Fic recs, March 23rd · 5:42pm Mar 23rd, 2014
Have I mentioned my to-read list has topped 3000? Because it's almost to 3.1k now. This was helped along in large part by xTSGx, who I started watching only to find out he does detailed updates about longfics he follows, as well as recommendations about one-shots. He's got 150 of these journals now. I read them all. :B
Got a whoooole bunch of stories this time around because I'm headed into a couple of long fics and wanted a clean slate. Also, I'm queuing up a Friendship Is Optimal audiobook, so expect a vs. post on that in the near future.
H: 1 R: 3 C: 5 V: 0 N: 2
Malus Maleficarum by Saddlesoap Opera
Reading by Doom Pie
Genre: Horror
This is from two EQD Halloween writeoffs ago, the same contest that gave us NIGEB, and I think it was one of my favorites, given that it was well written and made good use of its imagery. It deals with Applejack learning a hard lesson about ignoring folk wisdom. While somewhat predictable, as far as what’s going on, I’ve definitely read far worse horror fare in this fandom, least of all in that contest. One thing it does well is never outright stating what’s happened to Applejack (the threshold question is shown beautifully well, for instance; I can’t help but feel this would have been a very different story had it come out after Bats!). We get to see all the horror of her situation through her own eyes as she slowly realizes there’s nothing she can do to save herself. Also, scary stories in which a protagonist is changed into something horrible must be cautionary tales of some sort to work. The protagonist needs to be punished for some misstep; in this case, it’s Applejack’s fatal flaw of pride, thinking that she knows better than the old rhymes that tell her to stay out of the Dead Wood. Whether the punishment fits the crime is another matter entirely, but I would have enjoyed this far less had it been about, say, Apple Bloom innocently derping into the place after a lost ball or something and being punished just for being somewhere she didn't know she shouldn't be. So yes, good atmosphere, and a well-explored transformation horror concept.
Recommended
The Best Cupcake Ever by Ink Swirl
Reading by Doom Pie
Genre: Absurd Comedy
Remember when stories could be under 1000 words? This definitely would have overstayed its welcome had it been forced to have more to it. It’s just a quick, funny scene about Pinkie having an untoward reaction to dropping a cupcake on the floor. It plays well off Pinkie’s character and delivers a good punchline. I don’t know why it’s tagged gore, but that’s most likely to give people the wrong idea.
Recommended for Light Reading
The Silent Type by MrAskAPirate
Reading by Flame Lionheart
Really can’t ask for a better reader. His voice is a joy to listen to, and he has great production with sound effects and background music. Of course, at the end of this video, he goes, “Well, this is kinda time-consuming and I’m not sure if I should do any more” but hopefully he will not a butt and continue doing these. I might just subscribe to him in the hopes that he will.
Genre: Character Study
Big Mac starts his morning chores and thinks about a lot of stuff, especially Granny Smith’s health and whether his parents would be proud of him. Then he has to console AJ when she starts getting mushy. This isn’t a particularly standout piece in the realm of quiet Apple family studies, but it’s nevertheless executed well. Said execution is marred just a bit by certain narrative quirks, such as continually describing actions as “practiced”, as well as something I’m going to rant about for a bit: why can’t they just call her “Apple Bloom”? I could see “AB” as a nickname, but numerous fanfics have called her “Bloom” and “Little Bloom”, and this one now adds to the litany with the mind-numbing “Bloomer”. Just call her by her name! Is that really so hard? Anyway, this isn’t amazing by any shot, but it is quite good and I can’t think of a reason not to recommend it.
Recommended
A Very Special Sunshine Princess by toodlepip
Genre: Trollfic
It’s not very often I sit down and say “I want to read this fic” and then do so, but knowing this was on my list for “review one story of everyone I’m following”, I just sort of couldn’t pass up reading it again. It is one of only two fics of toodlepip’s, sadly, the other being in a similar vein and just as much fun. It wonderfully captures the perspective of a very young girl, which means it’s full of grammatical errors of the sort that children make, but you can tell, in small spots, that the author absolutely knows what they’re doing and is having one over on the reader. Once Sarah meets the ponies, we get to find out just what sort of a person she is (awful) and trust me, it’s one hell of a ride. (Also this is really a G1 fic, but being as it’s old enough not to have any tags, I chalk that up to “It was a different Fimfiction back then”.) If you look at the comments, you’ll note that mine is the second one, declaring this the “best story ever” (in agreement with the first comment). That still holds. If you ever read “Ponies” by Kij Johnson, this is that kind of story, only with the balls-out randomness turned up to 11.
Highly Recommended
King Sombra’s Downfall by Art Inspired
Reading by Doom Pie
Genre: Historical
If he was a better character, Sombra would be a better villain. Unfortunately, this piece doesn’t really seek to accomplish either task, leaving him as something of a Saturday morning caricature. This is driven home by a baffling section in the middle of the story where Sombra decides to “indulge himself in a monologue”. Up until that point, this had been a look into Sombra’s day-to-day and something of a political drama, but that scene kills the tone and, for me, the entire story. What follows it is a decent look at the titular downfall, including one of my favorite bits of headcanon, namely that Sombra initiated Luna’s transformation into Nightmare Moon. (Except that apparently she can just turn into Nightmare Moon whenever she wants to? I don’t understand.) Ultimately, this is a few good ideas thrown together with a few bad ones and doesn’t accomplish what it sets out to.
