Fic recs, September 7th! · 1:32pm September 7th
Agent0Fluffy has done a reading of Twinkletail's The Wrong Mare for the Job with Angelina Chrysos!
Dangit, I am so good at forgetting to post these when I mean to! D:
H: 1 R: 2 C: 3 V: 3 N: 0
Applejack Rents a Bobcat by Admiral Biscuit
Reading by No One and Nobody
Genre: PoE
Should ponies be allowed to operate heavy equipment?
You know, it's funny: I thought to myself, if this story were happening with all human characters, it wouldn't be worth remarking on. It's just that mundane at heart. But instead, what we have is a very normal scenario that's turned surreal thanks to the presence of a single pony. Admittedly, there's not much more to it, apart from Louis, who is a solid character for this being such a short piece. No real conflict or anything, just a bit of, "that there's a talkin' pony, well I'll be." And I will, in fact, be.
Recommended for Fans of PoE Stories
Retirement Is Harder Than It Looks by Macgyver644200
Reading by VisualPony
Genre: Best Sisters Comedy
Turns out, it's not so easy to give up being a princess.
I had a really good time with this! It's chock full of references to the comics, plus a G1 callback, and mostly just bits and pieces of Celestia and Luna being overpowered, immortal badasses. :) I'm always here for that! Considering this was flash fiction, it's quite good!
Recommended for Fans of the Royal Sisters
Twilight Runs Out of Fucks to Give by Maxes Altho
Reading by Agent0Fluffy, et. al.
Mature
Genre: Comedy
Fuck responsibilities, am I right?
I gotta be honest: If this had just been a story about Twilight's day, with the narrative peppered with "fuck"s, and she drops her own F-bomb at the very end, I'd have enjoyed it a lot more. It's fine to write when angry, to try and get all that shit out of yourself, but the end result in this case just has Twilight being a jerk to everyone around her, deserving or not, and I got tired of it rather quickly. It also doesn't help that this gets off on the wrong foot with its example of a whiny, entitled petitioner being a sendup of the McDonald's hot coffee suit, an event which has been revealed in the years since to have been twisted into pro-corporate propaganda at the expense of a woman with a horrible injury, and that the concept of the "frivolous lawsuit" may not even exist. (I mean, they do still, they're called SLAPP suits and they're bad.) Maybe it's just me, but I was not into it this time.
Vaguely Recommended
Outsmarted by 6-D Pegasus
Reading by VisualPony
Genre: Comedy
Twilight has finally caught up to the fugitive Starlight Glimmer.
This was a great time. :D It's just constant oneupsmareship as the two engage in a battle of wills to see who shall triumph, and it just gets sillier and sillier as it goes on. I'm not sure if the ending really adds anything, but I did appreciate the reveal nevertheless. Good stuff!
Recommended
Twilight's Argument by Coyotek4
Reading by No One and Nobody
Genre: Monty Python Ponified
Twilight longs for the days of more frequent intellectual stimulation.
The last time I used that genre tag, this very author had inserted the entire Monty Python Cheese Shop sketch into a ponyfic. Well, he's back, and he's done it again, this time with the Argument Clinic sketch. Word for word, with minor adjustments for the pony speaking; you may as well just watch the original because you'll get the full effect. Now, that being said. Number one, the effort put into setting up why Twilight arrives at the Argument Clinic is actually pretty funny, especially if you know what's coming. It's a good justification for the scenario, and takes up no more of the fic than it needs to. Second, after the sketch concludes, the premise is then taken to a few other places. Not many, and not amazing, but definitely funny and, as far as I can tell, completely original. I mean, the Pythons often would extend sketches beyond the bits that would be immortalized in nerd quote references, sometimes placing them later in an episode in between other sketches where you might not find them, but a cursory search suggests that's not the case here. I don't know, I could be wrong, I do stress cursory. Now, does that make up for having plagiarized the entire original sketch in the middle of this story? Absolutely not. But it does, at the very least, mean that "go watch the original" won't give you the full effect of this story, so there's something to be said for it.
Vaguely Recommended
Faking It by dziadek1990
Reading by VisualPony
Genre: Dark Comedy
The Cutie Mark Crusaders attempt to commit insurance fraud.
This is the perfect blend of surreal and funny, and both come off in equal measure. It's not just about what they're trying to do, or how, or how they're talking about it, but where they got the idea from. I don't have a lot to say, save that this is a really good comedy!
Recommended
The Language of Stars by ObabScribbler
Reading by No One and Nobody
Genre: SadCute
Tomorrow is Dinky's birthday, and with her wages freshly garnished, there's no way Derpy can buy her a gift. What is she going to do?
"Fuck capitalism" isn't exactly a new refrain for me, but it's been especially on my mind these last few weeks, and I find few things quite as tragic as cute, squishy ponies suffering the ignominies of a lopsided capital-based economy. Hence, this story. It is, admittedly, pitch-perfect for squeezing as many feelings from the audience as possible, from the classic setup of Derpy suffering so Dinky doesn't have to, to the near fantastical way the story finishes. But you know what? I don't care, it was great. Scribbler gives us several unique and very excellent takes on classic Derpy fanon, and this was just fantastic from start to finish! These tears are deserved, I tell you!
Highly Recommended
How "A Canterlot Wedding" Should Have Ended. by Vicron
Reading by VisualPony
Genre: Episode Rewrite
This story comes with two jokes to fix the titular ending. The first is given away by the chapter title and description. All I can say of it is that it always felt like it made sense in the context of the episode, even if, yeah, it really doesn't afterward fi you think about it enough. They just needed to have the new toys Mary Sues characters save the day. I ain't even mad. The second joke is more of a surprise, though not entirely, and how much you enjoy it is going to depend on how much you like seeing this particular character dunked on. That is thus a workable description of a story that I can't say I had any particular reaction to. It's just there.
Vaguely Recommended
The Eyes by ImScaredofPeople
Reading by Lotus Moon
Genre: Horror
As horror, this is almost so abstract as to be incomprehensible, but it seems to tell the story of a pony haunted by psychotic hallucinations from a very, very early age. This causes them to lash out and sometimes hurt other ponies. Or worse. It's intensely disturbing, to be sure. Given what I've read very recently, all I can say is I hope this isn't based on reality. c_c Hope you're okay with some gore.
Recommended for Horror Fans
Retirement is Harder Than it Looks is a charming little nugget of fun, even if the phrase "Mister Fluttershy" hurts my brain a little bit. I love stories that use other gens and the comics as a bit of spice.
I've always liked Admiral's chill SoL stories. I like chill and mundane. It makes room for wholesome scenes.