Pay No Mind To The Tape: Feature Box Special #06 · 8:32am Nov 16th, 2014
Hey guys, looks like it's time for yet another (extensively late and outdated, as usual) round of reviews on the feature box. I know you're probably just wanting to skip ahead to where I tear the weekly POS apart or something, but, just humor me here for a second. You probably already heard about this by now, but, last week, RainbowBob was in a pretty bad car accident. He's well on the road to recovery now, and I hear on Skype that he'll be back home on Monday, thank the lord, but I imagine he's still in a rough spot. I'm not much of a writer, but there's a group of them banding together to write a mass-collab fic for him as a gift. If you're interested in at least supporting the endeavor, however you can, then it might be a good idea to check it out.
Some of you might know him by the fact that, besides John Perry and his "Suffering", Bob did those "Saturday Night Featured" reviews of the Feature Box; hell, Bob was one of the reasons I ended up deciding to start doing these Box Specials to begin with. (I'm obviously going to keep doing them, of course. But, Bob, I'll tell you one thing... if you don't get back to work on those SNF blogs of yours, you'll have a hell of a ways to catch up by the time you get back into the swing of things. Provided I don't run up another backlog thanks to my shitty hardware and shittier timeslots, that is.) Maybe I treat my reviews a little differently than he does, but hey, I still enjoy his take on it. Hell, I'll even admit I took some inspiration from him, a little.
...So, yeah. Sorry to take up your time with that, guys, but it'd be pretty asinine of me to not spend a moment acknowledging and addressing that, even though it's probably more of a late-to-the-party thing for me to say so at this point; I felt it was appropriate though, considering the kind of blog this is. He's a great guy, and someone I consider a friend, so I thought it best to help get more vocal support out there. (He even once told me that I was high on the list of people whose honest opinions he trusted. So... I guess that certainly counts for something.) Now, all that aside... let's have a look at this week's box.
Pay no mind to the conspicuous editing that was required to hide the fact that one fic that should have been out of the box by then was still in there.
Needless to say, the box is looking just as... appealing, as ever. It's nice to know that some things never change. That is, the general reading population of Fimfic never changes-- the box is just a dumb pile of code that does what it's told to do. And like all machines, it's only as competent as the ones who created it in the first place, after all. One of these days, when the Feature Box eventually gains sentience and sees itself as the purveyor of all things bad in the world, I think the inevitable reckoning would be healthy for the site. Sort of.
But anyway, until that happens, let's have a quick look at the what the dumb little box had to offer for the time being:
· It involves time travel, doesn't it? I bet it involves time travel.
· Just the usual slice o' anthro clop that the boxes seem so fond of.
· A Scootaorphan "comedy"? Yeah, I can't see how that'd fail.
· Angsty drama written by a recently-popular clop writer. What could go wrong?
· "I always figured I was relatively normal." And like that, you've lost me.
· ...Yeah, I don't got anything snappy for this one.
· What looks to be an interesting character study, but the "romance" tag worries me...
Oh, goody. More slop for the swine that is the FiMFiction userbase. Granted, one or two I see have some potential to be decent, but one can't really go off first impressions when it comes to the box. I know, crazy as it might seem, stories can actually lie to you from their appearance. Bizarre concept, no? It's almost like you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, or something.
Anyway, let's get on with these reviews already. They've been a while coming as it is.
Minuette sits outside, sipping tea and waiting for something. This is about to become the best day of her life. She knows it, and yet she doesn't.
Yep, I was right. It's definitely a time-travel story. Thankfully, it's an interesting time-travel story, at that; at the very least, skirts certainly fuck up the execution. While I can't say I care for his "comedy" works, I do actually like many of his other, somewhat more complex and serious works-- "intelligent" stories, I suppose you could say. This one story in particular is one that is actually very plain and simple at its core; predictable, even, which I found a little surprising. Maybe it's because I've already read at least several other stories with basically the same premise. That is, someone is struggling with an issue, and their future self stops on by to help them out. Sometimes, the same person ends up somehow repeating exactly what their future self did to their past self again, creating an infinite time loop of sorts. It's a common time travel paradox, but at least it was played to moderately good effect here.
