Fic recs, November 26th! · 5:02pm Nov 26th, 2014
Y’know what? Forget doing a “writeoff edition”. There’s too many damn stories to include, and they just keep pouring in. I’m just gonna post what I’ve already read and work on simply getting them all reviewed.
Blueshift’s Nineteen Neighty-Four now has a reading (part 1) (part 2) thanks to the Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality podcast. Looking at the site, it’s apparently dedicated to reading a Harry Potter fanfic based around the idea of rationality? I dunno, I’m only taking the cursoriest of glances. Anyway, I liked what I heard (before realizing I’d already read the story), but I have a feeling this won’t be delivering on the MLP fics in the future. Still, worth it if you haven’t read the story: it’s funny and this guy reads well.
(I'm kind of miffed that this one didn't end up all C's. Curse you, Admiral Biscuit for being such a good writer I guess? :B)
H: 0 R: 1 C: 7 V: 0 N: 0
Home for the Holidays by Silverquill
Genre: Holiday Horror
A mare, late to the train station and desperate to get home for Hearth’s Warming Eve, accepts a ticket from a mysterious stranger and boards a “secret” train. It’s a tale you’ve likely seen before, as trains of this sort feature heavily in many types of dark stories. Still, it’s the first time I’d ever seen it in ponyfic, and the writing is decent, barring a bobble here and there. If you’re into something a little Christmassy, but not overly cheerful, check this out.
Recommended for Horror Fans
Never by shortskirtsandexplosions
Genre: Sad
Imagine our surprise when word got around the writeoff: short skirts and explosions wrote an entry! It’s too bad I ended up hating this story; I mean, really hating it and the fact that it got second place. (Being over 20k words long is suggested to have played a part in that.) I think time has quelled that opinion somewhat, or else skirts just improved the story before publication. Maybe I enjoy sadfics more. Anyway, my old argument against this was that it manipulated the reader’s emotions; now I would amend that to “features an unending slew of pony death scenes”. But Celestia is there through all of them, feeling the emotions or not as required. This story, then, is about her relationships: with Luna, with their father, and with her students, past, present and future. We see clips of her life, in the distant past, interspersed with scenes from the present-day, on an airship returning from the Summer Sun Celebration. This is equal parts immortality tract, historical world-building, and future fic. (Just wait till you find out who the Admiral is!) Above all else, it is sad, sad, sad. But not, I think, sad without purpose. Watching Celestia and Luna essentially swap positions over the course of centuries is rather powerful. That said, I did feel like Luna’s characterization was shaky — granted, even in season 2, we didn’t have much to go on for her — and some of the non-Princess dialogue is… weird. This isn’t skirts’s best fic, but it’s certainly worth the read, if you don’t mind some feels.
Recommended If You Like Sad or World-Building Fics
The Order by Bad_Seed_72
Reading by BlackIrisBalloon, et. al.
Here’s another voice I know from Scribbler’s collabs! He’s a touch mumbly in the narration, which is highlighted by just how robust some of his guest readers are, but otherwise, I have no problems with him. It’s nothing a little volume on my end can’t fix. :) (Plus he outshines a few of his own collaborators with far worse microphone quality.) He goes on the list because his only other readings are partials of Inner Demons and a comic of The Unexpected Love Life of Dusk Shine, and a Kingdom Hearts fic. Okay!
Genre: AU
Flash Sentry is desperately in love with Princess Twilight Sparkle. Unfortunately for him, he’s a pegasus and the Order says “no”. This story made me so angry, but in the end proved to be a lesson in why fanfic readings can be misleading. Had I known about the AU tag, had I read the description, I’d have been prepared to face the subject matter (and the out-of-character Princesses). Instead, my inability to trust fanfic authors came out full force and I got mad. Having calmed down now, I still have a few questions. Foremost is, how the hell could Twilight ascend if the Order keeps everypony apart? Are the Elements of Harmony all borne by unicorns in this continuity? Was she always an alicorn? Not to mention I just didn’t buy her reasoning for the existence of the Order in the first place. Then there’s the question of Cake family, and I don’t even want to get into that. What in the heck is the point of this story? As an AU, it is definitely a good look at a dystopian Equestria, but in the end it’s just your average 1984 sort of thing. You’ve got one guy who knows that the way things are is wrong but ultimately does nothing about it. This exists solely to torture poor Flash. (An early mention of him not belonging in this world made me wonder if he was somehow human Flash in pony form, but I don't think that's what he meant.) If the unrequited romance was the point, this could have been told many ways in actual Equestria. And if that wasn’t the point, I don’t know what was. With all that said, if you’re into this kind of thing, this is rewarding. Bad Seed is of course a good writer, and I was entirely captivated by a scene toward the end, when Flash comes back to his room. I also like the way actual Equestria plays into this story; it’s quite tragic. It all comes down to how you can handle the idea of a modern, segregated Equestria.
