Story Reviews » SA Reviews #131 · 2:11am Jul 1st, 2018
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Paul’s eye twitched. If someone looked close enough, they might have seen the tension in his hands, like he was preparing to strangle said someone. “What do you mean, late?”
Cyne merely shrugged, not taking her eyes off the TV. To her, it was just another day.
Little did she know that Paul was descending into his own personal hell, memories of snapping elementary teachers and the eyes of dozens of fellow, on time students boring into his increasingly warm face. “We can’t be late.”
“Sure we can. It’s called the passage of time. People get busy, y’know?”
Paul slammed his hands onto the table. “We can’t be late! Being late means…” His voice shrank to a haunted whisper. “Being tardy. I must write the reviews. I’ll… I’ll stay up all night if I have to! You won’t get the best of me, Ms. Davis! Oh, no, I’m going to fix this, and nobody will ever know, and the eyes, all the eyes…” He left the room, mumbling indecipherably.
Cyne watched him leave with raised eyebrows, then casually grabbed the reviews sitting opposite her on the couch. “That guy’s got issues.”
ROUND 131
Twilight has given you a new book to read. Well, she didn't exactly give it to you, you actually just found it in the back of the library. Behind a shelf. On the ground. It looks very old, downright ancient, and it smells like moss and rot. The binding is a little cracked, and there's no title on it. You can't help but wonder what might be inside, and the only way to find out is to keep reading.
Just turn the page.
You can do that much, can't you?
Please?
You find a book, and it seems that book can ‘speak’ to you. It is aware of your existence, and it doesn’t want you to close it. Just keep turning the page. Don’t let her be alone.
This was… well, honestly, it was awesome. The author refers to it as a horror, but I never saw it as such, even if the events and end results are indeed disturbing. It is, more than anything, an excellently crafted mystery. And the easter eggs, holy wow, the easter eggs. I’ve never seen an author devote so much effort to hiding things within a story – and using other websites to do it – like anonpencil has here. When you finish the story and read the afterword, you realize that you almost certainly missed so much information. It makes you want to start over again and see if you can’t find everything.
Just don’t read the comments. Unless you want secrets to be revealed, you foul, dirty cheater, you.
Anyway, awesome story. Glad I’ll be reading it again later. Enjoy!
If you haven’t read House of Leaves, you should. If you haven’t read this, you should. They’re not that dissimilar. Anonpencil has created a story that captured the creeping horror, the absurd depth of tension, that House of Leaves has in its opening third. There is mystery here as well as dread, and from the first page to the last, the narrative grabs you by the throat and refuses to let you go. The book needs you, and that feeling of need is both unsettling and compelling. Seriously. Read this. Read it now. You need to experience this rabbit hole of a story, and find out first hand what I mean when I say that one read through is not enough by far.
Once, every decade, the changeling race prepares for their most sacred of days.
It is a celebration of life, of the past, of the bond between all Queens, past and present, and their subjects.
It is a time of joy, when all changelings return from the world beyond Flutter Valley to be with their families.
But one filly looks forward to it more than most. For Chrysalis, future Queen of the Changelings, this is her first Festival of Lights and her first step on the road to becoming Queen.
Young Chrysalis enjoys her very first Festival of Lights in the land of the changelings. This story is creative and full of visual fantasy. Based heavily on the Gaelic interpretation of changelings, but with a pleasant Equestrian flare, it is a treat of worldbuilding and cultural exploration.
Oh, and there’s filly Chrysalis being cute. Who can say no to that? Nope, stop, don’t try, you can’t. But it does make one wonder just what happened to turn her into what she is in the show now. There are underlying hints of a deep-rooted negativity aimed at ponies in this story, cushioned by the whimsical, peaceful and pleasant atmosphere. I loved that subtle touch.
Definitely a worthwhile read for those of you looking for something more visual and fantasy.
It’s a strange thing to see the childhood of a villain. But this story has done just that, taking us back in time long before Luna’s return to a day in the life of a much younger Chrysalis as she participates in a Changeling holiday. There’s not much tension here, but as a bit of cultural/character study it is rather charming. Chrysalis, her mother, and the Captain of the Queen’s guard are all eventually fleshed out, and if you are expecting a brutal vision of the Hives you will be sorely disappointed. It’s interesting to put this story’s depiction against what we got in the show and trace an imaginary speculative line from point A to point B, wondering what might have happened along the way to turn this childishly impetuous little foal into the dark Queen we first met years ago at Cadance and Shining’s wedding. More than that, and more than the vaguely celtic air, it’s hard for me not to read it as a pointed character study that wants us to ask how that foal became what she would one day become.