As usual with some of skirts' stories, the prose is appropriately detailed and show-y, though it does lay on thick a lot of information that could be a bit much for some people to take; it was kind of confusing at times, and for such a (relatively) short story coming from him, a lot of expository information crammed into a small space is usually not a good thing. Considering that the whole "revelation" of the story was the reveal that the mare that visited Minuette at the table was actually her future self, the rest of the story is just essentially a retread as she returns to herself after figuring out how to make time travel work, and acts out the exact same scene as the first half of the story was. Honestly, I felt it would have carried a bit more of an impact if it was merely hinted at that she was going back to see her, thus closing the loop and giving the readers one final bit of speculation and "A-ha!" realization to think about. It could have also included the current ending -- which has Minuette offering to take Twilight Sparkle back in time to see Starswirl, which I kind of felt was unneeded -- as well in a cutaway or something, if he so chose.
But, that's just me being picky and demanding, as usual. If you like time-travel, and don't really mind the cheap premise, then it's probably good for a one-off reading.
#6: Princess Cadence and the Art of War
by Naughty_Ranko
For the first time in six months, Shining Armor has returned home from his training at the Equestrian Royal Military Academy. Having managed to earn the respect of his instructors and fellow cadets during basic training, there's only one thing he fears: The written exam at the start of the second semester.
Meanwhile Cadence is feeling a little neglected, seeing that her coltfriend has done nothing but study since his return. But she wouldn't be the Princess of Love, if she couldn't find a way to help him out and have some fun in the process. After all, love is a battlefield.
It had to come sooner or later, so, here's the latest offering in the box's weekly shop of clop. And as per expectations, it's a 3k oneshot (clopshot?) that also happens to be anthro. And the description itself is even kind enough to point those two facts out nice and clearly... as if the "Anthro" and "Sex" tag don't do enough explaining already. (Remember authors-to-be, one should always assume your audience to be idiots that can't read tags, and need to have everything about the story spelled out for them nice and clearly. Just thought I'd drop that there.)
Now, as far as clop goes... eh. Well, I can't say it's the best thing ever. It's clop, what can I say? But as far as it goes, it seem kinda... drab, in a sense. Not rushed, or too clinical, but it lacked a bit of detail. Unlike most clopfics however, it does follow an odd "theme" in likening the sex to army tactics; as if someone swapped Cadance's copy of the Kamasutra with something out of Sun Tzu's library. Maybe that's why the "Comedy" tag is there, but let's face it, I didn't find that funny in the slightest. The whole setup is that Shining Armor is studying for some kind of placement exam, and when Cadance comes over for a date, he ends up turning it down. Naturally, she doesn't quit that easily, so decides to help him study. Coitus inevitably ensues. Cut, print, and that's a wrap on that one. Nothing else, really.
So, apart from being clop (on top of having anthropomorphic ponies for no reason other than to have an attractive cover pic for the one-hand readers), there's really not much else to say about this one. There are plenty of smaller nits for me to pick, of course, but I'd rather not stay hung up on this story for very long. It's your garden variety clopfic with a little makeup thrown on in a hurry, and even then, I'm pretty sure I've seen something done in a similar vein to this one before, once or twice. On top of the other issues in writing and pacing, it's just... meh.
“Uh-huh. Indulge me for a moment. Say Equestria went to war and something happened to Celestia, then who'd be in charge?”
He crossed his arms and thought about that for a moment. “Well, as Royal Guards, we take our orders from royalty. And I guess the next person in line for the throne would be …” Comprehension dawned on his youthful face as he regarded her crown. “You.”
#5: S.S.O.C
by Anonymoose
Everyone knows Scootaloo: Ponyville's most prominent orphan. Despite her sad story, she always remains chipper and upbeat. Why is that?
I don't think I'll ever fully understand how the whole "Scootaorphan" thing came about or why people thought that it was a good idea in the first place. We've never seen her parents, true, and we've only just recently seen her home (which does not look like an orphanage, I feel I need point out), but I can't understand why people jumped on the collective thought that she was an orphan. I could probably wager a guess as to why, though: Feels fuel. People who like writing "sad" stories about orphans singled out Scootaloo, because "we've never seen her parents" and shit, so that apparently makes it okay to write her being an orphan. Just so they can write stories that do all they can to wring the tears -- and the upvotes -- out of their readers. What about the other foals, besides her? It's not like we see very many of theirs. (And yet, random foals like Dinky were auto-assigned by fans to ponies like Derpy to whom they bear little relation to, with no evidence. The cliches are so tired and overused, and yet so ingrained in the fandom's collective mindset, that it's considered a cardinal sin to deviate from any established "norm".) It's almost as bad as the "chicken" meme, I swear...
