My Fanfic Year in Review · 10:53pm Jan 29th, 2014
Greetings everypony,
I know I promised this a little while ago, but for those who regularly read these things, you should know me and promises about Ponyfic related stuff are not on the best of terms. I started this off because it seemed like a cool idea and I want to be more involved in the community and kept at it because… well, why not? I’m trying to get myself to be more productive. Slowly building past my issues with depression and fatigue. Hell, I may actually post more than two fics a year at this rate! Anyway, without further ado:
The Most Interesting Ponyfics of the Year (to Me).
Really more of a favorites list than anything else, but these that I A) Happen to read this year, B) Stood out enough to earn a favorite, and C) At the end of the day stood out as memorable compared even to my other favorites. They are in no particular order. I recommend you read all of these stories. Not all of them were great. Some of them don't even really pass the bar of "pretty good" in my book. But all of them were memorable in some positive way. So, I guess without further ado:
Number One: An Apple A Day by Craine
... I don't get it. Yes, I know you don't either. Applejack and Discord is such an off the wall pairing, but I was bored, depressed, and suffering from insomnia, so I read the three most interesting looking stories in the popular bar at some Christless hour of the morning, and, well, this is the one I remembered. The chemistry between AJ and Discord is what does it for me here. There isn't much else to the story or the appeal. Its cute, its short, and it sticks out in your brain like a sore thumb.
Number Two: On The Application Of Time And Motion Efficiency Studies To Initial Relationship Formation by Estee
Oh my god this was the funniest thing I read all year. Or at least the funniest one I can remember at this moment. This story had me in stitches. A tale of frustration and exactly what the road to hell is paved with, it's a string of rapid fire jokes, sardonic humor, call backs and brick jokes, starting with the description and ending with the final scene. All of the characters are great, but the author's Rarity is an endless stream of dry humor. I love it. Read it. Laugh. Enjoy.
Number Three: Ascent. Book 1: Twilight by viwrastupr
Almost Perfect describes this story, and at the end of the day, the Perfect is more important than the Almost. Too often I find Twilestia stories tend to just rehash Composure or Eternal. This story... doesn't. And it's really good to! It's in the featured folder of the Twilestia group for a reason. When this was coming out I remember always getting a boost Thursday night knowing this story was going to update the next day. Probably what stuck with me most was how much the story reminded me of what was going on in my own life at the time. It's well written, unique, and as I know personally, all too real. My sole gripe comes in at the ending, which I feel rushes the resolution. A lot of complicated emotions sort of get swept under the rug. Still though, if you like Twilestia you owe it to yourself to read.
Number Four: Adorkable Love by Einhander
Oh man, this story.
This story is like a bad drug trip in all the right ways. One chapter is funny. The next heartwarming. The next heart wrenching. Its like a warm cup of tea and an episode of your favorite anime on Netflix. Like the setting sun reflecting off of the wispy autumn clouds. Like your favorite comedy that you can always laugh at. And it's like being mugged in a alleyway by four dudes and a midget. Sometimes all at once! To call it an emotional roller coaster is roughly equitable to call the Battle of Verdun a bit of a spat. Still, each of the fic's many extremes are all well done. I've kept up with it where several of the other similar stories I was reading have fallen to the wayside. The jokes, even the constant pop culture references, are all funny, and when the serious moments happens the author handles the characters with grace. His Rarity in particular impresses me, but the way he writes Scootaloo, Cheerilee, and Twilight are all really spot on and memorable. I do worry a bit about the conclusion. A lot of things are in place for there to be a really ugly meltdown before things are done, and I've gotten so attached to these characters I really don't want to see them hurt. Almost makes me want to stop reading.
Almost.
Number Five: All Sisters Go to Heaven by FrozenPegasus
To start off, yes, I am aware my name is on the first page. Just because I groggily typed out a sheet of criticism does not mean I still can't like or recommend the story. FrozenPegasus is a really under appreciated author here on the site. Yeah, she has a lot of followers, but if you notice, despite having nearly 500 of the damn things, all but one of her stories do not break 150 likes. They mostly followed her because she... well, wrote a remotely clever goofy comedy story when doing that was an instant win button for FimFiction Superstardom. So, the rest of her work gets vastly overlooked. She seems to have vanished again, so it's probably moot. Shame though, girl had real talent.
