Fic recs, January 30th! · 12:28am Jan 31st, 2015
This guy’s looking for some prereaders!
horizon’s story Melt, which is one of his absolute best, got a reading by Illya Leonov, which is about the best thing that could have possibly happened.
Okay, guys, after the sillinest of my last (normal) journal, the Great Sonata Deluge is coming to an end. I doubt many will be disappointed and more than a few will be relieved. :V Back to your lives, citizens. RIP in peace.
So click below to check out Dark Magic by Anonymoose, Jade Ring's For Ages and Ages to Come and something really stupid by Admiral Biscuit. And three other things!
H: 0 R: 2 C: 2 V: 0 N: 2
Snowhere to Run by Regidar
Mature: Sex
Genre: Trollfic
Snowdrop encounters a rapist.
If there’s a reason I like this, it’s that it hits all the “Snowdrop fails at everything” tropes that I am a terrible person for loving. Most will likely want to avoid it, given that it’s just a lengthy string of rape jokes, but the twist in the middle is hilarious and there’s also a great Shrek reference, which is not something I thought I’d ever say. This being one of Regidar’s earlier stories, it doesn’t appear to have been proofread at all (as if that were the worst sin at work here), and I also didn’t get the punchline, but at least the stuff leading up to it made me laugh.
Recommended for Terrible People Only
Remember Me by Avox
Reading by Neighrator Pony
Reading by Lotus Moon and Mystery Pony Fiction
Genre: Sad Shipping
Spike asks Roseluck why she leaves roses at the hospital.
I have so much to think about this story, I actually left off writing the review for an entire day, which probably means I’ll forget something. Let’s start with the good. This is one of those atmospheric and artful stories about Roseluck, of which I have read many in the past few months. (What’s with that?) The writing is pretty solid, despite trending towards florid in the first third or so. Any story with a line like “the anchors dropped in Spike’s chest” is obviously written by someone with an eye towards purposeful language use. Now for the bad. I found myself unable to enjoy most of the story because I was wondering if I was missing Language of Flowers subtext. I don’t think so, given that all the flowers used are roses, but I can’t quite be sure. Then I was unable to enjoy it because it suddenly turned into Spikeluck shipping. I mean, okay, it’s not Sparity, so it avoids the “she’s leading him on” issue, but that still leaves “he’s a child” and “I hate interspecies” as problems. (The latter being neither here nor there.) The relationship is built out of Spike behaving like a moody teenager because he feels unappreciated. I mean, he rather is in the show, it’s something worth dealing with, but given how sympathetic the story is toward him, I was totally shocked when Roseluck ends up dying at the end. And then Spike lives the rest of his life crying? Where’s the sympathy there? The other issue I had is that Roseluck reveals she’s blind about halfway through, but continues to act like a sighted pony. I don’t know if there’s something here that I missed, but I honestly wondered if she hadn’t lied about that. Honestly, it’s the shipping that really gets me (and it’s bad shipping, too, cf. the random Caralight at the end with no foreshadowing), and I can only say, if you want to see Spike with a mare who isn’t Rarity, you could do worse than this. But I’m not going to put my stamp on it.
Not Recommended
Queen Twilight Sparkle by Barix123
Reading by Indubitably Ponified
Mature: Sex & Gore
Genre: Dark AU
Twilight Sparkle, Queen of the Crystal Empire, prepares for a trip to visit her friends in Equestria.
Once upon a time, controversial artist Kayla-Na was making a series of comics and sketches shipping (anthro) Twilight and Sombra. There was a backstory about her being corrupted by dark magic and it honestly gets kind of rapey, but goshdarnit, they were so cute together. That was foremost on my mind as I listened to this reading, but I don’t think the two works have anything to do with each other. That said, I can forgive anyone who looks at this and declares it Fall of Equestria on a small scale. Honestly, if the sexual elements had been left out, it wouldn’t be so bad; they are entirely superfluous to the story. But my major issue with this, aside from the terribly inconsistent formatting, is that I was never sold on Twilight’s corruption. She seems to vacillate back and forth between “totally corrupted and loving it” and “totally rebellious but unable to do anything about it”, and she’s too self-aware for either to really work. I didn’t buy the split personality thing. Honestly, I think it comes down to the simple problem of telling instead of showing. I can see that Twilight’s power-hungry, I don’t need her to inform me of it. A large part of me wanted to like this, despite its flaws, but in the end, it just doesn’t quite come together to pull off the main idea.
