Everfree Northwest Fanfic Spotlight #2 · 6:20am Apr 18th, 2014
Hi all, and welcome to our second installment of Fanfic Spotlight! I'm Xepher, and I've got another three stories for your reading pleasure: A gut-punch of a story about a stallion not really ready to be a father, a wonderfully thoughtful look at what immortality means in Equestria, and a superbly endearing tale of a robot filly becoming self-aware.
Of Little Wings
by RavensDagger
Words: 3,347 Complete: Yes
This very short story goes directly for the feels and delivers a quick one-two punch to the gut. It asks the very simple question: What happens when a stallion has a child and isn't ready for the responsibility? What if that stallion would rather lift weights and hang out with his bros? What if...?
The premise of this story is a bit dark, but it's impactful and an interesting look into the character of Snowflake (aka "Bulk Biceps.") The writing is a pretty good overall, but several typos did sneak through the editing process. If you can overlook that however, and want a quick dose of feelings, then give it a shot.
Forever Young
by Hyperexponential
Words: 4,078 Complete: Yes
It's a topic that's been explored many times in ponyfic, and to me, one of the most interesting implications from the show: If Princesses and others are immortal, what happens to those who aren't? This story takes a very intimate look at that question, framed in the friendship between Discord and Fluttershy.
I really enjoy the idea here, and the way the characters are portrayed with depth in this story. When the serious topic of death is broached, the thoughts are varied and realistic. Nopony just blithely assumes their viewpoint, but instead they all contemplate it reasonably. More importantly, when I finished the story, I was left "unsatisfied" at the ending, and at first this frustrated me, but then I realized that's actually a good thing, and why I really like this story so much. Let me explain.
The thing about writing in a world of magic is that it's always simple to solve every problem. It's trivial to give any story a happy ending and to just "magic away" any causes for concern. What I liked about this story is that the author steadfastly avoids doing so. The ending is "unsatisfying" because it's realistic. There are no easy answers here, there is no perfect solution. Death is an impossibly complicated subject, and it's treated as such. So even though there is no "answer", the story is in the characters dealing with the question as best as they can anyway. In that, it succeeds wonderfully for such a short piece.
Thunder Struck
by MerlosTheMad
Words: 46,447 Complete: No
Okay, enough with the thoughtful melancholy. Here's a good one to cheer things up! When a strange lightning storm strikes her house, a young woman's old toy robot suddenly starts asking questions much deeper than its simple programming should be capable of. Then even weirder things start to happen.
Yes, this is a Sweetie Bot story, but one approached in a very interesting way. The author manages to pack in so much cuteness and "d'aww!" moments that you may need to have some insulin handy while reading. There are tons of fun scenes, adorkable cuteness, etc. Watching Sweetie deal with "the cat" alone is worth the price of admission here. However, underneath all the saccharine charm is a deeper mystery of what happened, of what exactly this little pony robot is now that she's more than just a toy.
The character cast is somewhat small, but all are very engaging. I really enjoy the ongoing development of Sweetie as a newly-self-aware AI, sort of part-child, part-pet, part-classic-sci-fi-computer. I also like the main character, Stephanie, and her logical, analytical approach to trying to understand the impossible things she's witnessing, which stands in contrast to how most characters just accept "magic" when suddenly thrust into it. Some of the other "cast" are various other not-self-aware creations that Steph built, including her personal versions of HAL and GlaDOS, and readers who have at least a passing familiarity with those will find some great jokes and references scattered throughout. Such knowledge isn't essential to the main story at all however.
While the story is still incomplete, the author has been providing regular (if somewhat slow) updates for quite a while now. The writing is, I feel, quite endearing, if a little repetitive at points. The overall premise and the sheer joy in some of the scenes completely outweighs any negatives though, and I always look forward to the next chapter of this one.
That concludes this week's edition of the Fanfic Spotlight. You can check out last week's recommendations here, and I'll be back next Thursday with more to enjoy.
Cheers!
--Xepher
Two of those are big names, apparently.
You have summed me up in my entirety with these two sentences.
2020861 I gave up trying to keep track of exactly who is "big" and who isn't a while ago (when I kept failing at it.)
So while I am trying to avoid recommending only the most popular stories, I'm focusing more on the individual story's notice/view-count than that of the author for the most part, though I do seek some balance between the two as well. Ex: The story with the highest number of likes in this list is from the author with the lowest number of followers, and the one with the lowest likes is from the most followed author. (That wasn't directly intentional, but nifty now that I see it.) At the end of the day though, it is just my opinion. I see a story I like, and if I think it's worth the time to read and that I can reasonably suggest something many haven't read, then that's what I'm going with.
2020976 Heh, well, if "slow updates" are your biggest problem, I think that just means you're a writer. I'm convinced that those freaks that somehow publish thousands of words every single week must be aliens or superheroes.
2032979 I'm not criticizing, I'm just in awe.
2032984 Ah... my bad then! I guess I read too much into tiny horse-face pictures.
2033161
2033161
2032984
You're a big name too, Flint.
Hah.
2033563
Talking about dem stories. And no, I'm not. Not just yet...
2033588
Well, I recognized you when I met you. So that's big enough.