Read It Now Reviews #76 – A Million Little Lights, Dragons Speak, The Most Powerful Dragon in Equestria Visits for Tea, A Friendly Letter from Chrysalis, Involuntary · 2:27am Apr 19th, 2016
It has been a while since I did a set of Read It Now reviews. I actually started this one all the way back in March, and then forgot about finishing it out until this weekend, when I decided to get another review set done and actually read some recent stuff.
Today’s set contains a pair of episode reaction stories, a story with an interesting premise about Celestia and her ability to see the future, a story about Chrysalis sending Cadance a letter, and a story about… well, wingboners.
Can’t win ’em all, I guess.
Today’s stories:
A Million Little Lights by Aragon
Dragons Speak by Erisn
The Most Powerful Dragon in Equestria Visits for Tea by meme-asaurus
A Friendly Letter from Chrysalis by HiddenMaster
Involuntary by Vivid Syntax
A Million Little Lights
by Aragon
Drama, Slice of Life
2,174 wordsTonight, Celestia will talk to Shining Armor. With just one conversation, she needs to save Equestria.
Why I added it: It was featured.
Review
Celestia isn’t a god. Celestia isn’t perfect.
Sure, she can see the future in the form of a million little lights. Of course, they aren’t really a million little lights; indeed, they aren’t really anything. They’re just her way of seeing how things are headed. And she can set stuff up to fall the way she wants it to fall.
But she’s not a god.
And Shining Armor needs to know that.
This is a fun little story – Celetsia’s distance from Shining Armor here is clear, as are the lies she is telling herself, let alone her little pony who she manipulates without really quite comprehending what she’s doing and how she’s distancing herself from him.
While this story does a good job of conveying something about Celestia, I was left feeling like this was lacking a little je ne sais quoi which would have bumped it from good to excellent. Not to say that it is bad, but it felt like it was a 7/10 instead of a 10/10.
I did like Celestia’s fear of isolation, though, and the potential for alienating her sister when she returns, for Luna is just a pony, not a thousand year old demigod who has seen oh-so-many things.
If it doesn’t work out with Luna, then her only chance will be to move to Freeza Planet 419.
Recommendation: Worth Reading.
Dragons Speak
by Erisn
Comedy, Crossover, Random
2,726 wordsThe ceremony to elect the next Dragon Lord is always a momentous occasion. Dragons from every universe go to witness it. They also commentate, complain, and talk about dietary issues.
It's sort of sad, really.
Why I added it: It is an episode reaction fic.
Review
I wasn’t really sure what to expect here, but this story is basically dragons from other universes – Bahamut from the D&D verse being one of them – complaining about the competition to elect the new dragon lord, and what losers Equestrian dragons are, amongst other things. The story is functionally running commentary, but frankly, it was not very engaging to me; there were a few funny bits in there, but the narrators simply didn’t have very strong voicing and the whole thing felt very much like it was emulating MST3K.
Recommendation: Not Recommended.
The Most Powerful Dragon in Equestria Visits for Tea
by meme-asaurus
Comedy, Slice of Life
1,634 wordsTwilight has been messaging Dragon Lord Ember for two weeks now, and the other ponies are wondering whom the new Princess’s pen pal is. Twilight gets a brilliant and terrible idea.
Why I added it: It is an episode reaction fic, and the first Ember fic on the site.
Review
Ember goes to Ponyville to have tea with Twilight, and encounters the mane six.
This story felt very incomplete, like it just sort of started and didn’t go anywhere. It just sort of has Ember show up, get in a brief scuffle with Applejack and Rainbow Dash, and then… doesn’t really go anywhere else. She just briefly describes her impressions of the other ponies as she sits down for tea, and… that’s really it.
This didn’t really go anywhere, and I’m not sure that it really did much to develop anyone. It just kind of was a thing.
EDIT: The writer, since I wrote this review, wrote a chapter 2 about Ember trying to talk to Fluttershy at a Pinkie Pie party. It... honestly didn't feel like it added a whole lot to the story, though it did bring it to a conclusion. Still, the whole thing felt a bit pointless; stories about introducing characters to characters we already know, with that as their focus, are always a bit questionable because there's no real discovery process there. It doesn't really seem like it has much to say in the end, and the comedy of Ember's brusqueness and being a jerk just didn't really end up amusing me very much.
Recommendation: Not Recommended.
A Friendly Letter from Chrysalis
by HiddenMaster
Sex, Comedy, Dark, Random
1,511 wordsChrysalis, in an eloquent and flowing and completely friendly letter with absolutely no hidden undertones whatsoever, reveals a few interesting facts regarding Flurry Heart, Changeling biology, her undying hatred love for Cadence, and of course how much she wants to bang Shining.
Why I added it: It was in the popular stories list.