The story in question came to my attention when she contacted me out of the blue. We had spoken a bit before, and she wanted my opinion on her writing again before she published given I'd been a fan and critic of her story Nova. I was struggling a lot at the time, so I unfortunately couldn't give her as much advice as I wanted, which I regret. This story deserved to be the best it could be. The way she wrote Rarity was always brilliant. Its what made Nova for me. This story changes none of that. Its gripping, its moving, its sad, its cathartic. You feel every step of Rarity's struggle. Her desperation. Her hope. Her fear. Her determination. Its a story about grief, and loss, and making peace with the past. It hurts, but in a good way. It's... beautiful.
Not much else I can say really.
Number Six: Twice as Bright by Cloudy Skies
This one is an odd one for me. For starters, I feel his Celestia is actually Out of Character. I do not believe the character in this story is the same one in the show. Furthermore Twilight is also written, hmmm, flatly? She doesn't feel whole, more like a series of check-boxes the author needed her to hit to keep the plot on pace. These would be damning, but I found the story interesting enough despite the flaws to enjoy it. The way the author wrote Pinkie Pie was really interesting. Not quiet the same as she is on screen, but I could see her going through these problems and having these emotions. A Pinkie whose both more grown up and more innocent. I liked it. Its also a really off the wall pairing, so you have to give the author points for trying something new.
Number Seven: For Every Answered Prayer by LunaUsesCaps
This one I actually stumbled across between when I started this project and when I ended it, but it was good enough I felt it deserved a mention. For starters, I don’t know why this story has the Sad tag. It deserves the awesome tag. Because I felt goddamn awesome after reading it. You can probably guess most of the story by the quarter mark, given its pretty predictable, but the payoff is worth it I feel. The story handles what’s an otherwise dark subject matter with a good hand and manages to feel fulfilling rather than soul crushing, which is where most of these stories end up. Some of the choices of characterizing Dash rubbed me the wrong way, but by the end it really didn’t matter. I recommend it heartily
Honorable Mentions OR Stories I Read This Year and Really Liked But Don’t Technically Qualify Because They Were Written the Year Before Last in Some Regard
Number Arbitrary: Integration by Raugos
I’ve made a couple shout outs to this story before, but I think it deserves another. I’m not one for most adventure stories, but this one isn’t an adventure in the typical sense. The story is focused on Caramel and his journey, and its certainly been an interesting one, tracing both his development to this point, and how he handles the situation he finds himself in. Its another different take on Changelings, and he makes Chrysalis far more reasonable and sympathetic than I would be inclined to write her, but this is not a bad thing really. I’m a little worried the story has petered out given its not updated in an age and everything has kind of come to an awkward conclusion, but it was definitely enjoyable up to now.
Number Arbitrary 2: The Electric Boogaloo: Without a Hive by Phoenix_Dragon
So, hands down, easily one of the top 2 best fics I read all year and one of the best pieces of literature in the fandom. No joke. It has a fascinating premise: what if you took someone who was a trained sociopath, someone who has been raised to view another class of people as objects, and forced them to live among the very people they’ve been taught to look down on. Its a fascinating journey watching the character Nictis, a young changeling infiltrator in training abandoned in Equestria, grow and change and struggle. I honestly don’t think I like it half as much as I should. It’s brilliant.
I also recommend the prequel Fragments and the sequel A New Way. Fragments isn’t necessary to read first, and in some ways it might be better to read it second, but it’s solid enough on its own. A New Way is still in progress, so it could easily turn out to be awful, but so far so good. All in all I recommend you give the whole series a look over.
Number Awesome: The Other Mare by device heretic
So, remember when I said Without a Hive was easily in my top 2 this year? Yeah. This is the other story. Device has always been a phenomenal author. He writes stories that are painful, carthritic, meaningful, and very real, and this story does not disappoint.