Twilight and Applejack get more than they bargained for when they agree to get Pinkie Pie out of Sugarcube Corner for the day. Pinkie's sudden obsession with the bakery's back door leads to an improbable adventure that sweeps Fluttershy up in its wake.
Pinkie Pie watches the back door of Sugarcube Corner. Twilight, Applejack, and Fluttershy have to deal with everything that happens around her in the meantime.
Oh, but I had fun with this. While I feel Pinkie’s interpretation was just a little too cartoony, I still loved the way she’s able to cause untold chaos and affect the world around her without even knowing it. The result is a wild ride of mayhem that is more fun than anyone might expect from the story’s humble title and cover art. If you’re looking for a silly, wild ride, you can’t go wrong with this.
Are you familiar with the phrase “comedy of errors”? A small problem presents itself, and our merry band of heroes or what have you attempt to fix it, only in doing so to encounter or more often create another problem, and in solving this problem come upon a third which complicates the other problems, and on and on ad infinitum. You get it in Shakespeare, and you often get it in sitcoms, where you have a couple of episodes where the plot is convoluted so tightly that the whole thing is just on the verge of falling apart, and the joke is that it’s all absolute nonsense. The absurdity moves everything along. “Absurd comedy of errors” fits this story pretty well, as Twilight and Applejack attempt to help the Cakes by keeping Pinkie out of the kitchen and thus from eating any of their large order, only to find themselves wandering around with a door and picking up Fluttershy somehow along the way. It doesn’t exactly go anywhere, but that’s kind of the point of this sort of story. It’s all a strange circular mess, and a fun one at that. Probably one of the funnier points for me is early on, when we’re told that Pinkie’s lack of impulse control has her more or less eating the Cake’s orders as fast as she can make them.
STORY 4
Immortal Blood, by SPark
When Prince Artemis takes a break from the stress of rulership, he meets a foreign pony who doesn't recognize him as the god of the moon. Artemis finds he enjoys talking pony-to-pony, and so avoids revealing his true nature. But what Artemis himself doesn't know is that his new friend is also hiding a secret…
Don’t let the cover art fool you, there’s no Flutterbat in this one. Instead we find a genderswapped Luna encountering a vampire who, apparently, has no idea who he is.
This was a curious tale about two lonely ponies seeking friendship in unusual places. When friends tend to grow old and die, it’s nice to find someone who won’t, y’know? The story is simple and straightforward – if you don’t get what’s really going on, you clearly didn’t pay attention to the title, the cover art, or the description. But with that simplicity comes a simple truth about friendship coming from anywhere, and sometimes when you least expect it.
It’s part of a broader universe, but that’s okay. There’s no need to know the universe to get this one. Jump on in and embrace the night… if you can survive the experience, that is.
So I like vampires. It’s a weakness. I admit it.
If you like stories where the POV character slowly reveals something that we know from the beginning, if you like the horrible revelation as a narrative tool, this is the story for you. Luna meets a new friend who enjoys the aesthetics of the night as she does, but… Well. Not all friends are created equal, and not every chance meeting is fated for good. Loneliness can lead us to strange places, and can lead us into partnerships that we never intended, that we would never have pursued beforehand. This story is a perfect example of the ways that loneliness, even in its early stages, can change our moods, behaviors, and boundaries.
“So where the heck is Paul, anyway?”
Cyne shrugged as she handed Red the reviews for the week. “He was curled in a ball in a corner of a supply closet, wearing a tin foil hat and muttering something along the lines of ‘Can’t sleep, Daybreaker is coming’.”
Red sighed and shook his head. “Well, at least he did his reviews. How’d you get them?”
“Conveniently, he left them nice and neat on the floor where I found him.”
“Huh.” Red stored the reviews in the ‘OUT’ box and tried not to envision what all might have gone on last night. “At least he’s efficient about his breakdowns.”
Intern popped his head through the door. “Can we start calling him Mr. Sparkle now?”
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I bought house of leaves like 5 years ago; I really need to read it.
Well, that was a pleasant surprise! Funnily enough I've been working on a "the serial numbers filed off" non-pony version of this story recently, but I didn't think anybody on the site even remembered it existed, it's one of my more obscure.
4892613
It's honestly my favorite book ever, and definitely one of the best books I've ever read. You absolutely need to read it.
Oh.... oh my goodness! Well... thank you guys! Really, I'm kind of shocked to see my story here! I'm glad I entertained and intrigued. And yes, absolutely yes, I was inspired by house of leaves and all of you out there NEED TO READ THAT.
House of Leaves, you say? And Broken Bindings was already on my read later list. Now I'll have to prioritize it ...