Fic recs, December 13th! · 10:44pm Dec 13th, 2024
Oh yeah, it's Friday the 13th! o_o Explains why I just got home from going to the wrong fucking medical facility for my appointment! Goddammit.
H: 2 R: 5 C: 1 V: 0 N: 1
Canon Perpetuus, Canon Perpetuus, Canon Perpetuus by JimmySlimmy
Sequel to Canon Perpetuus, Canon Perpetuus, Canon Perpetuus
Genre: Experimental Horror
All right, from the top.
This is pretty cool. :) We've seen time loop stories before, of course, but this one's all about the presentation. Granted, if I'm going to bring up the presentation, I have to point out that there are two typos in the first couple of lines, so it's far from perfect. <_< But then, whomst amongst us is otherwise? For a thousand-word light horror piece, this hits the spot.
Recommended
Post-Con by Bicyclette
Genre: EQG Shipping
Wallflower Blush attends a florie con with her girlfriend.
You know, it's been long enough that I can't actually remember if "furries-but-with-plants" is a thing that appeared in the show or not. I mean, it wouldn't surprise me either way. So this is one part having fun with a furry-adjacent society, and like three parts Wallflower and Fluttershy being really good for each other. Or at least, Fluttershy being really good for Wally. If anything, this really sold me on the relationship — see the description for more on why that's important — and by the end, it was clear not only what they saw in one another but also a little bit of how things work between them. I mean, if anything, this is just solid shipping, everything else is just frosting!
Recommended
Only a Few Moments by TCC56
Genre: Historical Time Travel Drama
Celestia has about one minute to save her sister.
This is yet another story I don't want to talk about in great detail because it's so short, and the word count is used so well, anything I say will give it away. This takes place three years after Luna's banishment, and involves the time-travel spell with a very specific yet non-specific caveat mentioned in the description. What Celestia ends up doing is really cool, and the actual steps she has to go through were what really sealed things for me. This is fantastic, and you're just going to have to take my word for it.
Highly Recommended
Me, Myself and Twi by Hotel_Chicken
Genre: EQG Drama
What do you say when you have a chance to talk to yourself?
This starts off with a fun discussion of how the mirror portal works, and also cloning. Then Sunset gets a chance to literally talk to herself. And I'll be honest that it doesn't really go anywhere, but as a vehicle for getting to look inside Sunset's psyche, it's a really solid idea. Both the conversation and the world-building land well.
Recommended
Flower Wars by Shaslan
Genre: AU/Sad Romance
As the gods give to us, so must we give to them.
All you should need in order to know that you want to read this story is to hear the word "Canterlochtitlan". Like, is that not sufficient by itself? If not, how come? >:V The most remarkable thing about this story is that it feels like the author went back in time, took a few notes, and then returned to describe what they saw via colorful talking ponies. There's something about this story that is utterly transcendent, and I feel I've never seen its like. It's absolutely stunning.
Highly Recommended
Soulmates and Leftovers (Doubles and Singles and Nothings at All) by Mockingbirb
Genre: AU EQG Drama/Shipping/Dark
Thanks to magic, everyone's found a soulmate. Well, everyone except for Wallflower Blush, that is.
This is yet another story where I'm amazed it's not a comedy. No, this is in fact a very serious look at how an AU setting could affect a couple of its inhabitants. Everyone can go to Equestria and vice versa, and it's easy to swap people's genders, so everyone now theoretically has someone they're perfectly compatible with, sexuality be damned. Everyone except for anyone who doesn't have a human or pony counterpart, of course. And so, with suicide as a heavy presence, we get a very level-headed story about how things can always get better. Always, so long as you give life a chance.
Recommended
Why Pinkie Pie Isn't Allowed to Play Chess Anymore by Mockingbirb
Genre: Random
The Ponyville Library's game club did not see this coming.
Okay, I have to walk through this a bit, because it's… weird. So we start with an adorable scene of little Pinkamena Pie and her granny playing hide and seek. Fantastic, love it, no notes. She goes into Ponyville to seek out fun, finds the game club happening at the library, and Mudbriar teaches her how to play chess. Well, actually Rarity does, but Mudbriar is there… and so is Cozy Glow. <_< I am going to assume that there is either massive time shenanigans happening in her story, or she has one of those diseases where you never actually grow up. Anyway, Pinkie Pie stuff happens and we find out what the title suggests, which is all highly amusing. Then. Then. There is a second chapter that details what happens to Cozy in the far future. This is a horror story. It is, in fact, really damn good, conveying a lot of information in a really short space. But it's also completely unrelated to the first chapter, apart from featuring Cozy Glow? I really don't know what was being done here. This might be best approached as a short anthology of two Cozy stories. I'm not sure what I'm missing.
Recommended for Pinkie and Cozy Fans
Over Your Dead Body by Mockingbirb
400th Review of 2024!
Genre: EQG Dark Comedy/Shipping
Sunset may be dead, but that's never stopped Midnight Sparkle from getting what she wants.
All during this story, and now coming off finishing it, I think I've been at a complete loss for what to think about it. And it appears I'm not alone; comments from runners of the contest this was written for were nonplussed at best. It's a bit of a jumble, introducing concepts only to immediate forget they're there, with a plot that makes no sense, and an approach to suicide that's, uh, maybe not the best. And this is clearly all done in the name of crackfic, as the final line proves, I just never really felt like it was funny enough to justify the incoherence on screen. Like, usually incoherence is itself funny, but somehow, not this time. I guess the author and I just weren't on the same page here.
Not Recommended
Lost Paradise by Undome Tinwe
Genre: Creation Myth/World-Building
This comes to us in three sections. The first tells the legend of how the Dragon Lands came to be. The second, where the ponies came from before the first Hearth's Warming. And the third dovetails them excellently. And as short and economical as this is, there's a lot of really good stuff along the way for those of us who really enjoy world-building for its own sake. :)
Recommended
Oh, yes.
Flower Wars
The most surprising thing about this is that you hadn't read it until now. It truly was something else.
Holy crapola, I totally didn't realize that. Clearly, being unemployed is having an effect on my sense of time. Good thing I was planning on playing Resident Evil VII tonight, I guess.
Hell yes, HR. And that pleased me because Only A Few Moments is something I consider one of my best works.
Of the rest, I agree that Flower Wars is stupendous and something very unique. However I honestly don't like Post-Con at all. It's one of Bike's weakest works. It would be potentially good if it weren't for the fact that it's basically an abridged version of Estee's The Firries that subs Wallflower for Rarity and removes most of the story.
5820995
it's not like I read things ever, what do you take me for? :P
That TCC56 story was an instant RiL list add. The kind of thing I tend to bump up the queue. Very good author, interesting concept, short fic... looking very promising!
And yeah, Flower Wars. One of Shaslan's best I think, and that's a high standard to reach.
Great fic from Shaslan! Like the others, surprised you're only now getting to it, though you were only reading from audiobooks until recently, so it's not totally bereft of explanation.
And a TCC56 with a HR? Hm, might have to make space for that…
Thanks for the review! I'm really proud of flower wars, it's my second favourite of my pony fics.
5821165
What's first??? :O
5821177
Written in synthetic blood - it only beats out flower wars because i find it very hard to write stuff that actually freaks me out, and i think it managed that!
5821306
yeah, that was really good :D