Horizon Recommends: Requiem for a Dream (plus: Mini-me!) · 10:16pm Jul 3rd, 2017
The best new story on FIMFiction just came and went from the front page with barely a peep. It's currently sitting at a mere 19 upvotes, and deserves at least ten times that number:
[Drama] [Mystery] • 30,168 words
Two weeks before the 1000th Summer Sun Celebration, Moondancer discovers a forgotten spell scrawled across the pages of an ancient book. Casting it threatens to turns her world upside down: faced with glimpses of an Equestria contradicted by historians, she must use all of her intellect to piece together the mystery surrounding Mage Meadowbrook, Princess Celestia, and the mare with the mane of stars—before the project destroys everything she's worked for.
It's a good thing she can rely on Twilight Sparkle for help.
The story notes it was "thematically inspired by" the movie of the same name, but don't let that scare you off; this carries so little over from the movie that it doesn't even have a Crossover tag. (I never watched it and still enjoyed the stuffing out of the story.)
What it does have is a reconstruction of Amending Fences that puts Fahrenheit's Moon Dancer character work on par with Skywriter's Princess Cadance — by which I mean, in the span of 30,000 words this taught me to independently respect a character that the show kinda trivialized, and now I can't not see this version when I look at the show. (Moon Dancer was never the butt of fandom jokes the way Cadance was, because Amending Fences was a really solid episode, but the whole "devastated by Twilight's rejection" thing always seemed to paint her as awfully shallow.)
Fahrenheit is (as I noted in my SA rec) a consistently excellent author, so I knew this one was worth reading right from its academic-mystery hook, but the slow-burn early chapters didn't prepare me for how good it becomes as its storylines collide. What looks at first like some sort of intriguing alternate universe ends up slotting more and more neatly into canon as Moon Dancer's singleminded pursuit of a forbidden memory spell causes her world to disintegrate. And along the way this looks at Moon Dancer's relationship with Twilight Sparkle and draws some beautiful, exquisite parallels to Princess Celestia's relationship with her lost sister.
Along with the strong A-plot, it's got tension, wit, poetry, and song. There's more worldbuilding in little niche historical tidbits than some entire stories manage to put together. As the timeline gets more and more confused the story becomes increasingly thematically and narratively coherent, which is exactly how to handle a story dealing with memory-slips. All in all this is a genuinely fantastic piece, and I would be hoarding this for RCL nomination if Fahrenheit weren't already a featured author.
Go read the story now. Click "Follow" on Fahrenheit along the way; it will reward you greatly.
Speaking of Fahrenheit, I'd also like to note that if you saw me speak on any panels at Everfree Northwest, you've already seen another example of her work:
Pictured from left: Horizon; a changeling
The Horizon doll, aside from being completely adorable, was a bribe. (Not, I should specify, for the story plug: that's just what I do when something this good goes this unnoticed.) Back during the regret-filled moments of Not_A_Drunkwriting, it happened to come out that I wrote my first fic at the tender age of 11, and that I still had a copy of it which I had carefully preserved as I moved from computer to computer. Fahrenheit offered me a handmade Horizon doll to make "Sir Lucky and the Dragon" public — which I did; there was a livereading and everything. Then, despite me being so wasted on bacon vodka that I didn't remember the offer the next day, she actually followed through!
Horizon's been guarding my computer ever since:
Pictured from left: A Writeoff third-place trophy; Baxil and Applejack; some handsome pony
I've been meaning for months to make a post showing off mini-me. I never quite got around to it. But I'm not going to miss out on this opportunity!
I'll have to check it out.
all i got from this is that I read Fahrenheit’s fic and that bacon vodka is good enough to get super fucking hammered on.
So, I’ll check out the fic. Also I’m going to try to get my hands on a local distillation of vodka that was fucking fantastic when I tried a sample, so hopefully it’s just as good as I remember.
It's already on my Read Later list. Of course, so are a lot of entires from Jake the Army Guy's contest. I'm sadly going to have to file this one under "I'll get to it when I get to it."
Don't forget Applebloom in that second photo...
I have this queued based on the author's reputation and someone else's recommendation (can't remember who now), but the possibility of tie-in to Requiem for a Dream -- which I have seen and have no urge to ever see again and don't like thinking about in the context of ponies -- had left me hesitant. Guess I'll have to read it next!
Well... okay I admit the title and the statement that it was inspired by the movie did, in fact, scare me off, but...
Well I suppose if you're sure.
Sounds like a good read...
...but I must ask; why Mark of Asylum?
Wait, the story is only partially about Celestia?? Laaaaaaame.
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I can second Horizon on this; this is very much not a crossover. (Which is good, since Requiem for a Dream tops my list of "Excellent movies I will never ever want to rewatch".)
Go read this, guys, it's wonderful.
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I'm halfway through it now, and excited to see where it goes.
Exactly. I worry that Fahrenheit really did herself a disservice by calling out that connection front-and-center to begin with.
Never seen the film and don't really have much inclination to do so, but I know the rough story -- which is part of the reason why I don't really have much inclination to see it. But the fic sounds much more intruguing, and I'll... well, shove it on the RiL with the 400+ others, but hey ho. One day I'll get to it! Thanks for the recommendation. :)
It was on my list but low as I'd never seen the film and I do agree I think the author does themselves a disservice mentioning it so early, but I'll definitely check it out. Digging the toque on the changeling btw.
Don't worry, I'll check it out... right after Sir Lucky.
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Everything about bacon vodka is a mistake. It is not a good liquor. It's my self-punishment drink.
It doesn't get you drunk so much as punch you in the head until the feeling resembles intoxication.
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Would you buy that the "some handsome pony" was a reference to her?
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This dates back to the Writeoff round where Yamgoth sponsored prizes. For my third-place showing, I won a Magic: The Gathering card related to the story I submitted. My story that round was "Mark of Destiny" and that was the closest card name to it.
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Wait a second, you think I'm the changeling? No no no — the changeling is the sign on the table in front of me. Sneaky little things, those bugs.
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Good! It can be a palate cleanser.
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No, no I would not.
On a side note, readng Requiem as I type this. *Dies from the splendor of it all*
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Also, thank you! It's a good toque. I don't know if the picture shows it off well, but it's Horizon orange, which is why I wore it.
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Looks like the story description was updated to massage out the movie reference, so apparently Fahrenheit is reading this thread.
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Huzzah!
To which story do you refer? (I'm going to guess it's not Princess Cadance's Official Princess Harem.)
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Skywriter's series of Cadance stories, collectively known as Cadance of Cloudsdale. Begins story-wise with How to Remove a Unicorn Tooth.
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What 4594576 said. If you haven't heard of them before, well worth queuing up! They're just as excellent, though not quite so underappreciated.
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I somehow forgot to mention how good they are, yes. I've re-read Unicorn Tooth and The First Time You See Her about seventy-eight times each by this point. Please send help.
I just finished. Thank you for the recommendation; this was time far more than well spent.
In a way, I appreciate that I read it in something of a fatigue-haze--not enough I think to cloud over the beautifully interwoven history and the world of magic and academia she's wrapped herself in, much less the Moondancer I can hardly imagine not existing in the world at large before... call it two weeks ago, but enough for the empathy with her mental state throughout so much of the story to immerse me the more.
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Thanks!
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Glad to hear the reading experience was so positive!