Not Recommended
Happily Ever After by NickNack
Reading (of back-translated Russian version) by me
Genre: Slice of Life
Pinkie thinks about stuff while cleaning up a party. Nicknack showed this story to me while I was helping him with the Heart of Gold sequels, because someone had translated it into Russian. He had then Google Translated it back into English, and the result was so hilarious that I did a reading of it, which is what’s linked above. (I recommend listening to it after having read the story.) I apparently didn’t review it at the time, however, so let’s fix that. This story edges up on but doesn't quite become a “sad Pinkie” piece. Yes, she thinks about some sad stuff toward the end, but mostly it’s just stream of consciousness as the high of her Thousandth Party Party wears off. One misstep I feel the need to point out is the fourth-wall gag, which occurs twice. It doesn’t add anything to the story and definitely kills the tone. Also, it’s kind of brazen, and definitely not the way I would recommend using that trope. If you like introspective Pinkie fics and prefer her not to go full flat-mane sad in them, check this one out.
Recommended If You Don’t Mind Bad Fourth Wall Jokes
Princess Twilight vs. the Pointless Button by Kamikakushi
Reading by SwiftWing
Reading by Ender
Genre: Dumb
Princess Twilight gets her jimmies majorly rustled by the appearance in her library of a button marked “pointless”. After reading this story, I can sympathize. Something could have been said for it; there’s a very minor meditation on the nature of purpose, for instance, that could have carried this had the author pursued it further. It could have been over the top, like Pinkie Watches Paint Dry. It could have not had an “it was a dream” ending. But none of these things came to pass, and I think ultimately, my time was wasted. Granted, I wouldn’t have even reviewed this, but SwiftWing’s other reading was an MLD side story, and I couldn’t even be bothered to finish listening to it, so you’re stuck with this.
Not Recommended
Dear Sweetie Belle: A Tribute to Button Mash by Weeping Angel
Genre: Allegory. Really Bad Allegory.
After John Perry’s glowing recommendation, how could I not read this? Now, when I come across stories of this sort, I always remind myself of something: the median age in this fandom is 20 (plus a few points). That means half the fandom is under 20, and half is over. (I am in the latter half, for the record.) Note that there are far more choices of ages to be beyond 20 than below it. I say this because it means that a large portion of the fandom lacks a significant amount of life experience that would inform something like a story about death. This is what I remind myself when I run into a story that makes me stop and go “But the world doesn’t work like that, how can you not know this?” It makes me sound ageist, but the fact is, kids is dumb, I was dumb when I was a kid, and I is still dumb because I is me. So yeah, this isn’t a great story and it makes pretty much zero sense when you think about it for two seconds. But therein lies the charm. This person was so distraught by the C&D against Jan Animations that they wrote a story about Button Mash getting killed by a drunk driver named Hasbro. (The best part is the reference to the train, by the way.) It's your standard "something sad happened and now here are some other sad things to make you feel sad" kind of setup, but the details in how the author goes about doing this are, well... charming.
Recommended for Connoisseurs of Badfic
They Call Me Flightless Fury by ArgonMatrix
Reading by Finish Line
Genre: Monologue
I have to be honest: I spent most of this story just being dazzled and possibly turned on by Finish Line’s Michael Dorn-esque delivery, so I’m not sure I have any great insight into the text. (Really, make sure you listen to it.) This was written for WTG, which explains the focus: a dragon awakens after a pegasus steals something from his horde and meditates on the purpose of flight ahead of bringing a furious ancient smackdown on her. This doesn’t go very far, but there is some neat stuff about the history of ponies and dragons that tells his story in a very oblique way. One thing I thought didn’t work so well was the description, which tended to sound like third person omniscient narration rather than a character’s observations. There’s no plot, really, but it’s certainly a decent exercise in character voicing, aside from the few slipups.
Recommended
The Discarded Son by Gabriel Lavedier
Reading by Scribbler, DeadlyReg and ChloeAnnaM
Genre: Conversation
Bad Apple, Granny Smith’s eldest and least liked son, returns to Sweet Apple Acres to make a wager. Bad Apple is a really great character, and either I’ve seen him in other stories or someone else made a similar character once (I have no clue, as everything dealing with this story is making me question my sanity today). Either way, I like the idea of the Apple family having skeletons in their closet because otherwise, well, they’re kind of boring. That said, some may take umbrage at the depth of closet-skeletonning in this story, as Granny Smith — though characterized well, and despite the fact that I can dig the “she’s entirely in control of herself” angle — ends up being the villain here, a hard-nosed matriarch who rules the family with an iron hoof. This is unfortunate primarily because it sets up Bad Apple to look like a knight in shining armor, swooping in to right a wrong and being kind of transparently The Good Guy; had Granny’s portrayal been more nuanced, his would as well. Of course, I also take some umbrage myself because I actually agree with her viewpoint, and, not to spoil anything, Mr. Lavedier and I will never see eye to eye on interspecies relationships. Which brings me to what I consider the low point of the fic: a diversion about the value of colt-cuddling vs. filly-fooling that exists pretty much entirely to set up some background AppleDash. Now, I’m not against the concept laid out here — treating lesbian couples as equal to opposite-sex couples because the mares can still give birth, while shaming gay male couples is a really fascinating world setup — it just doesn’t really add anything to the story, which should have focused more on Bad Apple and his life. That said, I really do like Granny in this, and I think if none of these downsides sound like gamebreakers to you, you might enjoy this as well.
