Story Reviews » SA: Round 154 · 8:57pm Jul 13th, 2019
Seattle's Angels is a group that promotes good stories with low views. You can find us here.
“Did, did that actually just happen?” Intern asked, still wide eyed and confused at the image that was seared into his retinas. Paul, not freaking out, and brushing Heartshine’s mane. There was no way that was real.
“Did what just happen?” Heartshine asked innocently.
“That thing with Paul!” Intern shouted, startling several researchers and earning several dirty looks. “You. Him. Brush. Calm. ARGH!”
“You mean him offering to brush my mane after we did our reviews? Yes. He was very nice about it, and his brush was really gentle about getting tangles out!”
“I have to be hallucinating!” Intern leaned against a wall and breathed heavily. “Is there something in the air? Did I eat something weird again? I know to avoid Cynewulf’s chilli, and all I had for breakfast today was that poptart I scrounged from Level 4.”
Heartshine gave him a concerned look. “Shouldn’t you be eating more than that?”
He continued without interruption. “Maybe the nanites are finally taking over and eating my brain! I thought they’d give horrible, debilitating pain before I lost all conscious control of myself and resigned myself to an existence of being locked inside my own head!”
“Uh…”
“And I know this isn’t like the time I ended up putting my hand in that bowl of marble things and ended up preg-” He cut himself off at Heartshine’s wide eyes. “You know, I may have overshared with that last bit, and I’d like you to forget it.”
“M-maybe we should just do reviews?”
“And… see if we can get some brain bleach.”
ROUND 154
STORY 1
Scald, by Casca
Lilac is a successful pony who has everything she wants, and is exactly the pony she wishes to be. But a small spark in her life makes her think otherwise.
A drama in Sydneigh about Equestrian life, coffee, appearances and pain.
Three separate features. Equestria Daily, The Royal Guard, and the Round Robin Reviews. And still low enough in views for us to put in here. I’m not sure to be annoyed that not enough people have read this to disqualify or delighted because we get to talk about it as well. I’ll let you decide.
So let’s get to that talking of the story part. Heartshine has a knack for picking out stuff that seems sweet and fluffy going in and then hits you like a bat to the face just when you think things are going exactly how you thought they would. I started reading a story about a mare that begins taking a liking to the local barista and ends with Wuthering Heights. She likes to keep it real, so to speak.
This took me places I didn’t think it would, and it speaks very well to our current times. How we all wear, drink, eat, watch, and buy stuff that we think will make us popular and happy, but really ends up burying our underlying problems until it erodes away our carefully constructed palace. It’s really striking how it all sneaks up on you.
Big recommendation here. It’s a slow burn that’s scalding by the end, and doesn’t fall into the typical trap of ending with a kiss to make it all better. But, there is a path to make it all better, if the characters are willing to take it.
I HAVE DONE NOTHING BUT CONSUME ROMANCE FICS FOR TWO WEEKS. And this one was part of it, and I regret nothing!. Set in Sydneigh, this adorable romance starts off with a love for something not pony: coffee. Yes, this is a love story about delicious hot bean juice and how it can make a day, and having a special spot in your own coffee shop is the best thing in Equestria.
Unless you’re lonely, realise that you’re a little older than your peers who are pairing off, and living in a studio apartment doing a job that gets you by but you kind of hate. That’s where Lilac finds herself, and like any good romance story, realises that she may be developing feelings for the barista that owns the coffee shop that she frequents. Like any well bred, well meaning young woman, this discovery promptly annoys her, and she spends several days irritated at the barista for existing. Yes, this is in fact sometimes how attraction works for girls. Believe me, it doesn’t make us any happier about it either.
But like coffee, this story is at points bitter and sweet, with notes of self-discovery, and the realisation that sometimes the most important thing when looking for someone in an unexpected place is to be friends first, then work on the relationship later. I do have a small complaint about a moment of possible melodrama, but honestly, how Lilac responds to it saves the piece. And I feel that the idea of friendship first, then building up to a relationship is a very show-like aesop that really made me really happy with this story. Down to the last drop.
