It Is Recommendsday, My Dudes #134 · 6:57pm Oct 11th, 2023
Y'know? I don't think I've really got a lot to talk about this week. There's no real deep message or reasoning behind this week's pair of stories, nor is there a really big thing to natter on about. Aside from HEY IMPOSING SOVERIENGNS IS HAPPENING it's pretty steady.
But that also gives me a reminder to put another FoME story up again.
So here it is! The Stars are Wrong.
Night Light attends the newly returned Princess Luna's court as a representative of the Canterlot Astronomical Society with a simple request: stop moving the stars around, it's making their job annoying. And now Twilight and Shining Armor need to get him out of jail.
This is one of those comedic shorts that's both simple and sublime. The pitch is straight forward, easy to understand, and inherently funny. Dialogue is snappy and in character. There's plenty of little jokes layered under the main one - I particularly love Night Light playing dirty with Twilight. Plus it's got that sweet, sweet FoME writing that's just quality.
Probably the part I enjoy most is that both Luna and Night Light are totally reasonable people in this, both with understandable positions and good reasons to do what they do. Neither one's holding the idiot ball and they almost reach a solution several times before they get tripped up. The jokes rely on the humor inherent in the scenario, not any of the parties being dumbasses and that's refreshing. Heck, this could be a great drama with a slightly different tack and a bit more length. As usual, it's a testament to FoME's skill that it could go either way.
Now since I did a Night Light focused one, it's only fair I give one to Twilight Velvet too. So let's talk Death of the Author by RB_.
Twilight Velvet - famous author - has finished writing The Mariposa's End, eighth and final book in her series. It's time to retire and spend time with her family and new grandfoal. There's only one problem: she killed off the main character, Jackstay, in the book's finale. Now his waterlogged corpse is shambling around, haunting her.
C'mon, I'm not one for horror but it's October! Gotta have a little spooky around!
Anyway. This one's fun for me because as an author? It hits something very familiar. I'm a big believer in the idea that a properly conceptualized character writes themselves - that little voice that pops up and goes "I wouldn't do that." The more haunting side, of course, is that they're generally not eager to die and one fighting back against it is kind of one of my worst nightmares. (That and the fact that one day I'm going to go senile and spend my days narrating new fic ideas to the nurses in the hospice.)
It's also relatively subtle about it. It's never clear if this is a true haunting or just Velvet's mind going a bit wonky. Jackstay never really does anything aside from loom and be creepily present, which makes it better horror to my eye. I'm not one for the bloody slasher, so this is more my sweet spot.
RB_ is one of those authors that's been around forever and has a bunch of great stories (including the currently featured Damselfly) yet doesn't grab nearly as many headlines as similarly aged and talented authors. If you haven't read their work before (and I think this is somehow the first time I've featured them!) this one's a solid place to start.
New or catching up? Try Recommendsday: The Index for your story needs!
I see that according to your Recommendsday bookshelf, FoME has been featured here four times. I wonder if that's an author record? 250+ stories into to Recommendsday, could be, you tend to keep the authors varied and jump around quite a bit.
Alas, while I know many bookshelf filtering strings, I have yet to come across one that returns the stories sorted by author with most frequent upfronted, so that's one for you to answer.
If I have to resort to the Idiot Ball, the story isn't worth telling. Glad you enjoyed this one.
I read the Stars are Wrong before and it nearly killed me from laughter with the back and forth.
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Mica and Ninjadeadbeard, actually, appears to be tied for the top with 5.