Recommended If You Don’t Mind Offhanded Identity Politics
One Final Sunset by Hodd
Reading by Doom Pie
Reading by Luvlessi
Reading by Crafty Arts
Genre: End of the World
Centuries after the last ponies faded from existence, Celestia, the last survivor of Equestria, enjoys her final day of life. This has a lot of the earmarks of its genre, both end-of-the-world and sad fics, but I nevertheless like it. What struck me most was the reason for Equestria’s end; it’s far less blood and guts than you might expect. It’s not even dark, let alone grimdark, and I appreciate that. There’s not much to this, but I sort of can’t get enough of these sorts of stories.
Recommended If You Like End of Days Stories
God, that button mash story pissed me off.
1. It was an obvious setup for a whimpering teenager to cry over their favorite might-as-well-be-an-OC character getting axed
2. The feels were so forced that it made me giggle instead of cry
3. I dislike button mash X sweetie (and button mash all together, but this is highly subjective so I digress)
4. The only reason it's not got a million downvotes is because everyone's circlejerking over button mash
It sickens me.
1949089 NO
NO GOD NO
We must forget this story EVER existed
we must let it gather dust in the fimfic archives
DON'T GIVE IT ATTENTION THAT'S HOW IT FEEDS
A friendship is optimal audiobook? Which one, the original?
Also, damn... I remember that sunshine princess one! That was a long time ago!
Frosting splattered everywhere, it was horrible
Yeah! Segregation now, segregation forever! (Just kidding.
)
I have 227 stories in my Read Later pile and after going through this list, 380 chapters in my favorites update list. I will almost certainly never clear all of these.
You know, A Very Special Sunshine Princess was one of the few stories that I ran into when I first joined this site, and still one of the best stories I have ever read. I so wish that I could say this in an ironic sense, but despite its... content and lack of practicality, it's something that I am proud to call my friend.
Or something.
Thank you for reading it, PP, and giving it a worthy recommendation.
And now if only I can convince you to do a reading of that one Wheely Bopper fic I linked you to. For Srs.
P.S. Your tag for 'The Silent Type' just says 'Recommend'. What are you, my neighbour?
1949089
Eh, I did a reading once of a fic that was terrible and felt bad afterward. I don't want to do it again. :/
At least you're open with your bigotry (I have many priming years of the Furry Fandom as well as an in-universe mindset that realizes that multiple sapient species would become analogous to races, especially if means of interbreeding were perfected. In some cases this is so. We know mules exist and mythology tells us hippogriffs could. Reality tells us zonies can exist. So that just leaves magic to take up the rest.)
1954523
I have many priming years in the furry fandom as well that tell me fucking animal-shaped things is wrong. :V
1949479 I was pretty sure "Ponies" and "A Very Special Sunshine Princess" were both in the Bronies anthology, but I don't see it in the table contents. Guess I'm losing my mind.
1955373
Even other ponies?
Sorry. The position has always seen odd to me.
1955581
Don't worry. After having read 'A Very Special Sunshine Princess', I lost my mind for a couple days myself. I once opened my Ray Bradbury and found it in there.
Mysteriously, it disappeared after three days and no one believed me when I told them.
Long story short, this is how I ended up with my police anklet.
1955581
Ponies was, Sunshine Princess is just fanfic.
1949479
You know, I somehow totally missed this comment when you left it. c.c I'm not sure what fic you're talking about. As for Silent Type, high recommendations are generally relegated to fics that are transformative or leave a powerful impression on me. That one is neither, it's solidly good, but possessed of a few quirks that irritated me.
1957086
No no. I mean you wrote 'recommend' and not 'recommendED'.
And the fic in question is this un
Also I'm glad that I'm getting more and more invisible in your eyes.
Boo hoo cry some more
1958779
I could never forget you, rissy :V
Ohh, that'n. It's on my RITL but it's also on hiatus, so I'll likely never read it. :B
1959039
It's never going to be completed. But trust me. It doesn't. All you need is 10 splendid minutes for your life to be made whole again.
Also maybe another half an hour to do an epic reading of it in Gandalf's voice, maybe, and MY life will be made whole.
1959166
I can't do a Gandalf impression, what
...Also, what. Editing issues aside, what. Flank pockets?
1960260
I KNOW, RIGHT?