Nightmare Moon has won. The endless night belongs now to her. Everypony is asleep, trapped inside her dreamscape. Here, and only here, will her favorite prisoners face their flaws—and perhaps reveal something about NM to herself.
I’m sure many have heard the phrase before, seeing as we now live in this heavily memeable world. Well, now we get to see it in pony form and this story certainly doesn’t shy away from the themes in the source material.
So in this alternate universe take on Nightmare Moon winning, she decides the best way to deal with the ponies that tried to stop her return is to torment them in their dreams/nightmares. And the author takes full advantage of the malleability of dreams to twist the knife all the more cruelly into her favorite victims. The one involving Applejack was especially nasty.
However, there’s more to this than torturing beloved characters. If that were the case, I doubt I would have recommended it. No, there are other forces at work here that reflect back on Nightmare Moon, making this an interesting character piece as well as horror. So, if you can stomach some unpleasantness, there’s a lot here to gleen, with an ending that leaves room for interpretation.
So having read the source material, I kinda knew what I was getting into. However, the ways that the world twists and turns throughout this story is utterly fascinating, and dreams have long been thought to be the source of our greatest and darkest desires.
Nightmare Moon won. Now those who tried to defeat her are trapped at her mercy, forever locked into their own nightmares of the Night Mare’s designs. She’s developed favourites, and is cruel and hateful to each one. She even goes on to claim that the word hate was spawned in Equestria for her and her alone. But there’s a lot to be said about people who hate, and like Intern mentioned in his review, the character study of Nightmare Moon herself is what really makes this piece shine.
The ending is a very interesting twist, and leaves some rather fascinating implications for the story. It also slots itself nicely into active pony canon after the episode “Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?”
STORY 3
Forget Me Nots, by Sun Sage
Despite years together, Sunset has yet to meet Wallflower's parents. With their wedding only months away, it's time to do that, and more importantly, it's time to know why it hadn't happened until now.
You know, with how prevalent female/female pairings are in this fandom, seeing these two characters shipped together doesn’t raise my eyebrows any more than other couples would. I judge more on execution more on who’s dating who. And I do like how this story fleshes out how a relationship between Sunset and Wallflower could work.
The crux of the story though is when important members of our family don’t approve of our partners. The fic hits on that pretty hard, and it gets darned real.
So yeah, hit this one up if you like to see adorable Sunset/Wallflower mingling followed by a confrontation that may hit some sensitive spots.
So, I have a confession to make: I love Wallflower. She showed up for a scant few minutes in an entire special, and honestly she was one of the more fascinating characters that I would love to see returned to EQG. As I said earlier, I’ve been reading a lot of shipfics recently, and this one came up. And it’s one of a slew of Sunset/Wallflower pairings that came about as a result of one particular shipping contest.
But what I liked about it was how it dealt with how Wallflower became the way she was. Social anxiety is one thing, but Waffles really struggles to relate to people. She seems more in tune with her garden than her fellow students, and while she’s crushingly lonely when she uses the memory stone, she keeps using it. So looking at the possible reasons why that might be the case was fascinating to me.
It is shippy, and somewhat rough at moments, given her parents aren’t the most stellar examples of humanity. From my own personal experiences with coming out, this story ended up having examples of my nightmares, but also ends with the idea that family isn’t everything. But it sure does have some zingers of lines that are 2meirl4meirl. “Why not? I’ve already been lying to them for years. Why change now?” is way too freaking relatable.
Twilight realizes she's lost track of a book. But it's not just any book... it's that book: the first one she recalls being read to her...
A collaborative work, by the main characters in the story itself. You'll see what I mean...
Are you ready for classic Twilight Sparkle freakout? Good, because I’ve got you covered!
I’ll admit, the trope of Twilight getting worked up over trivial things is getting stale, but this one has a much clearer message. It’s not just about Twilight going overboard (though it certainly has that), but about learning that it’s okay to let go sometimes. We get so set on assigning value on material things that we forget that what’s important is the memories and emotions behind it all.