Now, going into this story... I suppose I'll confess I wasn't expecting the whole cliche to be done in this fashion. I might as well say that, for all this story does wrong (which there is plenty of; I'll elaborate in a moment), the concept is at least something I hadn't seen done before. Maybe because Scootaloo normally isn't portrayed as being so cunning, or deceptive, or... a downright scoundrel, really. Apparently, Scootaloo is "well known" as an orphan around town, and actively leverages her status as an orphan to deliberately elicit pity from others, so she can get away with free things. Yeah, bet you didn't see that coming, huh? Not only free stuff; she's apparently "gifted" with the ability to con ponies into giving or doing just about anything for them. And even better; all orphans are apparently gifted with this ability of "super-mooching". Or "orphan tears", as Scoot so eloquently puts it. I could go into more detail, but, I think I'd better start showing off how this story ends up completely fucking itself over in the end. To start with, every scene is broken up by these...
Yes, you can use stock images, very impressive. Unfortunately, this addition was very much unneeded, and it seemed like a case of polishing a turd; you can pretty it up as much as you want, but it doesn't change what it is at its core. Nor does it do a good job of concealing the problems, also. The scene transitions in question are so abrupt and numerous, the pace of the story is completely fucked to hell. Some scenes take place moments after the next, some days. Some are written long, some are written cripplingly-short. The description of the text itself is dry and lacking, and the character interaction is boring and dull. For the admittedly-unique idea at its core, the execution is handled terribly. And, honestly? That "twist" on the orphan cliche is the only moderately-good thing I have to say about it, but even then, it's a mixed bag for me, because it's such a contrived and mean-spirited one to begin with. It's boring, the "jokes" are unfunny, it meanders along with no point nor purpose before just abruptly ending; hell, I forgot that there was even a conflict going on, and the abrupt scenes and awful pacing certainly don't help.
I mean, fuck, I could even go as far as to label this offensive and tasteless... though on one hand, it does almost feel like an exaggerated satire of real-life moochers that get away with this practice (which doesn't always happen, of course; like I said, exaggerated), so I'm not even sure what to think, really. One thing I can be certain of, however, is that this isn't funny in the slightest. Big surprise, I know-- a feature box "comedy" fic isn't making me laugh. Am I overreacting to things I'm likely looking too deeply into? Maybe I am, but hey, this is the internet. It wouldn't be fun for any of us if people didn't overreact, even slightly. But as it stands, the whole story is a complete mess. For every interesting idea contained within, there was six feet of crappy execution burying it.
#4: Uncertainty
by MadMaxtheBlack
In life, we can only truly trust what our senses tell us, but what if our senses are wrong? When does the real world end, and fantasy begin? And when do they bleed into the other?
Well, this is odd. I am both surprised, and yet, I am also not surprised. I'm surprised that MadMax, the same guy that penned the whole "Gleaming Shield's Teats" thing along with "Milk-A-Mare" from last week, wrote something like this. The same guy who wrote fucking Your Human and You wrote a story of this nature. But I am not surprised that it's still a story that involves a human, albeit loosely. What really gets me is that it decides to play the whole "reality perception crisis" thing and apply it simultaneously to a human doing human things, and a stallion (that also appears to be Fluttershy's boyfriend or something) locked in a coma. For whatever its purpose in existing is, it certain does the job of illustrating its point: feeling manipulation.
Yeah, just another "sad" fic with a lot of bullshit "feel bad for them" themes going on here. From what I can tell, the stallion was injured and fell into a coma after some run-in with a Manticore under Fluttershy's care. And it's quite clearly implied that, in the coma, he's hallucinating life as an average everyday human; whenever Fluttershy visits and tells tales of what happened, that's apparently when he watches MLP or something. Yeah, I'll be quick to call bullshit on that, but I sincerely hope it's obvious why I would. And since I'll probably need to explain myself anyway, Fluttershy couldn't possibly know enough detail about the adventures outside of the ones she was heavily-involved in, thus the show would not be as accurate as it is-- unless it was completely different in other regards, which is never explained nor touched on at all, so... plot hole. Oh, and Fluttershy is the human's favorite pony, for whatever reason. And the author had to insert a goddamned footnote saying that he didn't share the same opinion he wrote when he thought Flutters needed more episodes, and instead thinks they all do. (Nice save there, bucko.)
