It Is Recommendsday, My Dudes #166 · 6:47pm May 22nd
Time to move on to the birbs! Continuing the Young Six series, I'm turning this week towards Silverstream.
First up: There She Goes! by Miller Minus.
Silverstream is a bit of an odd duck, everypony knows that. One of her quirks is that she often christens days with a name to make them special for her: The Day Of The Whale, The Final Day Of The Storm King's Reign, The Day Of Bountiful Rest, and today? The Day Of The Good Deed. The question is just which one of her friends she's going to inflict said good deed on. And then Gallus makes the mistake of being sad in her presence. I'm sure she'll handle this in a totally rational and reasonable manner.
This story's a pretty solid mix - there's a bit of comedy, a bit of cringe, some heartfelt talk, a sprinkling of angst, and plenty of friendshipping. It strikes a really nice balance that way, and is probably one of the most well-rounded fics I've read. It's super easy to go too far in any direction, but Miller avoids it pretty well.
What's really the star here is the characterization, though. The other various characters are solid - it's a really good Spitfire and Gallus obviously gets in some solid parts - but this Silverstream's excellent. She feels correct, in everything from the silly childhood nickname to her order at the cafe to her ending comment about hugging Gallus - it's right. It gives her characterization more flesh and depth without leaving what her core is behind. Expanding, not contradicting, you know? This is probably my favorite Silverstream portrayal and one I try to draw from.
And next we're right back to semillion with the much more comedic (and much more racy) "Do wings turn you gay, Headmare Twilight?". (And I'll open with noting that while this is T rated, it's on the high end so take that in stride.)
Silverstream has a question for Twilight: the fic's title, obviously. She's noticed that not a single creature she knows with wings is exclusively attracted to the opposite sex. Twilight tries to argue - and that's when Silverstream starts to give examples.
Really, there's not a ton deeper than that. It's 1300 words of Silverstream cheerfully relating the sexual exploits of every winged creature she's met to an increasingly more uncomfortable Twilight Sparkle. And then it bounces to Silverstream's original question: was Twilight gay before she got her wings, or only after? Which just takes the joke further down the line of silliness.
Then it all leads into a punchline that had me rolling. I did not see it coming and I won't spoil it because you need to get there on your own for the freight train to hit naturally.
And that pretty much summarizes this one: quick, punchy, hilarious. What more could you want in a comedy short?
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Silverstream's an interesting one for me. Like the rest of the Student Six, she is far too irrevocably tied to an era of the show that has too many poorly-done things I don't enjoy or get much of any pleasure from to be able to ignore said baggage in fics about her. With some exceptions, of course. But her particular brand of cheery bubbliness and naivety manages to not be a Pinkie clone, so it's little surprise she tends to be one of the most popular of the Student Six (I think she's the most common favourite in lists and polls I've seen, even if Smolder outranks her in number of fics). Something I'm not immune to myself either!
And, that she was the focal character if the very first Ponyfic I wrote and published (one which share some plot overlap with Miller's fic – I suppose Silverstream taking matter into her own talons to cheer Gallus up without checking with him first, in a story that shows her particular worldview and brand of eccentricity, is a fitting direction for her, to be fair) means I have a small soft spot for her. Maybe not to the extent of a fic like the second one here – "All De Pones Be Gay" fics have a limited rate of return, I find, least for me – but it's there for sure.
That first one is marked as read for me, and the author’s a friend, but even from the description, I just don’t recall anything about it. I’ll have to reread it.
I didn't think much of Silverstream at the time (Yona was my fave of that band), but she's grown on me along with her related fics. She's like a better-used version of DC's Starfire: enthusiastic and interested in what we see as common objects but to her are fun and alien, but not so much that it becomes oppressive nor so defined by it that she becomes one-note. Just really a fun, cheerful person to be around.
Wow! Strong recs for both of those. Onto the list they go!
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Best Yak is up next week!
Woooo best birb! Both of these stories are outstanding explorations of her character written by some mighty fine folks. derpicdn.net/img/view/2018/9/24/1839973.gif
Wh—!
I'm on Recommendsday?!
MOM!!!! MOM COME LOOK!!!!!!!!!
THERE SHE GOES IS SO FUCKING GOOD
do wings turn you gay is funny because it's by far one of my most popular stories but i'm half sure i wrote it expecting like, 60 people max to read it
i still adore it—it's one of the ones that i wrote purely to make myself laugh, so the generally positive reception i've gotten on it delights me that much more
thank you!!! and thank you for what you said about HOLES the other week as well
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Hey, I could hardly do a Student Six focus and not bring you up! (Seriously, I actually had to work to minimize the number of times I did and give other people a focus.) You do amazing work with those little idiots.
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thank youuuuu i love them so very much!