Review
This story is actually a false document, a letter from Queen Chrysalis to Princess Cadance about Shining Armor and Princess Flurry Heart.
This story goes with the “scattered, evil, and sex-obsessed” Queen Chrysalis, who seems to really want to bone Shining Armor and really hates Cadance.
But is now totally Cadance’s sister and Flurry Heart’s aunt so might come for a visit sometime.
This is silly and I think there’s probably an audience out there for this crude, insulting, and trollsy rendition of Queen Chrysalis – in particular, this one:
But it doesn’t really go beyond that sort of humor. If that’s your sort of thing, you’ll probably like this, but if it isn’t, then you’re probably going to want to steer clear.
Note that this story is rated M, but is not pornographic in nature; Chrysalis is just being terrible in her letter.
Recommendation: Worth reading if you like bitch-queen Chrysalis.
Involuntary
by Vivid Syntax
Comedy, Slice of Life
2,795 wordsWe've all been there. Well, half of us have.
Sunny is an adolescent pegasus, and for him, there's no place more terrifying than the classroom when a certain problem just won't go away.
Why I added it: I stalk follow Vivid Syntax.
Review
A teenaged pegasus has his wings pop up during class and gets super embarrassed about it because OH CELESTIA EVERYPONY CAN SEE.
I don't really know what I was expecting.
Alas, involuntary wingboners just… aren’t that funny to me, I guess. I feel like I’m maybe not in the target demographic for this story, and it didn’t really seem to go really outside the standard “OH GOD THIS IS SO TERRIBLE” “No, everyone gets them” narrative that I’ve come to expect out of stories like that.
It isn’t really bad, and I guess his freakout was a little funny, but it all felt kind of telegraphed – I knew where the story was going from beginning to end and there were no real surprises, with everything going more or less exactly like what you’d expect.
Recommendation: Not Recommended.
Summary
A Million Little Lights by Aragon
Worth Reading
Dragons Speak by Erisn
Not Recommended
The Most Powerful Dragon in Equestria Visits for Tea by meme-asaurus
Not Recommended
A Friendly Letter from Chrysalis by HiddenMaster
Worth Reading
Involuntary by Vivid Syntax
Not Recommended
And there we go!
Time to get to work on writing ponyfics of my own.
Until next time, folks.
Number of stories still listed as Read It Sooner: 128
Number of stories still listed as Read It Later: 446
Number of stories listed as Read It Eventually: 1897
I notice you review a lot stories that are one-note jokes or that otherwise telegraph themselves heavily. Usually when I am I strolling about for things to read, such stories are extremely obvious from their descriptions and I ignore them.
You are a stronger reviewer than I.
I don't really expect much Ember and dragon-wise for now... I think any of the potentially good stories will take a week or so more before appearing.
3879763
I think I persist in the vain hope that they won't be.
3879779
I actually started one too. Though it isn't really about Ember, but Torch. I blame MyLittleEconomy.
The Most Powerful Dragon in Equestria Visits for Tea has a second chapter now because everyone who read it agreed it wasn't complete. I think you need to add an addendum for it.
Thanks for taking a look, TD, and I'm sorry this one was such a flop for you. Hopefully the next one will make all your time
stalkingfollowing me more worthwhile.Speaking of you totally not being right behind me right now, will I see you at MLP MSP?
3879852
Seeing as I don't even know what that is, that seems highly unlikely.
3879818
Oi. It was even marked as complete!
3879911 I know that. I'm one of the people that told the author he stopped it before reaching a satisfying conclusion. You don't have to believe me, though, here's the response comment the author wrote.
Edit: here's a link to chapter two.
3879794
Oh no... I saw that blogpost.
I'm frightened.
3879910
Local convention in Minneapolis this June. I'm trying to get a group of writers together for shindig, and I was curious if you'd be in town. Maybe some other time.
3879944
I'm afraid I've got a slight case of "being on the opposite end of the country", being from Oregon.
3879925
Yeah, I saw. Did not really change my opinion on it in the end, I'm afraid. Still, thank you for pointing it out.
3879925
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Man, wingboners stopped being a funny idea, like, the second time someone brought them up.
Well, I'm sure there's plenty of funny examples of their use, but they don't seem to work in fic very well for me. There's something I just can't buy in to about the idea. Maybe a crackfic could pull it off.
3879970
That's too bad. We've got space if you ever find yourself in this neck of the woods. Any cons worth going to near you?
3879944 Come visit Everfree Northwest! Seattle can't be that far from Minneapolis, right? Right?
3879944
For what it's worth, I'm still hoping to make it to MLP-MSP! I know I'm no TD, but then, who is?
3880967
I'll send both of you notes.
3882158
I... think TD's been patient enough with me for stealing space in his comments.
3879970 so I will see you at ever free Northwest?
3883043
You'd better, seeing as I'm one of the community guests there.