Blegh. About the only thing the story does right is offer a viewpoint on the whole perspective of reality thing, and whether one is real, one is made-up, or if the two blend together. It sounds nice as a summary, but it doesn't feel like it's been put to good effect, here. This reads, quite honestly, like a depressed person sat at a keyboard and jammed out words, inwardly wishing he was actually a pony in Equestria, where Fluttershy was already predispositioned to be his waifu. It's one of those "wishful thinker" fics; something that's written to appeal to a cheap fantasy that, while it may be honest and pure at heart, is still woefully out of reach. If anything about this story is sad, it's that fact, and barely even the story itself. I'm not saying that a writer should let their feelings be removed from the writing equation entirely, because then it would just lack any soul or personality in totality. I'm saying that, well, it ought to be curbed, somewhat. Let it influence the work, but not drive it entirely. Maybe I'm just assuming that this is the overall motive, because it honestly reads that way, but if I'm wrong... well, I don't even know why this was written, then. It's just a cheap, emotionally-manipulative story that's more confusing than anything else.
So, what did I come out of this with? Well, I did learn a few new things, actually: That reality is fantasy, fantasy is reality, and we're all actually just comatose cartoon horses wasting away in hospital beds. Equestria must have a lot of beds, then...
Oh, and the author linked "Mad World" in the final line, so there's probably some hidden, ulterior meaning that will never be made clear, ever. Stop trying to be shortskirts, author. We already have one.
#3: Wildfire
by Pastel Pony
As far as antagonistic, anti-social teenagers went, I always figured I was relatively normal.
Aside from the fact that I talk to myself in my own head way too much.
And my thoughts are always like wildfires that can never be stopped, never be controlled.I did say relatively.
Until I woke up this morning with a pink and purple stripe in my hair and Twilight Sparkle's voice in my head.
I knew my mom should have listened when I said there was something wrong with me... Now I'm actually, certifiably, insane.
Probably.
Oh, joy. We moved from one human story to another, and somehow, this looks even worse. The description by itself was not enough to inspire confidence in me whatsoever, and reading the story itself thus far only cemented my first impressions. I'm not very impressed, and I'm more than happy to say why I'm not. I think I'll borrow one of John Perry's terms here for describing the main character thus far: a SQUID*. (Or I could probably make up my own term, like "WURM" (Whiny Unlikable Rebellious Meatbag)... but that sounds like too much work.) Basically, the human is just your so-called "average" joe, who likes to snark and swear like no tomorrow -- because that's obviously such a good trait to have, right? -- and has pretty much no other redeeming qualities besides what we are shown... but we are apparently told that he's gifted but lazy, or some shit. Informed Attributes strike again.
Anyway, it opens with a very brief dream of sorts that makes no fucking sense whatsoever, then jumps to our human as he wakes up. The whole thing's told in first-person perspective, so we are (unfortunately) subjected to his internal thoughts and monologues, many of which are brief, stilted, and pretty awkward. Not to mention the pacing is painfully jagged, to the point where it's a chore to keep up with what's going on and still persist through it. Things are made out to be becoming unusual right off the bat, thanks to his "usual" behavior to procrastinate and such being overridden by an alien thought process making him be more proactive and punctual. Yeah, a little strange, you would think. Even stranger when he sees that he spontaneously now has a pink and purple stripe in his hair when looking in the mirror.
Yeah, it's gonna be one of those stories, folks.
It's a foregone conclusion thanks to the hamfisted obviousness of the foreshadowing, but it's eventually revealed that Twilight Sparkle herself is now stuck inside of this asshat's head... somehow. (It's not explained very well.) So, in essence, this is looking like Dash of Humanity, only reversed. And with Twilight instead of Rainbow. And dare I even say, it seems to be giving off Five Score vibes, as well. Apart from Twilight being in the guy's head, along with the whole "MLP is a show on Earth" thing, there's almost nothing that properly ties this in with MLP itself; it's merely treading the line, and I'm honestly surprised that it got passed the way it did... but, hey, as long as it MENTIONS the show and has a character speaking from the show in it, then that's fine, apparently. Eugh.
So anyway, he eventually starts... talking to her, I guess. After the phase of "panic" passes, he shifts full gear into sarcasm mode, quipping at her every other chance he gets as she tries to explain herself. She speaks in purple italicized text, by the way. I mean, seriously; if you want to pull a gimmick with the whole "speaker identification" thing or whatever, then great. But don't color text like that needlessly. It's not only completely unnecessary, it just makes it harder to read than if it were just normal black text. It's distracting as hell, and honestly, it's stupid.
Overall, this thing features a dull and unlikable human protag, an uninspired and trite concept, tons of pacing issues, and even more nits and picks on various bullshit that I won't bother going into now. It's still in progress, but honestly? I can see where it's going, and I don't like where it's headed. There's just nothing worthy or entertaining here.
