Fic recs, May 18th! · 5:42pm May 18th, 2023
VisualPony has done readings of bottled_up's Gateway Drug, RazgrizS57's Insufficient Postage, and horizon's If You Can't Beat 'Em…!
I have nothing special to put here except that I hit another milestone!
H: 1 R: 1 C: 2 V: 1 N: 0
Into Darkness by Donnys Boy
Reading by TheLostNarrator and Magpiepony
Review #8200!
Genre: Horror/Romance
Pinkie hasn't seen Rarity since she learned Rarity's secret. Now, she's going to Carousel Boutique to find out what happened to her friend.
Man, Donnys Boy hasn't been on the site since 2015. ;_; Wherever he is, I hope he's doing okay. And I am so glad he left this behind! This is both really good shipping and really good horror, exactly what I would expect. The best part is watching the scenario unfold once Pinkie gets into the boutique: it's clear she doesn't grasp the situation quite as quickly as we can, and then our understanding of what's going on continues to morph and evolve as the story continues. This is so original, you guys! And Pinkie gets to pull out some badass lines by the end, and said ending is perfect. This is the kind of story where afterwards I just have to stomp around and throw my hands up while exclaiming about how good it was. :D
Highly Recommended
What am I reading? by Luv-mi
Reading by Midnight29
Genre: Random Comedy
In the ruins of her former library home, Twilight finds an undamaged book.
You know, I had high hopes for this at first. The way heartstring-tugging is used to start off a comedy story, and especially the way the silly stuff is introduced amidst the emotional before there's a narrative double-take, I thought we might be dealing with at least something on the level of TheOnly's trollfics. Alas. This is one of those stories that spends way too much time focused on one 'random' thing that doesn't justify its own screen time. But moreover, this got me thinking: the reason I don't go for these sorts of random fics is that they feel like they were written via Mad-Libs. "And then Discord's [body part] turned into a [fruit or vegetable]". There's no real rhyme or reason to why certain things happen, to why certain words are given more humorous weight than they really deserve. And ultimately, I always walk away feeling unsatisfied. Granted, it all is meant to lead up to a really dumb joke that likely thought it was far more clever than it was. But by the end, all I could say was, this is a story what I read.
Vaguely Recommended
Why Do You Love Me? by Silver Mint
Reading by Lotus Moon
Genre: Romance
It's not like Rarity to be insecure.
For such a short story, this is quite good. All you need for a good romance fic is a question like the one posed by the title, a reason to dig into a relationship just a little bit. That it comes with a bit of character-building for both of them doesn't hurt!
Recommended
Όmorfosrhódonesorouchaphobia by shortskirtsandexplosions
Reading by Midnight29
Genre: Random Comedy
Starlight helps Trixie search for underwear so she can get to sleep.
Boy oh boy. Oh boy. Boy. What the fuck. I have to wonder if, had this story been written by someone else, I wouldn't have complained it was being random for random's sake. But I think that's giving skirts too little credit. He's able to both make the weirdness lead up to something as well as just write a comedy with good flow. That's all you need! And with something as strange as this story, that's more than you could really ask for. XD God, it was weird, love it.
Recommended If You Like Weird Shit
Dancing Green and Laughing by HungryLibrary
Reading by Lotus Moon
Genre: Shipping
Bonbon meets an unusual green mare at a pub.
Once again, I feel compelled to comment on the author, because holy shit, look at that wall of text! I think there used to be a much higher character limit for that? Maybe? And I guess long author descriptions were grandfathered? But once again, an author who was on the site for a couple months a decade ago and left us with exactly one story. How is that story? Uh, okay, I guess. I will say, I don't think I've seen a St. Patrick's Day themed Lyrabon before, which is really weird to say. Surely there are more that I just haven't read, right? And there's a small detail that I think you're supposed to notice that one of them is putting on an accent. Butt there's also been no attempt to ponify St. Patrick's Day, and a lot of the dialogue is odd and hard to follow, even with the voices in the reading. A case could be made that this is intentional, because they're drunk, but I think it's more likely an issue with the writing. At the end of the day, this is cute, but the main reason it stands out really has nothing to do with how it's written.
Recommended for LyraBon Fans Only
I honestly can't make up my mind about shortskirtsandexplosions fics. Sometimes I think he gets away with too much because he's, well, shortskirtsandexplosions. (Case in point: "A sapient chastity belt" ain't really an E-rated fic thing.) Other times I'm left in awe that someone who writes so weirdly can actually produce more than just the very occasional moment of brilliance. So I think it's probably both, neither, or both of those at once.
Into Darkness, however, is going straight on the RiL list.
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oh, he does absolutely get away with a lot based on reputation, no argument there :P I have let him get away with a lot of crap in the past because he continues to be entertaining in a unique way!