Fic recs, December 8th · 3:25pm Dec 8th, 2014
Writeoff's on, that means things are slowing down! And on that note, I wanted to mention that I did note the two people wanting to sponsor my fics. Those will be gotten to, I'm just not sure when. :B But once I do that, the floodgates will be opened!
Hey, you people with bits of cash to spare, go help Twilight Snarkle’s daughter go to drama finals! It’s a good cause. :)
Oh myyy! (Seriously, all the Sonata art lately has been edging up on NSFW, and I don’t want to overstay my welcome here.)
H: 1 R: 2 C: 2 V: 1 N: 1
The Darkness of Love by The Grimm Reaper
Reading (part 1) by Hero541
Reading (part 1) by slickdash
Reading (part 1) by BigAshRandomVids
DNF: 2/13
Genre: Future Fic
Years ago, Spike disappeared, and everyone thought he was dead; now he’s returned, older, stronger, less friendly and carrying a dark secret. I did not find this appealing at all. The writing is telly, opening with a lengthy description of six dragons without any indication of who they are or why we should care about them. The characters speak entirely in service of the plot. Most of all, this is a story about Spike apparently corrupted by Sombra’s dark magic, which has just turned him into a huge jerk. It’s an edgy reimagining for no apparent purpose than to be dark and edgy. I can’t say I hated it, though I was definitely irritated by ponies shouting “God!”, but I was definitely not enjoying it when Twilight started contemplating suicide out of the blue, which was the breaking point for me.
Not Recommended
Abstratum by Tori Boshi
Reading by Akash the Reader
Genre: Psychological
Pinkie can’t remember what happened at the party last night, she can’t figure out what she’s feeling, and she has no idea why her friends keep staring at her. I found myself rather annoyed at the first half of this story. Pinkie keeps running in logical circles while her friends show up one by one to glare at her. But slowly I realized that there was an undercurrent of psychological horror. Well, “horror” is the wrong word, as that’s not the point of this piece, but it has the same kind of setup, and it builds a lot of tension. Of course, some of that was undercut by the sense of “get on with it already”, but I’ll give the author credit for crafting a good atmosphere. That said, this story is all about figuring out the ending, and the willful withholding of information felt forced. I can’t really mention what happens, because once you know, there’s no point in reading this. I also can’t say I was overly moved by this; my reaction to it is very indifferent, and that’s hard to do.
Vaguely Recommended
Abandoned Sanctuary by Titanium Dragon
Reading by TheLostNarrator, Emogak and Ebony Tails
Genre: Dark
The vampire fruit bats have left their sanctuary on Sweet Apple Acres. Short as it is, this story bothered me in the outset with its very strong “Applejack was right!” take on Bats! I found this troublesome only because it reminded me of how blasted troublesome that episode is, and I’m really going to try and make this not become a Bats! rant. Anyway, at about the halfway point, the author uses that fang tease from the episode’s zinger as something of a tragic flaw, suggesting Fluttershy still gets bat-cravings for apples, and things take a dramatic turn for the dark. The fridge horror was so strong and so “I can’t believe he did that” that I couldn’t help but laugh. That said, if this falls down anywhere, it’s in the “big reveal” at the end. The halfway-astute reader should be able to figure out what the characters can’t (I call Idiot Ball on Fluttershy), and I was more interested in what was happening to Fluttershy than the bats, not to mention I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Still, for a quick read with a nicely-executed twist, this is pretty fun.
Recommended If You Like Things Getting Dark
Dear Mom by Thak
Reading by Dr. Wolf
Genre: Epistolary
Under the direction of her therapist, Scootaloo writes letters to her departed mother. I will always praise authors who can write children well, and this is some of the best child writing I’ve seen. We get a very realistic look at how children deal with loss, and this ends up being the odd Orphanloo that really works. Part of that is thanks to the fact that “Scootaloo is an orphan” is the main conflict; this is about her dealing with her loss and figuring out how to move on. It’s a story about family and forgiveness, both internal and external. I will say that my interest flagged early on, when she started talking about meeting Sweetie and Apple Bloom and their crusading, and the final letter is a bit sappy, but overall, I really enjoyed this. It’s precious and heartwarming, and those are not the sorts of stories I often find enjoyable.