One last thing to note is that the narrative can be a little confusing, in that it’s told in semi-first person/third person speak. However, this gets cleared up by the end, making a second read-through much more personable than you are led to believe.
So Twilight freaking out over something isn’t new, but honestly, I really appreciated this story because of some of the inherent meaning we ascribe to objects that we possess. I actually ended up writing a blog about it after reading this because there’s something to be said about having comfort objects in our lives, and how certain things we have (and regrettably sometimes lose) are very meaningful to us as people. Or… ponies in this case!
The story has a very unique style of writing that blends third and first person, and it lends itself to feeling like you’re sitting down in the room with the four characters that feature in the story prominently, listening to them tell it as it is. I found it kind of unique, and that’s what kept me going throughout the story. I really recommend it if you’ve ever had something that you’ve kept from your childhood that you were super attached to, and you thought you’d lost it.
Heartshine piled another soft thing on top of Intern. It’d taken doing reviews, some gentle music, a massage, and three cups of chamomile tea to calm him down. Now that he was lying down on a futon in her office, surrounded by the scent of apples and cinnamon while pan flute music played from a small record player, he was at peace.
“I think I could get used to this,” Intern said from beneath the pile of soft things. The blindfold Heartshine had provided prevented him from seeing what they were, but they were soft, and that was soothing.
“Good. I’m glad to hear you’re feeling better. Now just relax with your new friends for a bit. It said they were really popular toys back in the day, and they’re soft. So just rest, and I’ll be back in about fifteen minutes,” Heartshine replied, gently closing the door.
The Intern shuffled beneath the pile of plushies, content for a moment until he heard a noise he’d not heard in years. A noise that haunted his nightmares.
“FRIEND! U-nye-loo-lay-doo?”
Soon a chorus of doo-dahs and yays joined the others in an unholy choir as the Intern realized he had been buried in Furbies. She couldn’t have known what horrors those freakish items Hasbro had summoned from the 8th circle of hell were. She was a pony. All Heartshine knew was that they were soft and labelled as ‘toys.’ A solitary tear ran down the Intern’s once relaxed cheek.
He had a mouth, but he feared what would happen if he screamed.
Feel free to visit our group for more information and events, and to offer some recommendations for future rounds. See you all next time!
My kids had Furbies...whuich made the ending all the more funny and tragic!
Casca, huh? Well, it wouldn't be the first time a former Angel was featured here.
5088409
Oh! I didn't know she used to do reviews for the Angels!
The pre- and post-review tidbits are minifics in their own right haha. Quite entertaining.
5088442
Wait, has Casca been a she this whole time?
5088492
I... actually don't know Casca's gender and my brain defaulted to girl cause I'm a girl so...
5088492
5088504
Was he on the first podcast? There's a time thing on the forum post saying, "1:00:39 - A wild Casca joins!"
https://www.fimfiction.net/group/1734/seattles-angels/thread/19050/live-qa-5-10-2013
Anyway, yeah. Casca was one of the first 8 reviewers in this group. His (I'm assuming) name is all over the first 20 or so rounds, and his last round was 78.
https://www.fimfiction.net/group/1734/seattles-angels/thread/105143/seattles-angels-archive-and-resource-thread
That marble pregnancy thing was a ST:Enterprise reference, right?
5088561
Could it be anything else?
Intern is a pretty large step down from chief engineer...
Wait, what? I could have sworn we'd already done Scald at one point. If not, how in Luna's name did I not recommend it after all this time? I am slipping!
5088749
According to the story homepage, you recommended it on your Round Robin Reviews. Maybe that's what you're thinking of?
Either way, we got to showcase it!
5088561
XD yes. Don't put your hands in the marbles, boys. Even if the girl is pretty.
I received a notification about this today. Why is that, I’m wondering. Was one of my stories featured by you guys?
5089020
Because the SA features qualify as site posts, so they show up in everyone’s notification feed.
5089075
Word. Thanks for clarifying! Is the site not what it used to be or something? I see about the same number of people on the site as I did several years ago and over a million people are on here a day.
5088927
I agree! Hands should stay away from me!
I hope one day a story of mine is featured here...