I’ll be honest. When I started reading this story I did not like it. The things these characters were dealing with were a little TOO real for me, and these kinds stories never had happy endings in my own life. It was uncomfortable to read. But then I read chapter 3, and it blew my goddamn mind. This story is primarily about courage in the face of social hardship and seeing your loved ones in pain, which is something I struggle with in my own life, so perhaps it meant more to me that most. Even then, if it ends up being only half as meaningful to you as it was to me, it will be a good read. The craft, the build up, the pay off? All of it is great. I recommend everyone read it. No, I don’t care that you haven’t read Romance Reports. I don’t care that it’s marked mature. Go. Read it. Now!
It’s a shame how device left the fandom, but if this was to be his swan song? His last word to us before fading into the night to whatever life has for him? Yeah, I could live with that.
Number Number: I'll Love You Forever by The Wizard of Words
I’ve read a chunk of Wizard’s work and he’s pretty solid. I had read this story a long time ago and only reread it again as part of a favor to Wizard. A favor I unfortunately never finished… um, anyway. I always felt this was probably his best written work, but I never cared for it that much emotionally.
That changed on the second reading.
The story is pretty straight up. The only real big plot twist is sort of spoiled by the cover, but the way its written? Fantastic. Wizard really sets up the tragedy of the story well, and just the way he writes the characters is amazing. I really felt Twilight and RD’s love, how Twilight comes to accept her fate, and how Dash slowly comes to reject it in her heart even if life won’t let her. Its beautifully done, and I can’t recommend it enough.
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And that’s it everypony, my fanfic year in review. I hope you all found something you can enjoy from this list. To all my watchers I want to thank you for somehow finding my work enjoyable enough that you decided you wanted a direct feed of my yammering, and to the authors? Well, thanks for being awesome. You guys put out some great stuff this year despite it being one of steady doldrums. Keep at it.
Heres to a year past and a year to come, better than the one before!
Your’s Truly,
Nyronus
Edit: Hey! I got an awesome idea! Post your own favorites in the comments!
Phoenix_Dragon completely subverted my expectations with his changeling fictions.
Hey hey.
This was interesting. There are a couple things here that I've read, and a couple more that rank high on my read later list, and a few that are new to me.
I was nowhere near as enamored of Ascent as you. I did feel that it had potential. It does take a much more straightforward tack with the relationship, rather than requiring a catalyst for it's revelation in the form of a near-apocalyptic calamity. The way Chrysalis was used in the story was clever. However, I couldn't really find a way to accept Celestia's tests-as-defense-mechanism thing into her character, and I really couldn't get over the part where Twilight's friends just sort of railroaded them together at the end. That sort of behavior rubs me the wrong way, and it has colored my opinion of other fictions as well. I feel kinda bad about disliking this story as much as I do, as it's obviously a work of passion on the part of the author, who also heavily illustrated the story, and seems to be getting fairly good at painting nowadays. Which of course reminds me that I still haven't composed a proper comment for it, apparently. Either that or firefox ate it at some point and I'll have to go over it again to get my impressions straight.
Twice as Bright, on the other hand, I found much more straightforwardly enjoyable, and I had only mild quibbles with some of the characterization, mainly with Pinkie's friends. The reservations I had with Celestia there were actually kind of cleared up by a long-winded comment discussion with the author.
I'd never heard of The Other Mare, apparently it's the secret Device Heretic fic, being "owned" by SleeplessBrony. I'll have to give it a look, as I've liked device's other work.
Integration has been on my list of things to read for a long time, and I do expect it to be good, as I found Night Guards pretty excellent.
Without a hive is apparently also on my list, though I probably wasn't about to read it any time soon, as it's fairly long and sports a rather bizarre tag combination. I may bump it up a few notches in the queue from this recommendation though.
The rest I hadn't heard of, and I may take a couple of them onto my list. It's damn long though.
As for my favorites? I think I've been at this about a year now. Indeed, my account was created January 2013, so my year of favorites can be found with a glance at my user page. I might have to go back over my read list to see if anything I've gone through recently warrants a reorganization there... I think What You Mean to Me might get an honorable mention for having the most interestingly troubled OC I've seen. Maybe I'll get around to commenting on that sometime too.
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