK
Words: 86,378 Complete: Yes
Recommended by Silver Flare
This week, I bring to you a mystery. Princess Twilight Sparkle has died protecting Equestria from a terrible threat, only… why? Why has nobody even heard of this menace before now? Why was she alone beneath the caves of Canterlot? And what’s with the discarded cloak, and that odd crystal ball? When Sunset Shimmer arrives to pay her respects to the first pony who ever offered her a second chance, she finds the circumstances surrounding Twilight’s death as odd as everyone else. Neglecting her scholastic endeavors for hooves, she elects to stay in Equestria and help Spike piece together the broken bits of the present in order to construct an image of the past.
Feedback is a very cerebral story, and it took a few chapters before it spooled into gear. However, once the puzzle pieces began sliding into place I found myself devouring chapters just to see how everything fit together. It’s easy to forget that Sunset Shimmer was also Celestia’s protégé, and very likely Twilight’s peer when it comes to sheer brainpower. So it was both fun and refreshing to watch as she put that brilliance to work sorting out the details of this tragedy. The well-written Spike and the continuity with the canon comics certainly helped.
Go! Help BaconSmart unearth The Nameless and give meaning to Twilight’s sacrifice! Unravel the mystery!
---- Review by Asylum----
Princess Celestias Legendary Litany of Laughable Losses
by Prak
Words: 3,112 Complete: Yes
Recommended by Asylum
Crack fics. Those short, humorous stories that make you groan just as much as they make you laugh. Princess Celestias Legendary Litany of Laughable Losses, in addition to being a fantastic tongue-twister, is one such fic.
It’s a simple story, as crack fics usually are, of Celestia and Luna having a “friendly” discussion about Celestia’s ability to win fights. Or rather her complete lack of ability to win fights. Celestia, unable to take such a dig at her pride, insists that she can win a fight, only for Luna to dig up the past, recounting some of the many times Celestia has been beaten in the past.
As you can imagine, each example is more humorous than the last. It’s worth every second it takes to read.
---- Review by Heartshine----
Eternal
by device heretic
Words: 159,872 Complete: Yes
Recommended by Heartshine
Sometimes we run into stories that make us feel things that maybe we don’t really want to feel, but that are a necessary part of living an emotional life. This is one of those stories.
Eternal was written around the end of season 2, and explores the ‘what if’ scenario of how life would be for Twilight, Celestia, and those around them in about 10-15 years. Twilight has become the Arch-Mage of Equestria, and distanced herself from Celestia. But something is going on with Celestia herself. Something… odd. And it is up to Twilight to unlock the doors of the Princess of the Sun’s mind and figure out what is happening to the Sun, and what caused the pair to drift apart.
I honestly felt this story started out a little slow, a little meandering, but it picked up the pace rather quickly. While it occasionally struggles with pacing, if you enjoy cerebral, emotional explorations of how relationships change over the course of a lifetime, I highly recommend Eternal.
+1 to Feedback.
This is interesting..... I didn't know that Everfree Northwest is doing this.
What does one have to do to get his fic featured here?
3803125
They have a group you can check out. They might take requests, but I'm not sure if you can recommend yourself. I was featured by them about a year ago, and that was when I entered a story in their annual contest. I think it's all just a matter of them finding and enjoying your story.
Eternal is interesting not just because it's quite good, but as an artifact of an earlier time.
Eternal predates any hint of Discord's redemption. Changelings weren't a thing. Cadance and Shining Armor weren't things, no Crystal Empire, no Twilicornification, nada.
If you click through to it you'll notice a few things that might seem odd to someone who wasn't around then. The first is that... no, it wasn't really all written in the space of a couple weeks in March 2012. It was posted after the fact. Prior to existing here, like many pony fics, it existed as a linked google doc from Equestria Daily.
You'll also notice it mentions the star rating. Much as fics today say "Feature Boxed on X date!" or "Featured on Equestria Daily on Y Date!" back in the day, when fanfiction was a much bigger and more serious part of their output (in the days before fimfiction EqD functioned as a de facto archive; said archive still exists and is useful but is less relevant) it let you rate fanfics by a star rating. It only went up to five, but if you got enough accolade they'd bump you to six, essentially the fanfiction equivalent of your jersey number being retired. This system no long exists.
And in that context it seems really weird. It holds up as a story, but the fact that it is an artifact of an earlier time lends it a sense of otherness.
A lot of the fanfic hotness from back in the day is like that. Past Sins. Within and Without. Half the Day is Night. Time marches on, and they become... not irrelevant, but sort of interesting signposts in the past.
While I'm grateful for the recognition, I think the timing is wrong for putting Legendary Litany into a site post. It was only posted a month ago, and it spent a week in the feature box, so it's probably still somewhat fresh in the minds of the site's active users. It's obviously too late to do anything about it now, but it's something to consider for future posts.
Forgive me if I make a shameless plug for myself, but the story I've been making current updates on is almost through, and because I live in the Northwest, and in the Puget Sound area just one hour south of Seattle, (non-rush hour traffic!) I wondered If I could offer that story as home cooking for the event.
3803138
That I second its worth for a spotlight.
How do you choose these stories, by the way?
3803125 3803136 3803140
We don't take requests, nor is there any set requirement to get your fic here. This are stories we think need to be read.
3803232
Yeah I wrote up several reviews and I Heartshine picked that one. I was hoping that one would be used much later, but in her defense, I didn't tell her that.
3803989
Bring it to an open read and critique.
3803989 To be clear, we have no formal process for selection. Our staff basically picks out stories they really liked and think more people should read. Occasionally, we have guest reviews by others as well. So while yes, you can and should suggest stories to us, that doesn't mean we will use them... but we'll probably take a look. Personally, I was always more keen to look at story suggestions from others, rather than self-promoted ones, but Heartshine is taking over as editor this year, so the final call ends up being her's.
3803784 I think Asylum replied to the wrong person last time, and meant to suggest to YOU that you bring your story to the convention in May. We'll be doing Open Read and Critique sessions there, where you can get feedback on your writing.