Fic recs, February 29th! · 12:42am March 1st
It ain't every day you get to post on Leap Day. :D Happy birthday to all the leap babies who can poke their age up one digit!
Agent0Fluffy's newest reading is CoffeeMinion's The One Where Discord Gets All the Mares, with Drumstick Pony, ButterBoltVA and KikiBatVA!
Short one because I did the Quill Feather one this week also.
H: 0 R: 3 C: 1 V: 1 N: 1
High Finance by Late Empire
Reading by VisualPony
Genre: Random Comedy
Discord and money do not mix.
Unless I miss my mark, this is a parody of the GameStop short-selling stock fiasco from a couple years back, of which I know and understand exactly an "I watch Folding Ideas on Youtube" amount. And honestly, it would be fine as a random comedy based on a real-life event, if not for the use of Filthy Rich. He's not supposed to be a money-grubbing capitalist, at least not outside of EQG, and that rubbed me the wrong way. But if that doesn't bother you, well, I guess I shouldn't ding it.
Recommended for Laughs
Opening Up by Lunatone
Reading by Agent0Fluffy
Genre: Shipping
Directly after a big fight is not exactly the greatest place to start s story shout how much two ponies are meant for each other. <_< But then Rainbow kisses Fluttershy, and so it goes, in the rain and all that, because we can't have shipping without clichés. I will say in this story's favor, the bulk of it, the scenes of the two first meeting and becoming friends, are pretty cute. Granted, that's also where I started noticing editing issues, not to mention it's where we learn they Always Loved Each Other. Meh. Add in the head-hopping, and this just didn't deliver the FlutterDash I'd been hoping for.
Vaguely Recommended
I am a real pony! by Crystal Moose
Reading by VisualPony
Genre: Random Comedy
Okay, so… Sweetie Belle gets a job as a telemarketer, and her very first cold call is to a stallion who demands she say she isn't a robot, and won't take 'no' for an answer. This is the most oblique Sweetie Bot joke I have ever seen… And that's literally all there is to this. <_< Per the A/N, no, it's not as funny as the author thought it was, primarily because it's mostly just "Say you're not a robot" followed by the title or some other denial that doesn't come in those words. Was there a joke to be made here? Certainly, but it needed something else. Like, literally anything but that conversation repeated ad nauseam and a punchline of "the author knows what Sweetie Bot is, do you?" Maybe it's a matter of the separation of time, but this doesn't work.
Not Recommended
Sol by Equimorto
Reading by Lotus Moon
Genre: Slice of Life
Celestia contemplates the sun.
This is a thousand-word story with a premise that I frankly find hilarious: Celestia is basically the only person who can stare at the sun without damaging her eyes. Like, think about that. That's a ripe field for comedy. But Equimorto takes the idea in a far more contemplative direction, skirting but never indulging in immortality angst while sending us on a journey through Celestia's meandering thoughts. And that's about your lot, really. Well written, this sort of story has plenty to offer, and even better, won't take up much of your time. :) I do appreciate what this contest has given us.
Recommended
I Wanna Be the Mare by Twinkletail
Reading by VisualPony
Genre: Random Comedy
Celestia tries to spend quality time with her sister.
I'm pleased with myself for picking up on the reference in the title. Which is the video game "I Wanna Be the Guy". Which thankfully you don't actually need to know anything about to understand this story, because there's a simple enough example of its gameplay in said story. I'm rather impressed with how Twinkletail managed that; I've complained before about lengthy video game descriptions in fanfic, but he got just enough detail in just the right amount of space so that the reader can keep up while not being bogged down. You don't have to see every frame of a game spelled out to understand how it plays! So this ends up being a solid lesson in how to write gaming: focus on what it does to the player. That being said, I was a bit afraid that the punchline would be "Celestia plays I Wanna Be the Guy and has a bad time", but thankfully there is a punchline beyond that. And knowing about the game ahead of time won't spoil it!
Recommended
Ten Degrees by Bachiavellian
Reading by Scribbler, Animelodie and Knight of Breath
Genre: Comfort Fic
Ten degrees. That's all it took to ruin everything.
Feels like forever since I read a nice, fluffy LyraBon. :) And this delivered on a lot of fronts, from taking place just before MMMystery on the Friendship Express to Lyra both being the one who has to comfort her marefriend and being at least a bit of her frequently mischievous self. Like, she basically uses the impulsiveness that she's often portrayed as having to solve the story's problem, and I like that. Beyond that, good writing, good characterization, and a very satisfying little fic.
Recommended
I read Bachiavellian's back when it was a write-off entry, but I haven't read the revised version. That was the Yoga Pants write-off...
Interesting that you note pretty serious writing problems from someone who once did a writing panel at Bronycon. (And not a very good one either...