Fic recs, February 15th! · 3:49pm February 15th
TheLostNarrator has done a reading of Ice Star's Discord Pokes Fluttershy's Tits, with DaWillstanator and MaryMedley!
I have to say, while I severely appreciate the two-month hiatus that has allowed me to keep my audiobook list under 200 videos, it is now very strange that Pony & Wolf Productions haven't put out any new videos since the start of the year. c_c Anyone know what might have happened to them?
H: 1 R: 3 C: 2 V: 1 N: 0
Moonsilver by Odd_Sarge
Reading by Midnight29
Genre: Historical Drama
Why serve the moon?
This is just a tad obtuse, likely owing to the slim word count. It took me quite some time to realize what the setting was, for instance, though that could also just be on me. But hey, it's a classic tale, told again and again, and getting to see it from the eyes of Luna's last, most faithful servant makes it fresh anew. :)
Recommended
A Tale of Cards by SuperPinkBrony12
Reading by Agent0Fluffy, et. al.
Genre: Slice of Life
Stinging after the latest rebuke from his aunt, Prince Blueblood visits a seedy casino to wile away his troubles, and meets a few interesting ponies there.
If you haven't seen the episode of the original animated Batman series this fic is based off of, it's the one where a bunch of Batman's most notorious rogue's gallery members tell their versions of various encounters they had with The Bat while playing poker. It was a pretty fun and memorable episode, and I suppose I have to give the author credit for not forcing its best line (you can find mention of it in the comments) into this scenario, where it would not have fit naturally. But on the whole? I dunno, this feels like it's lacking something, though I couldn't definitively say what. Maybe it's just weird that it's season four and Blueblood is still broken up about what happened at the Gala. Maybe there isn't enough chemistry between this particular lineup of antagonists. Maybe there needed to be more big rocks. Whatever the case, by the end I realized I was just reliving a handful of events from disparate episodes, told mostly straightforwardly and with minimal embellishments. An attempt was definitely made to add something, as they all come to a conclusion of "pony's Element was bad", but that's about it. If anything, what this really needs is a sequel; it ends on a solid hook, a story teaming all five of these ponies up has a ton of potential, and if this were a setup for a longer piece, that by itself would go a long way toward granting it merit. As-is, it's okay, but that's about it. Also, I'm surprised Trixie wasn't in it.
Recommended If You Like These Characters
The Good Art by TCC56
Reading by Midnight29
Genre: Comedy
Celestia had never been a fan of critics.
While the cover art does give away one of the final jokes in this story, there's so much more to this than just an art critic critiquing Discord's statue, a hilarious concept in and of itself. I was frankly over the moon about the slew of ridiculous ponifications of classic artists and art pieces. But the OC art critic himself is also pretty funny, which is good since his role is more or less that of Zesty Gourmand, just with art instead of food. Overall, this is a hysterical little fic, and the final punchline just floored me. :D Great stuff!
Highly Recommended
Twilight Sparkle Reviews the Shinning on the Radio by Twinsez
Reading by Lotus Moon
Genre: Comedy
Or at least, she tries to.
This is one of those cases where I really have to wonder what the author was going for. On the one hand, the radio angle just doesn't really make any sense as a setting? Why does this need to be on the radio? I have to assume it was an attempt to do a more pony version of something, but what, I'm not sure, and that right there could explain why I rather bounced off the story. Twilight reviewing a book, even a somewhat odd choice like a ponified version of The Shining, makes plenty of sense, and while I might quarrel somewhat with the direction the pony puns went (I mean, just look at the title), that by itself makes for what could have been the bulk of the comedy. If it weren't such a straightforward adaptation of the original, that is. Instead, the focus seems to be on Twilight being unable to read her script, stumbling over words, and swearing. And I dunno, I just did not find that interesting. Plus, Fluttershy was an odd choice as backup character. Having someone for Twilight to bounce issues off of was a solid decision, but why her? She didn't really add much beyond that. Again, I'm just not sure what was being attempted here, but it didn't work for me.
