It Is Recommendsday, My Dudes #154 · 7:46pm February 28th
This week's a bit of an aside: five days ago, the staff put up a new series tag for Equestria At War. Now it isn't really my style, but it is a thing to celebrate: I believe it's actually the first time a series tag has been added for fan-made content (possible exception: SCP Foundation, which I'm not sure if that truly counts as 'fan-made'.) And as a tag it's been growing very rapidly - it's been less than a week and it's already the 8th largest series tag that isn't an MLP canon series.
So while I honestly don't have any Equestria At War stories in my pile (as I said, it's just not my jam), it's something I feel deserves to be highlighted. So in tribute, I'mma pull out a couple of war stories to focus on. (Though in truth, they're less about war and more about trying to avoid it.)
So we'll start with one of the authors I love to highlight but don't get to as often as I'd like: Sledge115 and Celestia Regina.
In the wake of the Nightmare Rebellion, the city of Vanhoover has risen up against Princess Celestia's rule. The Northern Legion - three thousand unicorns under the command of Captain Ironhoof - has moved in to surround and lay siege to the city and bring it back under Equestria's heel. The problem is that Princess Celestia only found out about any of it after Ironhoof had already begun his campaign. And no one has yet told her why Vanhoover has apparently risen against her.
So for starters, I'll note that this is in the canon of Spectrum, the long-running epic authored by Sledge (and Vox Adam and RoyalPsycho). Now this one's a stand-alone (and takes place centuries before Spectrum) so you don't need familiarity. But it would be useful to be familiar with Luna's Daughters by SockPuppet as content from that does appear several times. It isn't critical-critical, but it does enhance the experience (and Luna's Daughter is a masterpiece anyway.) Characters from The Order by Bad_Seed_72 also make appearances, but pre-knowledge of them isn't crucial.
That all out of the way - this story's just damn amazing. Sledge is a top tier writer to begin with, but this one also took first in the Renaissance Contest, beating out some of the site's absolute top talent. And you can see why pretty quickly.
The Celestia we get to see in this is just the absolute perfect blend: she's the pragmatic leader, the grieving sister, the caring mother… And manages to strike the perfect balance. Combining all of that is a damn hard needle to thread, but Sledge pulls it off. Chapter 2's my highlight for that because her entry into Vanhoover is just so Celestia. Her story shortly thereafter about the Rainbow Crow is just a treat, too - inserting a great world-building legend for the buffalo into the middle of an already great story.
Which is not to say the main thrust of the story's not awesome. One thing that a lot of stories like this miss is making it feel Equestrian. Yes there's political tension and racism and threats of war - but at the same time I never felt like it was human drama with a pony face. There was always the Equestrian vibe to it, including the undercurrent of Friendship Is Magic. The good Captain aside, nopony wants a war and they all legitimately care for their fellows. And I tell ya, the change in how Downfeather says Your Highness between the start and the end of their conversation just warms my heart.
And on our other side, we come to Through Another's Eyes, one of the most underappreciated works of site titan Pascoite.
During a diplomatic meeting, ambassadors of the griffons make a demand: a section of the Equestrian border that had once been theirs. It's prime hunting lands and mostly wasted in pony control as a 'nature sanctuary' with a single pony settlement. Princess Celestia denies them - and the griffons threaten war. Celestia doesn't budge. The griffons note they only lost last time because they were still recovering from a different conflict and now they're stronger; Celestia replies that now she has her sister back. And the griffon ambassador says the fateful phrase: "What can one more alicorn do?" And then the griffons find out the answer.
I just love this one because it addresses one of the problems of many war fics: it has ponies fight like humans. They're not. How they'd approach conflict is quite different, and it shows here just how someone like Luna would play to her strengths. Not by just wading in with a sword but by using her unique and incredibly powerful skills. That alone is refreshing.
It's also a good creeping narrative. You get to see things not from the soldier's perspective but that of the civilians on the ground that are caught - from the initial moments of conflict looming to the first outburst of violence to the final bloody climax. And you get to see what's actually going on in a very gradual manner that slowly drops clues and hints that build to an excellently timed reveal.
The one big warning I'll give is that you probably want to avoid the comments here. They get a bit fiery. Some of it is good, thoughtful debate. But about half is just high-pitched screeching. Of the ones that are thoughtful, the commenters do make fair points. Given what happens (particularly towards the end) I can see why some readers would react poorly and find the actions vile - I don't agree with that reading, but I can at least see their point. It's a story that's more divisive than the 49-6 rating shows, but c'mon. There's the Dark tag there for a reason. It was not going to be gentle.