Not Recommended
Dark Magic by Anonymoose
Reading by Thornquill
Reading by Agent0Fluffy
Genre: Action
Octavia never thought she’d be running into the dangers of the Everfree Forest to escape something worse.
The major thing I like about this piece is that it hearkens back to the pre-Maud Pie era when Octavia was fanonically one of the Pie sisters. (Actually, I think it was less Maud and more The Rockin’ Ponypalooza that killed that particular piece of headcanon, but you get my drift.) In this, she’s not a sister, but Pinkie’s cousin, and gets to try her hoof at earth pony magic while running for her life. Unfortunately, that and some tense action are about this has going for it. I mean, it’s not bad at all, but the twist didn’t make any sense (the author had to explain it; it's based around a "blink and you'll miss it" reference in one episode) and there’s background ScratchTavia shipping that adds nothing whatsoever to the story. Not bad for a short read, I guess, and Octavia running for her life in the Everfree isn’t something you see every day.
Recommended as Light Reading
For Ages and Ages to Come by Jade Ring
Reading by Goombasa
Genre: Immortality Fic
Twilight Sparkle lays dying. Celestia, as host of this Immortal Council meeting, can make a request of the council.
There are two scenes in this story that drag, and one of them is unfortunately the first. (The other is the last.) This is due to introducing a whole lot of new characters, the Immortals who end up holding Twilight’s life in their collective hands. I’ll credit the author, though, for making quite the memorable cast. There’s a lot of good world-building in this that should attract anyone who appreciates such, with an impressive amount being done in a very small space. And while it’s not too hard to figure out how this will end, the real meat of the story is the discussion over whether Twilight is worthy of immortality. Just trust me when I say a lot of good points are brought up, not to mention there’s more of that good world-building. And if there’s any one thing I particularly liked about this, it’s that Celestia is not only on equal terms with the rest of the Immortals (in far too many fics, she and Luna are shown to be just children, which is fun but has been done to death by now), but the point is raised that none of them know where they came from or why they exist. That’s pretty cool! Definitely a good read.
Recommended
Scootaloo and Celestia: Adventures in Twilight’s Gall Bladder by Admiral Biscuit
Reading by Shadow of Cygnus
Genre: Jesus I Don’t Even Know
I don’t know.
I just don’t know. Make sure you watch the video, it’s amazing. (I’m not watching SoC yet, this is entirely Bad Horse’s fault.) I guess Admiral Biscuit is… No, I can’t even finish that. My mind is broken. Go read this and weep for all you hold dear.
Recommended
...
I was not disappointed.
Rape, foalshipping, rape, killing micro-changelings with gallstones. You sure can pick 'em, PP. :V
But oh yeah wow that reading is awesome. I'm gonna have to update the story and signal-boost it myself tonight when I get home!
The greatest review I could ever ask for
Yeah, the story was hit and miss with my readers, some got the reference, some didn't. Thanks for the conditional light recommend regardless.
B-but, you watched the video! I saw your comment.
2759076
By 'watching' I mean 'subscribed'. :B You're on da list tho.
2759082
Gotcha.
I'm flattered to even have been considered, then.
I'll give that Ages and Ages story a read, looks right up my alley.
>2005+10 +8
>not listening to animal collective
but why
I think the reason for the Roseluck fics lately is the fact that Valentine's Day is in a couple weeks. Just a guess. Maybe folks are jumping on things early?
2759393
What I read never has anything to do with when it was released or what's going on in realtime. And by "a few months" I mean, like, "since October".
Yay! I stumped a reviewer!
2759644
Holy hell... yeah, in that case, the fuck is going on?