It Is Recommendsday, My Dudes #114 · 8:48pm May 24th, 2023
So now that the Spring Fling contest is over, I'm freed up a bit in my recommendations. See, I did my best to avoid blogging to recommend any of the contestants for fear of coming across as biased or otherwise hinting at what was going on inside the judge's room. (It's probably silly, but it's the same sort of silly that had me holding off giving FoME a follow for two months during Imposing Sovereigns II because I was concerned it would look like I was sucking up. It isn't rational but it's my jam.) So now that it's over? I've got the opportunity to give a look to one contestant who I've been waiting for the chance to, and another who's given me a prime opportunity.
The first of those is to one of the new authors who I think is really going to be going places in the near future: heartlessons. A very new author (reg October 2022; first publish March 2023), they've already dropped two damn excellent stories. The second took third place in the Spring Fling but it's the first publish that I want to talk about: The Way It Goes Down.
This one's a little tough to summarize, largely because our perspective character is completely unidentified - no name, gender, description, anything. The only named characters are Principal Celestia, Principal Cinch, and Dean Cadance (who isn't named but is laid out fairly obviously.) But the story follows that unnamed Wondercolt as the Canterlot High teams are beat again and again by Crystal Prep.
As they lose, there's a camaraderie that is built up: the CHS losers laughing at the Prep winners. Even in defeat, they find little victories and come together. And then in the final scene, we see a similar spot from the victorious Crystal Prep bus - lonely and barely caring about their win. As one commenter notes it isn't clear if it's a perspective change or if the unnamed Wondercolt transferred schools. (I personally find the second is my own read but both are valid.)
This one struck me from the start by the unusual perspective and presentation. It takes a lot of courage to make such an unusual story your first publish and a good chunk of talent to make it succeed. But it works really well here: we may not know the identity of the protagonist, but their situation is relatable and understandable. We don't really need to know their name to understand the pain of being beat down.
The final section adds a great punch to it, too. That change to the other side of the coin really drives home what we see in canon about the CHS/Crystal Prep dichotomy and how the two schools have such different vibes. It's short but really strong.
Combine this story with the power that is Doused Flame and you've got an author to really keep an eye on. I think they're going places and are going to publish some damn strong stuff.
Now the other side of the coin is an author who returned unexpectedly: the famed Oroboro. She's been out doing Owl House fiction for a while, so newer readers might not be familiar. But she's a damn big name from the site's middle days and one of the names for Best Human Sunset Shimmer stories. I actually owe her a fair bit, having gotten my start writing in her contest Sunset Shipping Contest: Endings (which I bulldozed out three entries for in a flurry of inspiration) so she's always been kind of a big deal to me. And this time I'm gonna point to one of her greatest works: the Sunset Shipping Project (represented here with the finale installment, For the Love of Sunset.)
So the Sunset Shipping Project is a series of six romances where Sunset bonds with each of her friends before there's finally a confession that the other girl's in love with Sunset and wants a date. Each one is masterfully done (my personal favorite is Rarity and A Suit With Sincerity) because they do the work to make Sunset's bond with them real. Each story takes the time to establish a connection before proceeding to the "I like you" even though even starting from the canon point it would be an easy sell. (Sunset being a 15/10 makes her an easy ship that way.)
But the really interesting part is that all the stories are at least partially canon to each other. They reference the other story events happening, though in the other ones there's never a confession and the plans for a date. (For example the Pinkie story directly references Sunset's muscle aches from helping Rainbow Dash in that story.) This creates a fascinating little stack of nested stories that work with each other. Right up until story #7 where Twilight does Twilight things, breaks the timeline, and then all the stories happen at once including the dates. Which, of course, turns into chaos.
That last installment really goes the extra mile for drama, too - each story stands perfectly well on its own and are wonderful individual romances. But smashing them all together into one messy pile elevates the rest by adding both chaos and comedy into the mix. (Plus a hilarious ending!)
This series has some of the best Sunset romances on the site individually, written by one of the site's best writers of Sunset, that combine into a finale that's as top notch as you would expect. If you like Best Human, this series is a must read.
New or catching up? Try Recommendsday: The Index for your story needs!
Yay for Oroboro!
Ooh, I'd missed that Oroboro had published a new fic here! Even though that's not the one you feature here, I am looking forward to reading it. As for heartlessons, I shan't say much for somewhat similar reasons to those you mention about other people at the start: heartlessons is an entrant in this month's flashfic contest, which is currently in judging, but suffice to say it's a name I've already got on my radar.
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I had quite the reaction when I saw it.
"Oh hey, Oroboro entered the contest."
"
a pause
"Oroboro's back?! Holy
And yes. heartlessons is certainly one to watch. Some mighty good skills there.
Oh wow thank you so much!! This just made my day. I'm so glad you enjoyed! :D
I like that you pointed out the different ways you can view the ending. There's not anything in the text that suggests a "right" or "wrong" interpretation of it and I think that's one of my favorite parts about sharing stories online like this--you can approach a piece with an idea and a meaning in your head but once you put it out there, people are going to take away certain things from it. It's all very fun. c:
Thank you again for the kind words!!