Fic recs, November 24th: Project Get! #14 · 8:55pm Nov 24th, 2022
Project Get! is an attempt to get more views on stories with low view counts. I sort my RIL by views (something that necessitated me making a second RIL because I had too many stories on the first one!), go to the end, and pick the first ten completed stories by ten different authors, to deliver unto you all in the hopes you will read them.
Also, I hear it's a holiday or something, happy stuff. :B
H: 2 R: 3 C: 4 V: 0 N: 1
Goats of Summer by SparklingTwilight
Genre: Drama/Light Romance
Friendship camp this summer was bound to be… interestin'.
It's a real shame there's more than one story from the Fiddledust contest in this blog. A shame because the very niche pairing didn't gin up a lot of attention, and so it's very possible most folks missed out on stories like this one. This is… honestly really hard to sum up! I was floored by the first chapter, with its whirlwind in medias res opening and narrative chock full of personality. And, normally, I would probably clang the "don't write narrative in vernacular" bell along with a lot of other prescriptivists — and, in fairness, Fiddlesticks's accent does get ridiculous in places, though it's nowhere near as bad as Lightning Dust's — but here? Here it just feels like the right choice to have made. We're not just being told a story by Fiddlesticks, we're living it alongside her remembrance of it. You get soaked in the events, the characters, and the history that unfolds alongside the tale of this summer, and I really loved it. Also, there's a surprisingly excellent portrayal for Bulk Biceps here that I also really loved. I will say the justification for pairing Fiddle and Lightning is pretty transparently just that, and while this won't be for everyone, I feel like taking a chance on it is a really good idea.
Highly Recommended
A Study in Silver: A RariTwi Exquisite Corpse by SigmaSonicX, Undome Tinwe, Nonchalant, Lingo, WilloIllo, Tache, The Red Parade, trAce and TGM
Genre: Humanized Mystery/Non-Humanized Action/Light Comedy/Oh yeah, shipping I guess
After her mother and best friend disappear, Diamond Tiara hires detective Rarity to investigate.
Here's our government-mandated one (1) exquisite corpse per blog. >.> And I have to say, on a certain level, I am disappointed! I daresay the authors of the first half of this story were cheating. Providing as much summary as they do goes entirely against the spirit of an exquisite corpse and leaves said half feeling like a single well thought-out story. Of course, once things do start changing and being left out, I rather enjoyed how subtly those changes happened. See how long it takes before you realize they're ponies now. Or that Trixie's role has completely changed. Or where Diamond Tiara went. If anything, for those uninterested in the whole exquisite corpse deal, this one might be consistent enough to make you change your mind.
Recommended
Bad Jokes and Blind Mares by bahatumay
Genre: Drama/Romance
Laid up in the hospital after a bad accident, the last thing Lightning Dust needs is a musician-cum-comedian as a roommate.
Of all the Fiddledust stories I've read, this one might have done the best job of creating a dynamic for them. The character work here is super great, and really makes the whole story. There are some other clever bits, too, like how Lightning Dust's condition isn't revealed until the end of the first chapter, yet is obfuscated so well that you'd never even notice it had been. If anything's missing, it's basically the middle of the story. I figure being a contest entry is likely to blame for that. Of course, this might also just be a case of me liking the characters so much, I simply wanted to hang out with them more. But surely something in the year they know each other could have been shared, right? >:B Well, whatever, it's still good.
Recommended
The Ghastlycrunch Ponies Anthology by Dinkledash
Genre: Dark Comedy/Poetry
I'm not actually familiar with The Ghastlycrumb Tinies. To wit, I had to look up the title because I couldn't remember it past "crumb". <.< These four bite-sized poems, then, I can only assume are inspired by it. The first, with its alphabetical list of ponies dying, is probably the closest to anything in the original? Again, just guessing. As for the rest, the second one is about Lovecraft stuff, the third — easily the best — is the author lamenting his tendency to turn any story idea grimdark, and the final one is filk, so the less said about that, the better. >.> How does it hold up as poetry? Eh, 8/10? Not bad at all, just a few metric flubs here and there, and nothing I couldn't immediately see an easy fix for. So, yeah, if you're into a little dark humor and want something easy on the eyes, not a bad pick.
Recommended for Fans of Dark Comedy
Gender Reveal Party: "I Like to Blow S**t Up." by Mockingbirb
Genre: The Very Definition of Random
Okay, but what's in your pants?
My first thought was that this would be the sort of story the online kids today might call "very gender". Except it's about a pony living that delectable dream of having no gender at all, so that might be a contradiction. Absolutely nothing about this makes sense, the story is quite aware of this fact, and it revels in itself. What a thing this is, for sure.