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Ah yes, Equestria At War, the most legendary of all HOI4 mods, the one that shows what would happen if Josef Mengele participated in Unit 731, was part of ISIS, and worshipped Nightmare Moon all at the same time, before getting nuked by female Juan Posadas
Jesus. 115 stories retroactively assigned the tag in a week is maddening. I've certainly seen EaW content from a distance, but always got the impression it was more of a video game/TTRPG sort of thing. I too lack any real personal interest of it, but even if the retroactive tagging dries up fast, that is bloody impressive.
I haven't read that particular story of Sledge115's, but everything of theirs I've read is quality, so I have little doubt it is too. And as I have read Sockpuppet's Luna's Daughters, the one connected story you do suggest knowing before this, I might give this a read too. War stories, or those about avoiding it, that actually feel like Equestria and not humans-in-equine-bodies are rare (it is one of my chief objections to Equestria at War – it professes to avoiding this, but little of it does).
And Pascoite near-always bring unique viewpoints to whatever he tackles that are worth reading, so that other fic sounds like a good pick too. Solid week!
I have little interest in EAW as such -- I have little interest in Hearts of Iron IV, which probably doesn't help! -- but I am interested in the fact that a new series tag has been added. It's quite rare these days that we get new site stuff like that. I wonder whether there'll be any more?
I haven't read either of this week's fics, but I have a high regard for both authors, so I may well end up reading one or both! An E-rated darkfic is unusual, but given its author I'm willing to accept that he's made it work.
As someone who has consumed a lot of EAW content (both gameplay and stories on this site), I'm interested in these recommendations, I'm curious how the fights differ from other stories (and whatever I'm trying to write), but at the same time I'm like, how do ponies fight? I really want to know? Or do I stick with my stupid idea that an Earth pony with a spear would be viable in a fight?
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It's not quite the same, but just off the top of my head, I did sometimes occasionally wonder if it'd make sense to let ex-fangame Them's Fightin' Herds' tag work standalone. (Now that I'm typing this out, I think I might've actually first brought it up in one of your blogs. Huh.) Then again, it's probably a moot point now. RIP.
In any case, it's certainly an interesting development! We'll just have to wait and see if/when there's ever reasonable cause for another of the sort. Whatever form G6 takes, I guess?
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It is. It's a huge burst, which is why I felt it worth noting. (And at a quick glance, if the tag was properly applied to the stories intended the count would be over 200, putting it ahead of everything except Fallout and Pokemon.)
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Your guess is as good as mine, but I think it's possible. The addition of Perfectly Insane and ROBCakeran to the site staff last month seems to have shaken things up.
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For my examples it's less about the mechanics and more about the approach.
A lot of war fics - some of which I hold in quite high regard, make no mistake - have them fight like humans do. Broad military campaigns, trenches, artillery, knights and guns and all the like. It's relatable. It works and you can tell some great stories with it.
These two approach it in a more pony fashion. For starters, Equestrian attitudes and human are very different. They approach the fighting as a tool of last resort rather than as something to be used when advantageous. (The second story shows this quite definitively: Luna shows that she could absolutely obliterate the griffons militarily if she felt like it. But she takes a different path.) The second also shows a very different approach because human warfare lacks things like 'a horse that controls the sun' or 'the ability to fly and dig through solid stone' or 'a literal chaos god'. Equestrian warfare shouldn't resemble human warfare because they're fundamentally different creatures with wildly different capabilities. (Level Dasher's A Daughter and her Dragon plays with this as well when it talks about how there are agreements in place specifically to keep creatures like Discord from getting involved in warfare.)
Aaaahh I didn't expect to see this up this morning
Thank you for the shout-out 
First off-
There's a reason I lean heavily towards anti-war stories now, not war stories. I feel like they avoid making a spectacle of the war they're about.
Oh, yes. I have to emphasise that, while I'm certainly dedicated to keeping most of my stories in one continuity, the story requires zero knowledge of Spectrum to understand, hehe. But as for the other two fics - yup. Guilty as charged. I wanted to pay tribute to two eras of the fandom, the old and the new.
Awwwwww. Mission accomplished!
It never really sat right with me, especially in the old version of Spectrum from 2012, how often ponies are sidelined, or treated as humans with pony faces, indeed. And, huzzah! I'm happy the tone landed, hehe.
All in all, thanks for the shout-out
Lovely surprise to start the day off with, heh.
Yeah, those comments... And the thing is, the most vociferous of them were completely missing the point, that in a wartime situation, it's often the case that nobody is in the right. They thought I was trying to portray Celestia's decision as virtuous and justified, when (to me, at least), it's pretty obvious from her reaction at the end that she knows she's on shaky moral ground.
And then there were the two who got into a lengthy argument and started making personal attacks at each other.
I would have deleted those, but then it always ends up looking like the author is censoring criticism.
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Yeeeeeah a lot of those comments are, uh. Interesting perspectives. (I won't take it deeper aside from that one of the commenters is already in my Always A Dumbass book so I applaud your restraint. I'm not sure I'd have the same.)