Recommended
Protect by Lord Destrustor
Reading by TheExhaustedBrony
Too quiet. He also front-ended this with some commentary, though I do appreciate him reading the description; I often find myself wishing I had done just that before getting into a reading. His pacing seems all right, but this is one of those “not to my needs” cases. If you listen to audiobooks without background noise of your own (and good speakers), you might be all right with him, but I had to read the story myself.
Genre: Adventure
You were made with one purpose: protect the ponies. This has a really great concept, an automaton pony created for protecting Equestria at large. Telling the story from its perspective was most definitely the right idea, but I can’t say that using second person was. The continual “you do this, you feel this” makes the writing feel a little flat. It still would have been a welcome addition to the Most Dangerous Game, I think, had it not been written two years ago. The final scene has a really powerful penultimate line. If you gave anything from MDGC a chance, do consider this piece.
Recommended If You Don’t Mind Second Person
All the Mortal Remains by Cold in Gardez
Genre: Mystery
When she finds an urn of pony ashes in the ruins of the library, Twilight Sparkle embarks on a journey into Ponyville history to discover just who it is she’s found, and what they wanted. A rather deserving win in the most recent writeoff, if I do say so myself (Cold in Gardez is extremely good at writing well-thought-out stories in 72 hours). There’s not much to say about this, other that it’s quite well written, as we should expect, poses some intriguing questions and goes about answering them in thoroughly intriguing ways, for all that it involves a lot of Twilight diving into town records. There’s a very intriguing use of the mane cast as local folklorists, akin to, but a step beyond, Twilight Sparkle Attempts to Eat a Sandwich. It’s all around a great story, just read it.
Highly Recommended
Warpigs by TheWraithWriter
Reading by Goombasa
Reading by immunetogravity57
Genre: Historical
When little Twilight finds a book called “Warpigs”, it touches off a flood of memories Celestia didn’t want to remember. Based on the Black Sabbath song, this story pulls together a lot of things: world-building, history, war, Celestia going vengeful sun goddess on some sorry idiot. The writing is decent, with some minor errors, though I did feel like the excerpt of the titular text was rather flat compared to everything else. I’d heard rumblings about this story when it was released, and I think I know why. Things get a little intense toward the end, with Celestia’s goddess mode activating, and I could see some complaining about her being out of character. I was certainly rather shocked when my reaction went from “yes, Badasslestia, go mop the floor with those guys” to “wait, no, hang on, you can stop now D:” It may come down to a matter of headcanon, but I see no reason why Luna must be the only alicorn capable of doing something rash and, in hindsight, highly regrettable. It made sense, and in the end, she did regret it. So be warned that this earns its teen rating with all the killing, but as historical world-builders go, it’s pretty fantastic and explains some interesting things from the show. (My favorite bit is that the changelings are referred to as “the Wandering Empire”. In two words, the author has written volumes about them. That’s the kind of thing you can look forward to in this piece.)
Recommended
No, no. I actively encourage stopping everything and having a Bats! rant. That cannot happen often enough. It's a wretched episode.
I read Dear Mom... Didn't like it myself.
2640494
I just don't want that to be everything I do, y'know? :B Gotta leave room for something else even if it was a blight on the name of television and I just watched an episode of G3 that was fifteen times better.
2640494
2640671
Well, you've already read my Bats rant.
Honestly I should have posted that when I wrote it instead of waiting a week. Ah well, hindsight and all that.
But yeah, I wasn't fond of that episode either, and found it problematic.
Which I'm sure you couldn't guess from that story at all.
That story is by far my most controversial one, though; nothing else even comes close.
Maybe someday I'll write another Dark story...
When doesn't Cold in Gardez write things well in a short amount of time?
In spite of getting steadily more and more behind on my tracking shelf unread story count, I'm going to give Protect and Warpigs a fav for later. Apparently I'm a glutton for punishment. Fortunately I already read Cold in Gardez's story.
2640707 Or a long period of time!
2640701
Just make sure you kill the pony this time. :V
2640813
Indeed. He's a master of time, more so than I am.