*Snarky Quippy Underdeveloped Irritating Douchebag.
#2: Panty Made 2: Booty Call
by Twinkletail
Twilight accidentally spent a whole day as a pair of her marefriend's panties last week, and now she can't get that out of her mind. She's devised a plan to sneak in a custom pair to cover her tracks, figuring that Rarity wouldn't notice they were missing, but when she realizes it too early, Twilight has to go through drastic measures to keep her secret. Or she could just tell the truth. But where's the story in that?
Uhhh... well, that just happened. I just read that. I don't know why I did, but I was obligated to. And honestly, I've got no other words to say except... what the fuck? I mean, I can't even really be surprised by this point, but that doesn't mean there aren't still things I can find weird as all hell. This, of course, being one of them. But there's really no point in turning this into a two-page rambling that would outright criticize and offend everyone who has ever had a fetish, ever, but that would be a tad hypocritical. Instead, I'll settle down and simply say, "it has a certain niche appeal that isn't exactly very inclusive to anyone outside the targeted fetish zone." In layman's terms, keep away if you don't subscribe to these kinks, much like the fic A Canterlot Breeding which was included in the bonus reviews last week. At least this one isn't quite as... extreme, but it's still odd. Not enough to disgust, but nearly enough to intrigue.
Well, from a purely-technical standpoint, I suppose there's really nothing I can see wrong with it. The writing, that is. It's technically competent, and I didn't notice many errors or pacing issues, so that's... good, I guess? I dunno. I don't care. Ignoring the themes and fetishes entirely, which I don't share nor care for, the only major problem I can see with this is that... well, would Twilight REALLY go this far out of her way to keep the "secret"? I mean, fuck; I haven't read the first story, but from the sounds of things, the first time it happened was an accident. Maybe Twilight is just that much of a neurotic pony, and is just that embarrassed enough to never want to come clean with it... But, she did eventually come out with it in the end, anyway, so that was pretty much rendered pointless. (Though it was dragged out into the open quite awkwardly, so I don't think a casual explanation would justify having stitchings on her flank. Speaking of which... OW.) The overall drive for the whole shebang seems to have been driven entirely by curious perversion and an inability to tell the truth straight up, which isn't the worst justification I've heard, but... eugh. With these kinds of stories, you often need to let your brain turn off for a while, otherwise you'll totally lose it. And it's as if this story wants exactly that to happen with its readers.
If you're into the whole "clothing/inanimate transformation" deal, then fine, I suppose you'll be plenty satisifed with this. For anyone else, it's no better than a curiosity at a carnival or whatever, since it does nothing but appeal to a relatively tiny demographic -- and considering it ships Rarilight, the demographic is even tinier still. I'll never know how it managed to hit featured, but I imagine that a number of them simply upvoted for the sheer hilarity of the premise alone. I don't know. Whatever the reason, it has appeal to whom it targets, but nothing else beyond that.
#1: Ms. Celestia
by Flint-Lock
Everypony daydreams.
Some ponies daydream about becoming rich and famous. Other ponies daydream about meeting their one true love. Still others daydream about becoming great heroes.
Celestia's daydreams are nothing like that. Indeed, when her mind wanders, she imagines what her life would be like if she was an ordinary mare. No tiara, no wings, no castle. Just an ordinary mare living an ordinary life in an ordinary town.
What would those daydreams look like?
I dunno, what would they look like? Jeez. I know it's a pretty common thing for these stories to ask questions, which usually range from blatantly obvious to vague and uninteresting, but it still irks me a bit when I keep seeing it being used. Kinda like how I get pissed every other time I see a guy do something like this.
Note: Special thanks to Justin for proofreading and editing!
Note 2: Electric Boogaloo: FEATURE!!!
Ahahahahaha fuck you.
Anyway, moving on to the story itself... I suppose it's not terrible. Not entirely. Let me get the very brief praise out of the way first, shall I? First off... well, actually, I suppose the concept isn't really all that new, is it? In fact, I've seen it done before and better. No points there. Well, I suppose I could always... no, there's really nothing funny or otherwise engaging about it, really. Actually... never mind. There really isn't much for me to praise here, after all. I mean, some of the prose and description is okay, but it's hampered by annoying textual errors, abrupt scene breaks, and some rough pacing issues. The daydream sequences are an interesting idyllic parallel to Celestia's real life princess duties, though that is in itself hampered by some questionable characterization and inconsistent writing quality.