Recommended If You Like Random Comedies
SuperTrampoline Made Me Do It. That is all. It's also a HORRIBLE first story. Teach them mods to fail my first submitted. That one was actually decent. PTHTHTHTH! by Latrans
Genre: Actually I Take That Back, This One Is the Definition of Random
We are all horrible.
Super Trampoline himself says this story models his style "to a T", so who am I to argue with him? That said, I do kind of think it jumps into the full-on no-sense-make random stuff a little too soon. It was building towards what looked like some fun absurdism before, nope, everything explodes. And then it kind of does that again. But it's sort of all worth it for the drug-themed parody of "Gypsy Bard"?
Recommended Only If You Really Like Randomness
No Passion by wishcometrue
Genre: Drama/Romance
If Fiddlesticks is sure of anything, it's that her life will always be the same.
Hey, this one was third place in the contest! :O And it clearly got there by demonstrating what one must do to make this pairing work: Give Fiddlesticks a character, then give the two of them a dynamic. And while this does feel a bit compressed, again like the previous one, but it's still a good look at a pony who is clearly depressed, and the other pony who springs into her life as the one thing she needed to shake it up. Granted, I suppose that gives this something of a "getting into a relationship will fix your mental illness" vibe, but given that the getting together only happens at the very end, I think I can let it slide.
Recommended
The Princess Inside by teamidris
Genre: Drama
As the return of her sister nears, Princess Celestia wonders if she's ready.
I have to admit, it was a little hard to follow what was going on in this story, because the writing is a bit choppy and when it isn't, it's very vague. That said, this does have an interesting explanation for some of the events we saw in the first episode. I've definitely never seen anyone else come up with it!
Recommended for Celestia and Nightmare Moon Fans
Midnight Bloo by Impossible Numbers
Genre: Drama
Where does the candy go on Nightmare Night?
You know what kind of story I like best? The kind that can take an aspect of canon and fold it into a story about characters, while exploring both and diminishing neither. This is a perfect example of what I mean. At its core, this is a story about a filly and her overbearing mother finally come to terms with each other thanks to the interference of an unexpected guest. But hung around that is a fantastical mythos about monsters under beds, Nightmares and a whole lot of other awesome stuff. It would not be overselling this story to call that part of it "Gaimanesque", it's just so whimsical, not only in the way it's told, but also the way it's constructed. I was seriously blown away by this from the word go, in a way I have not experienced for a long, long time.
Highly Recommended: Top Fifteen
Smart Cookie by Star Side
Genre: Slice of Life
It's pretty obvious this author is not a native English speaker. Brave to write entire stories in another language! The meaning of everything is clear enough, it's just the word choice and phrasing that comes off as strange. That being, the 'everything' is also really dull. And kind of confusing. I mean, why name an OC Smart Cookie in the first place when we have a canon character with that name? This was written well after Heart's Warming Eve, after all. And given the preponderance of modern-day electronics just slapped into this thing, it would work better as G5 fic. Point is, I didn't like it, even disregarding the issues with the writing.
Not Recommended
Some of these have my attention. I think I shall add them to my lists. The dark comedy poetry certainly looks like my kind of thing.
FiddleDust.
That abomination was on someone's (let alone your) RIL list?! I am so sorry. As I explained to the story approver, if the story has a point it's that the story doesn't have a point. It was an exercise in obsurdism and existentialism with bits added to get it above the minimum word count (because I forgot that song lyrics don't count towards it).
5699926
I listen to people's recommendations
sometimes, those people are super trampoline :V
5699967
That's fair. It just surprises me when it actually get attention because it IS such a niche thing. I wrote it pretty specifically for Super and fans of Super's work.
That said, I do appreciate the review. Thank you.
5700158
I'll tell you what, it takes a lot of guts to post something like that as your first story, especially after the first one failed moderation. :D
And to think: all this because I saw one background filly and asked, "So what's her deal, then?" Man, if this is the result, I gotta do that more often... 🤔
One idea I really liked was that Luna would recruit nightmares as her soldiers, and that after the Nightmare Moon incident they basically became war veterans struggling to adjust to civilian life. It was partly based on an old news story I vaguely remembered reading once about real war veterans, and in the context of happy, optimistic Equestria where ponies "shunned and slept through her beautiful night", the idea made a weird amount of sense.
If I were the bragging type, I'd crow about this for the next three weeks and still bring it up at parties thereafter. But what does that "Top Fifteen" bit mean? Never seen or noticed it before. Is it for some kind of yearly list, like in your review group?
Basically, I cannot adequately express how insanely pleased I am right now to be reading this. ⭐
5700231
the Top Fifteen can be found at the bottom of my profile :) it's my fifteen most favorite fics ever, continuously updated, though I haven't in quite some time, which is likely why you don't recall seeing it
also, I don't keep track of it in any other way, on purpose :B couldn't even tell you what you kicked out now
5700238
5700244
do it :3