Recommended If You Like Dystopian AUs
Kicking Back by Loganberry
Reading by Loganberry
It’s always fun to hear an author read their own work. He’s maybe a bit fast, and there’s some background noise that a noise removal function could fix (actually, his mic quality is spectacular given that he recorded this on a phone!), but otherwise, he’s a keeper. His voice is overall quite charming. A worthy author, and a worthy reader as well! (Though so far, he only reads his own stuff. :B)
Genre: Reaction Fic
Cloud Kicker hires an image consultant; things don’t go well. I have yet to read anything of the Winningverse (though I have plans to!), but I have enough second-hand understanding of it to recognize this as a reaction to it. So if you’re not aware what this is lampooning, it likely won’t have any effect. It comes off as just a string of mild sexual innuendo and a mare rightly upset because ponies won’t stop hitting on her. That said, it is pretty funny, it just lacks overall appeal.
Recommended If You’re Into the Winningverse
Pinkie Pie’s Last Nightmare Night by Admiral Biscuit
Reading by PegasisterReacts
Downsides: Mic is a little muffled and she left in a bobble with a word. Everything else, I like. Her Pinkie voice is fantastic, and her reading speed is just north of perfect. Plus, she only bobbled one word, so I suspect that was an editing mistake rather than a lack thereof. Good to go! (She doesn’t have many readings, though.)
Reading by Captain Sand
Reading by ShadowOfCygnus
Genre: Comedy
Pinkie dresses as Celestia for Nightmare Night. I really enjoyed this story, but as I look back on it, I realize there’s not much to it. She dresses up, she pranks some ponies, the ending is kind of amazing. It’s a really solid comedy regardless of lack of plot elements, though, and I especially like Applejack’s prank. Biscuit’s pretty skilled with these one-shotober fics.
Recommended
Remedial Lessons by ChromeMyriad
Reading by Thornquill
Genre: Philosophical
With princesshood comes new understanding of the evils of ponykind; when Twilight gets upset about this, it’s up to Princess Luna to calm her down. The middle third of this is a lengthy, in-depth exploration of magical headcanon, enough that I was almost willing to call this a hard fantasy. The story's purpose doesn’t reveal itself until we’re nearly at the end and Luna lectures Twilight on the difference between darkness and evil. (An admittedly good metaphor.) I suppose this is where the Random tag comes into play. And for all that it’s somewhat long-winded about magic explanations, I did enjoy this, right up until they talk about the guards’ inappropriate behavior, which is dismissed with, essentially, “boys will be boys”. That threw me, and I feel like it upsets the tone of the entire piece. Overall, I think this was worth the listen, but be warned that you’ll have to dodge narrative obstacles before finding the point.
Recommended If You Like Magical Headcanon
Infatuation by Malus Scriptor
Reading by KittenKitoko
Genre: Epistolary Shipping
Discord writes a letter to the princess he loves. I both love and hate how slowly this story unfolds. First, we find out that the writer is Discord, which actually flipped my opinion of it up to that point. The love letter is so creepy, but I expect that from him. My opinion flipped completely once more when it was revealed that the princess he’s writing to is not Celestia, as I’d hoped thought, but Twilight. Creepy. D: If there’s one thing this story doesn’t do properly, it’s convince me that Discord really feels this way. (But then, the only Discord ship I sail is Dislestia.) Thankfully, I think it’s meant to be fucking creepy, so the author has succeeded at that. This might actually have appeal beyond shippers.
Recommended If You Like Shipping or Dark Fics
Too Far by KnightMysterio
Reading by Scribbler, et. al.
Genre: Anti-Bullying Tract
Diamond Tiara’s bullying crosses the line after Dinky Hooves kills herself. I have a lot of feelings about this story. I spent most of it rolling my eyes at how difficult it is to really do a convincing anti-bullying tract. For starters, there’s the whole suicide thing. It might just be headcanon, but unless Equestria is presented in a fic as darker than what we see in the show, I have a majorly hard time believing that anypony, least of all a filly, even knows what suicide is, let alone would consider it. I mean, the death of a single filly in Ponyville is enough of an event that Celestia and Luna come down to discuss Diamond’s punishment! In the story’s own context, Dinky's actions are a little hard to swallow. Second, there’s the question of “Who is this written for?” A bully isn’t going to read something like this, note their bad behavior, and then seek to make reparations for their actions. Anyone who believes this to be possible was most likely bullied themselves, and will quite possibly be angry that Diamond isn’t locked up, killed, or otherwise punished in this story. A naive approach to subjects like this only leads to a hokey story. (I had flashbacks to various morality cartoons I watched as a kid; anyone ever see that one where the kid falls asleep on the train and goes through a nightmarish ride with trains that talk and stuff? I loved that one.) And for most of this story, “hokey” is definitely the feeling I got, though I was impressed at the justification for use of the pathetic fallacy in Equestria. Like, seriously, bravo, it was unexpected.
