More Braeburn, fic recommendations, minor upd8s. · 1:30am February 29th
Hey! Hope you're all doing well. :]
I'm mainly writing this blog to say that I wrote a follow up to "colts don't cry". I have a fair amount to say about it, but first I wanna give some fic recommendations.
I've been reading a lot more lately, and that includes fics. I've read some damn good fics and it would feel wrong keeping them all to myself:
I read a fair few... bleak fics. First off: All Teeth, by Regidar. A poetic and introspective look at a dark period in Trixie's life. It's written incredibly, it uses the poetic format in this almost perfect way. It was so good it inspired me to write my own poems - I hope that's praise enough to get you to read.
Secondly: "It Is All Hell" by It Is All Hell. This takes the form of a letter Rainbow Dash has written to an unknown recipient, this is again a more introspective one looking at the character in a dark period of her life. It's a little strange, it's a lot engaging and I don't think you'll find much else like it on the site, at least from my experience. It's 1000 words on the dot, so no real excuse to not read it.
I also want to recommend Blue and Gold by Metronome, another entry for last years M/M shipping contest. It follows a relationship between Shining Armor and Blueblood, gives them charm and chemistry and humanity and fear and love and everything in between. It's not really a feelgood story. I don't want to say much more than that and give away its hand. It made me care for Blueblood, that's an achievement.
On the less bleak side: The Education of Tumbling Leaf by Slipshod Extension. This is another story where my words fail to express how much I love it: We follow a young colt who's left his home in search of the meaning of harmony. It has this wonderful storybook or fairytale feel to it - it's not immature at all, just filled with this... Wonder. I found myself so perfectly captured in this story I struggled to read the last chapter from all the tears in my eyes. If you read one fic mentioned in this blog (yes, including my own) read this one. Seriously. In fact, read everything by Slipshod Extension. Princess Bookhorse Goes for a Jog is a wonderfully sweet little friendship lesson, like the warmest moments of the show, like the warmest blanket, and I imagine Three Poems for Discord (with it's great rhymes, it's beautifully apparent thought and care) would have made me start writing poems if All Teeth hadn't already.
As for my writing, I put out a short poetry collection of my own - Pony Poems - and, of course, a follow up to "colts don't cry":
I'm wary of using the word sequel for Nervous Young Stallions, I worry that makes it sound like "colts don't cry" is incomplete. I'll save myself a little trouble and copy what I said to metronome, who was kind and helpful enough to proofread for me: 'In my eyes, "colts" is still very much a finished solo piece. I didn't write this because it needed more, just because I wanted to stay with Braeburn for a little longer. So it's not like the true follow up or replacement ending, I guess it's more of an optional epilogue. It's not "colts", it's not "colts" 2, it's more of it's own thing'. I know that first story connected with people, I hope this can too. Just in a different way.
In another one of my blog posts, I said I wanted to do a follow up to colts "with a happier ending". I hope I've done that. I hope Braeburn's happier now. I don't think there'll be a trilogy. I think I've written what I needed to.
With this fic done and Braeburn (this Braeburn in this way, at least) out of the way, I'm going to keep writing Applejack and Rarity: Scenes from a relationship. I can't promise that I won't keep sneaking off to do one shots - or poetry collections, for that matter - in the mean time, but I'm committed to this story. It'll be finished, some day.