Vaguely Recommended
Master of the Meta Deck by marmalado
Reading by Midnight29
Genre: Comedy
Twilight and Pinkie play a foal's card game.
I give this author major, major props for the game design in this story. Not because it's good, necessarily, but because it is obtuse, opaque, and horrendously complicated, which is what every card game looks like from the outside. :) Also, it's definitely the sort of thing nerds would get meta over. This, then, is the basis for a simple, funny shortfic about how aggravating it is to try and play a CCG with someone who's really good at it, i.e. the reason I never got into CCGs in the first place. :P Simple concept, straightforward execution and solid technique combine for an all-around fun story!
Recommended
Coffee by Flutterguy89
Reading by Agent0Fluffy
Genre: Noir/Shipping
Hey, look, a new anthology, yaaaaay. <_<;; This one is notable because A) it's all Flutterdash stories, B) they are all, if I'm not mistaken, well under a thousand words. Like this one, which is basically just a single description of Fluttershy from the point of view of Rainbow Dash, P.I. Well, and some solid noir-style writing. It's short and maybe lacking substance, but it's still good! Still fun.
Recommended for Shippers
They're the Same by D-20
Reading by Midnight29
Genre: Random Comedy
Princess Ember needs help, so why are the ponies being so rude?
This is yet another example of how to do a good one-joke fic. You take Ember's inability to tell Twilight and Starlight apart, extrapolate that for a thousand words of ridiculousness, and then bring it back home with the ending. The centerpiece, of course, is what she ends up confusing for members of the Mane Six, which I will leave entirely to you to find out. :) This was a lot of fun.
Recommended
Hell yeah.
Also a thumbs up from me on Moonsilver. I quite liked that one, as well.
Skill issue.
And yes, some outstanding Thousand Word entries here. (I’ll be honest, I accepted the invitation to judge both of them so I wouldn’t have to try cramming a story into so small a space.)
I also had a good time with TCC56's fic. It didn't quite blow me away to the extent it did you, but it's absolutely worth the few minutes it takes to read such a short fic. Funny comedies, actually funny comedies, are rarer than they ought to be.
"Shinning"? Huh. Not your mistake, it seems.
All the ones here that sound good to me, I've already read!
Mostly really short fics today, I see! And even the one "longfic" is really just a Flutterdash Drabble connection, while other than one 5.7K fic, we have a 1.3K one and four thousand word contest entries. Though it's need they ended up being largely really good ones – you know how it is with fic readers, lotta low-hanging fruit at times.
Nothing I've read, though TCC56's fic and the CCG one have my interest. The former because he rarely disappoints and knows how to excel at short-form fics, and the latter because I've played my fair share of CCG's in my time (okay, Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh, but I went to a card league for almost five years for the former and many tournaments). Also I've wanted to write a fic about some of the characters trying to make a CCG of their own (and enough of the plot, characters and ideas are there, maybe it might see the light of day someday). Though hell, maybe this fic might satisfy my urge there and bury it altogether. We'll see.
Yep, that about describes my first foray into the Pokemon card game.
To say nothing of the video game version...I'll admit, I've been following these reviews (among many others from other folks) for a while, looking for stories to check out and throw into my "Read It Later" bookshelf, but I definitely didn't expect one of mine to end up on one. I also never expected Master of the Meta Deck to become such a hit, especially since it's one of my "Marmy references something relatively niche" fics. But hey, it's motivation for me to push harder and make better strides in writing.
Thanks for reviewing. I'm glad you enjoyed it!
5768191
either the 1kWC's are attracting more talented authors, or the ones who keep entering are honing their skills like no one's business, because I swear each new contest produces better and better stories
5768218
Yeah, that like... I'm honestly not sure why they went with that for the title. It's not really a pun, at least not a horse-specific one.
5768222
thanks for writing it! :D