I guess the word I'm looking for here is... "earnest." Really, it's not a terrible concept-- it's really more of an ungraceful execution. There were a lot of problems that could have easily been solved with some pre-reading and editing, issues with the story itself, and so forth. In a nutshell: Decent idea, shoddy effort. Well, not to say that it's completely without effort being put into it, but... I don't know. It just doesn't feel up to par. It doesn't feel right. I know that's not explaining very much, but hey, what do you want me to say? We all have those moments of "failure to launch" in the cranial cavity, and sometimes it's hard to know where to start explaining things properly. (See kids, this is why you should be getting your sleep. It's hard to think when you've been working all day and decide to start reviewing things intermittently...)
But let's see what we can find, at a glance. From the get-go, we see that Celestia has been having daydreams of a perfect, albeit average life as a mare living in Ponyville. Yeah, a perfectly normal mare named "Celestia". At least she had the thought to change her name in Sunny Skies All Day Long, since then it would be more inconspicuous... But regardless, between her dozing, she is then directed to and set up to face her next royal duty or some shit. And it always sets itself up the same way, too. And with the same ultimate result. Said result being that the whole possible scene we could have had is completely skipped over, with Celestia acting annoyed or irritated over something that ALWAYS went wrong, for each occurrence. At the end of which, of course, she finally relaxes and slips back into Lala Land once more. By the second time this cycle happens, it becomes overbearingly predictable; repetitive and formulaic as fuck. Really, the only interesting things that happen is the gradual "progression" of the daydreams, which are probably the only real highlights of the story. But, for reasons stated earlier, these aren't quite as good as they should be.
And that's a bit of a shame, because I honestly thought that the idea had some potential here. It's just ruined by a crummy execution and boring, repetitive structure. On top of that, the story decides to throw some Twilestia into the mix near the end, which took me off-guard... in a rather bad way, honestly. (No, I do not like any Twilight x Celestia/Luna ships, and no, I refuse to debate this.) It is still merely part of the daydream, but it certainly serves as an obvious shiptease and very much unneeded addition overall; I could have walked away from this with needing to label it as a fic that tries to awkwardly shoehorn in a pairing at the very end of it all. On top of all the other issues, it just spoiled the rest of what could have been at the very least an "okay" attempt. And thus, sad to say, I cannot recommend this.
And like that, another set of reviews is finally done and over with. It's late, I'm tired, and I'm all out of snappy one-liners, so... eh, fuck it. You know how it is, by now; next time there will be more stories to review, I'll hopefully be a little more on-time with them for next time, oh gee I wonder what we'll see next time come to think of it, blah blah blah and so forth. You all know the drill by now. Until next review or rant, I'll just be here, idly biding my time with the universe's biggest cheat to ever exist: Life. An otherwise-normal weekend, I assure you.
It's not like I had anything else to do, of course...
~Blinkie
This is actually kinda right. Since they're younger at the time, I'm guessing Luna isn't back from the moon.
On the Scootaloo being an orphan thing, I never really got that either. She isn't the only major character who hasn't had her parents show up yet. Guess someone early on drew a picture of her being an orphan and it caught on
When I saw that in the description of this story I took it for Five Score Divided By Four kind of fic and thought "hey, wasn't that thing banned?"
Also, I was writing mischievous Scootaorphan before it was cool (though Scootaloo has parents in most of my fics)
A good film should start with an earthquake and be followed by rising tension, huh?
I think part of it is that the other two members of the CMC have such prominent families that Scootaloo's lack of same is a big contrast.
Well slap my head and call me Sally, I wonder who's fic that was?
Personally, despite how tedious Scootorphan gets, subverting it with an "orphan Apple Bloom" gag never gets old.
2598103
To answer your question the story itself isn't banned, but spin-offs of it were banned after a huge flood of them where made when the author inadvertently opened said floodgates by giving everyone explicit permission to use his universe. Whoops.
Of course, now Five Score fics at only banned if they're under a certain length, to prevent people spamming oneshots/never-to-be-finished-one-chapter-only-fics just to get in on the fad.
Edit:
Wait a second. The site's Rules page is gone and I can't find it. It seems to have been vaporized by the FAQ.
Why do I have a horrible, horrible feeling that something bad is going to happen once people notice this?
2604315
Yeah. Though for me, LoHAV was far more annoying.
And yeah, rules are gone. Not to mention this:
Maybe soon there'll be some changes. Or a massive shitstorm. Probably both, as usual.
2604355
See you in hell.
2604315
2612290
Tonight we'll dine there?
2612327 of course. we are already there.