Fic recs, April 22nd!

Hold the fricking phone. We've seen audio readings of fanfics. We've seen comic adaptations. We've even seen animatics and maaaaybe an animation. But Brawny Buck has brought fanfiction to a whole new level, with his LIVE FUCKING PERFORMANCE of xjuggernaughtx's story Checkmates! :D It's pretty darn fantastic! (And the story's really funny, if you haven't read it!)

I know better than to post the day of the season premiere, but half an hour before a new episode? :V Pssh, whatever. Also, if I don't, I'll get stuck in a rut of posting on Sundays and Wednesdays. :/ Have a bunch of fics, including two pairs that show you how to do something poorly and not-poorly, and two which are no longer published! :B

H: 0 R: 3 C: 1 V: 1 N: 2

Pinkie Pie Has It All Together by Twilightclopple
Reading by Nightfire5150
Genre: Crazy Pinkie
Pinkie waits for her guests to arrive at her perfect party.
This reading reminded me that Twilightclopple DFE'd a while back, so no direct link to the story remains. :C In this case, not much of value was lost. This is a well-written fic, don't get me wrong, but it starts out pretty obvious that what's on the page isn't precisely real, and the outcome is more or less what I expected. I just really hate Party of One for existing sometimes; I don't think I've seen a single fic author portray the psychoses Pinkie exhibits in that episode in an effective way. Whether or not I ever appreciated stories like this, the subject matter has worn on me over the years.
Vaguely Recommended

Twilight Has a Crush by TambourineBlossom
Reading by Scribbler, et. al.
Genre: Not Actually Shipping
Twilight learns a hard lesson about the way things are on either side of the mirror portal.
This picks up right after Equestria Girls and treats Twilight's crush on Flash Sentry as a real thing. If this doesn't sound like fun to you, reread what I tagged its genre as. Crazy, right? I'm all for a good Flashlight, myself, but I'd happily trade ten of those for a story like this. The Sad tag is actually fairly misleading; not only is there some decent humor, it's only going to be "sad" if you're heavily invested in romance ahead of things like characterization. Okay, well, I did feel sorry for Twilight, but she's the one who brings all these problems on herself anyway. At the core of this is a very important message, the sort that needs to be read and understood by those people I mentioned, as well as anyone who's tried their hand at real-life romance and failed without understanding why. This honestly has more to offer than just being ponyfic.
Recommended

My Greatest Fear: Myself by The DJ Rainbow Dash
Reading by Nightfire5150
Genre: Introspective
Rainbow Dash has a wall inside her, but all the words are like rocks thrown against it.
Insecure Dash is something I've enjoyed for a long time, but not this piece. It comes off as Rainbow just complaining nonstop about how sucky her life is, painting her as weak and whiny. The final proclamation left me with a big shrug. Whatever this was trying to do, as far as I'm concerned, it did not accomplish it.
Not Recommended

Maud's Date by Jay-The-Brony
Reading by GutiuSerenade, et. al.
Genre: EQG Crackshipping
Pinkie Pie sets her older sister up.
I wasn't expecting much from this, but it turned out legitimately funny. Even better than the identity of Maud's date — which I won't spoil — is what he does for a hobby. The writing's not amazing, but I got a couple solid laughs out of the fic, and sometimes, that's all I ask.
Recommended for Laughs

Drops of Moonlight by ChaoticHarmony
Reading by lieilengi
Genre: Sad Luna
It's been a while since I last gave a story its first downvote. c.c I'm inclined to be forgiving when a story is this old, but this subject matter was never good, especially not after season two. This starts with your classic Sad Luna tropes: she's moping because no one loves her, the Nightmare still haunts her, she only takes comfort in crying, etc. This is undercut by tonal issues, like Luna using the Royal Canterlot Voice to break down a door. She talks to her sister, in what I'm sure was meant to be a cute, comforting scene, and then she becomes Nightmare Moon again and attacks Celestia, in what I'm sure was meant to be this great, dramatic climax. But lines like "We are Luna, and you are dead" are just cheesy, and what the heck was the point of the Elements in the first place if Nightmare Moon can just come back? This story was obviously trying to be ambitious, but instead it falls into a lot of classic tropes and delivers nothing of any real import.
Not Recommended

Crash by xl9
Reading by Scribbler
Genre: Character Piece
Crashing is the worst.
I'll be honest, I might not have appreciated this as much as I did if I hadn't just read My Greatest Fear. But this makes a great contrast, being also about Rainbow's insecurities, presenting them with considerably less whining, and even going so far as to wrest a different kind of angst out of Mysterious Mare-Do-Well. On top of that, this gives us some solid friendshipping with Applejack. And, to make another comparison, it's more of a shame to have lost, especially since I don't know when or why the author might have taken it down. At least we have Scribbler's very good reading to memorialize it.
Recommended

You Were There by TheBrianJ
Reading by lieilengi
Genre: Sister Bonding
Celestia and Luna do something they haven't for a thousand years.
This hit me right in the feels, and it's all thanks to a strong portrayal of Celestia. It's the kind of thing I demand from my fanfic, and I was most pleased by where this took me. If there's anything to criticize, it's that Luna is kind of a wooby (odd, since this is written after Luna Eclipsed despite being set immediately post-pilot), and the batpony doesn't really fit. I mean, not that I begrudge the batpony on its own merits — this gets points for giving the race a name I've seen only once before — just that the world-building centered around him doesn't really have a place in a story tagged only Slice of Life. Still, it's not too distracting, and the rest of the piece is strong enough to carry itself besides.
Recommended