This is all redeemed and recontextualized when Discord shows up. From that point, the focus shifts from “the sins of an indulgent parent” and “spoiled children are intractable” to something more along the lines of “the only solution to bullying is the willful effort of self-improvement” and “you, yes you, will never get a second chance”. Granted, some of that is still wrapped up in the — inasmuch as this is really just a ponification of recent tragic events — hyperbolic “don’t bully other kids or they’ll kill themselves” lesson. I think, in the end, I liked this, though I do still have some concerns. (Why are the Wonderbolts there save to increase the drama? Why make Silver Spoon less of a bully? Does the story want to redeem Diamond Tiara or condemn her? Why ship Filthy Rich with Derpy save to increase the drama?) A final note: The version I heard, linked in the description of the reading and possibly the same I linked to at FFN, is not currently available on Fimfic. You can search and find a journal from May of this year that tagged the story, but the story was taken down by the author to fix ”major issues”. So there’s every possibility that the story will return one day and be far different.
Recommended If You’re Concerned About Bullying
The story has major issues, in all fairness. I hadn't realized that they'd pulled it down to fix it, or else I wouldn't have asked.
I was reading Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality for a while, but dropped it eventually. It went from the basic premise of "what if Harry was a genius?" and then progressed into "what if the entire cast of Harry Potter were insufferably intelligent and self-righteous?"
Plus, the author gets preachy. Know how in RealityCheck stories, his opinions and ideology get worked into the story more and more blatantly until it just becomes unreadable and you have to stop? It's like that, but an anti-theist liberal superiority complex instead of conservatism and vague misogyny.
It seems to be a rule that SS&E is good at less than 10k and bad at longer stories.
2617698 You quit before the author killed Twilight. No joke, the unicorn whose death is investigated during the famed detention in the
EverfreeForbidden Forest is a purple alicorn with a star on the butt. The WTF knows no bounds.MoR has some OK humor and some enjoyable magibabble, but is mostly a tract about the author's not very sane ideas about rationality, delivered by ubermensch Harry TotallyNotSelfInsert Potter.
Heh, in spite of literally having the first comment on Never, I don't remember it in the slightest other then something vague about the admiral.
The sequel to The Order starts to go into more detail about how the AU world plays out, but unfortunately it may never be finished. Pretty sure Babs said she was going to finish and post the whole thing, but you never know what you're going to get after an author leaves the fandom.
Oh yes you have, after a fashion. A Moment in the Sun doesn't have Cloud Kicker and Co. in it, but it does sit inside the world building Chen has put together for the 'verse.
It was a long while ago, but I remember enjoying Never quite a bit. Also, I'll have to give Kicking Back a read.
I'd just like to point out that, unless you count The Incredibly Dense Mind of Rainbow Dash, I've never read a Winningverse story, either. I haven't so much as looked at The Life and Times of a Winning Pony, for example: it's all done
with mirrorsfrom things I've picked up along the way.I was never (heh) a fan of "Never." That was back when we had a judging round. Popular vote determined the five finalists, which then went to a panel of five judges. I know Filler and Cassius served on the panel. I think the other two might have been Dublio and Corejo. Anyway, the public did a horrible job of sending us finalists. I liked the two I voted #1 (which finished #1) and #2 (which finished #3). I voted "Never" in third place, and the other two were pretty poor entries, imo, which had purposeless and generic sad moments, and defied logic in important ways (though I think you ended up liking one of them). I like sad stories, and it's not that hard for even mediocre ones to get their intended response from me, yet I didn't find this story sad. I recognize that it was supposed to be, but it just didn't have that effect on me.
Remedial Lessons! That one was okay. I did a review of it for WRITE.
2617916
All I remembered about it was the Admiral's identity and hating it because sad.
2617916
Oh does it? Man, it's hard to suss out what is and isn't in that verse. D:
Inner Demons is THE WORST. I'm glad it's incomplete in those readings so you won't be tempted to subject yourself to it.
2618609
I did actually look at it on Fimfic before deciding whether or not to follow the reading. :B Chris's recent review only cemented my decision not to.
2618621
May I get a look at this review?
2618655
http://onemansponyramblings.blogspot.com/2014/11/fandom-classics-part-82-inner-demons.html
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I'm disappointed that Chris doesn't spoil and rant about some of the bullshit that actually happens in this story, like Twilight trying to make Fluttershy rape Big Mac, or the CMC being artificially aged up by Twilight, followed by her falling for an OC named Lezard (really!). But it's okay, because he says that he's going to wait until she hits legal age naturally. Barf. There's also some shonen-ish bullshit like Apple Bloom's "Master Element" or the upgraded armor forms of the regular elements.
But otherwise I do agree with the review in general, even though I've forgotten specific examples of clunky-as-shit writing. I kept on reading because it had some good ideas on paper (like each mane six having to get an epiphany to access their elemental armor and Twilight making amends for her wrongs while she was possessed), some of which sounded interesting to me, and the TV Tropes page made me hope that there would be at least some good parts. But most of it did not ring true at all. Just a complete waste that makes me hope the author is only fifteen or so and doesn't know any better (but hopefully will learn).