Fic recs, February 15th · 10:57pm Feb 15th, 2015
When it gets below 20 degree Fahrenheit, it stops mattering what the number is beyond "COLD". But damn, is it cold out right now.
Ugh. So. I'm not even a third of the way through my audiobook and enjoying it. This is bad because it means I won't be listening to anything else until it's done, and the "Month of Lurve" Goombasa and others are currently perpetrating is killing my readings list. D: And just when I was starting to put a dent in MMDGC, Equestria Daily goes and drops the Super Sappy Hearts and Whatever Thingy on my ass. I've decided I'm going to do that one next because there are fewer stories, fewer long stories (though one is twenty seven thousand words what is this person thinking) and it's a little more seasonal. I have thus decided that I don't give a damn about putting the MMDGC review out anytime soon. Unfortunately, this also means that I'm not going to be putting out much of anything anytime soon. So have a handful of short fics I've needed to read for one reason or another. But first, the news!
Twilightclopple has apparently ragequit the site and taken all their stories with them. Shame. :/
I don’t ship it (yet), but I know Trendermac is a Thing, and those of you into it should definitely listen to this.
I recently had this dream where I was kicking around a mall with my best friend and Sonata Dusk. Who was more or less an actress playing a character named Sonata Dusk who was generally nothing like her. And we got to talking about how this jewelry store used to be a Mexican restaurant, at which point she revealed she vastly preferred do-it-yourself Mexican pizzas to the humble, ordinary taco. So, uh, suck on that?
H: 2 R: 0 C: 4 V: 1 N: 0
Before I start the reviews, guess who thought he was Clever Dan and could sneak in an update to a story when no one was watching? Yes, Benman showed up a few days ago and dropped an extra chapter into Friend and Foe (review here)! It adds a whole lot more to the previous chapter (which I thought had a fairly weak ending), and good lord do I have a significant amount of newfound appreciation for this. I’m upgrading this story to Highly Recommended.
Touched by Morning Sun
Reading by ShadowOfCygnus
Genre: World-Building
This story’s very hard to pin down; oddly, I think the writeoff version made a little more sense on the surface, though it had problems of its own. The thing to know is that’s about vampires and not any creature we’ve seen in the show, so trying to figure it out on those terms is an exercise in futility. The clues are in the text, but tying this to ponies is a little misleading, though it definitely does a good job slotting into canon. So while I’ll complain that I had to read the comments to know what was going on, the writing is good and I definitely liked the voice.
Recommended for Fans of World-Building
Troubles Over Hot Chocolate by Regocomics
Genre: Character Study
Sprinkle Medley skips out on weather duty to do nothing.
This is a great look at weather management through the eyes of a more or less random background pony. We get a nice melancholy scene, a strong character with a relatable problem, and some nice friendshipping with Rainbow Dash. I think what I liked most was the weather-related world-building, the little details that each mare brings to the conversation that give a very clear idea of what creating weather must be like. I’ll say I was a tad miffed by the link to a certain other fandom property, but it does at least serve a purpose. My only other complaint is that the POV slides around at will, which really threw me off, especially in the first scene. Still, a good slice of life from a writer I’ll be keeping an eye on in the future.
Recommended for Slice of Life Fans
The Pale Stallion by Yellow Sub Zero
Reading by Crafty Arts
Genre: Pony Meets Death
Sweetie Belle helps a cold stallion and gets a story in return.
This has a fairly standard setup, with the titular pale stallion telling a story about a pony meeting Death. It’s very obvious what’s going on, but that’s not the point. I’ll admit that I spent a lot of this story waiting for something to really wow me, and I’ll tell you right now, you won’t find it until the very end, and it is so worth waiting for. Which isn’t to say this is a bad read otherwise. The writing is good, even if there were a million little things niggling at the edges. But this is a story where a single line can and will change everything, and it is that single line in the final scene, delivered without fanfare, that recontextualizes the whole thing. I got some major chills reading this, no lie.
Highly Recommended
Patience, She Said by TheMessenger
Genre: Future Fic
If Glitter Belle had been a good little filly, she would have left the dragon alone.
Though I use the “future fic” tag, this is the genre done right, more or less just Spike reminiscing about what life used to be like when he was younger, rather than delineating all the myriad ways in which the world has changed. In that way, and as a conversation between a child and a being much older than her, this excels. But, for all the little things it gets right, it gets a lot of little things wrong, mostly frequent missing words that drove me up the wall. I was also miffed by the sad turn, and I honestly wish it had ended when the filly left the mountain. Still, this is a good read, especially in the way the filly is written. Not everyone can write children this well.
Recommended If You Don’t Mind the Sad Tag
The Lonesome Drake by Bok
Genre: Western Comedy
While their friends film a Western with one of the greatest movie directors ever to live, Twilight and Spike go through something a little more realistic…
If there’s anything I like about this, it’s that Spike gets wrangled into a quick-draw competition with popguns. That’s so very show-tone it hurts. That this bills itself as a comedy is unfortunate, because I spent most of it waiting for the funny. The main joke is kind of buried, and until you find the second half of it, it seems pretty lame. There are some truly hilarious bits (the minotaur especially), but for the most part I was unimpressed. That said, it’s a slightly better Western than it is a comedy, so it’s hardly a waste of time to read. Plus, again, it manages to be a Western that fits perfectly into the show. I just wish there was more to praise besides.
Vaguely Recommended
The Terrifying Prospect of Swans in Love by Fedora Mask
Genre: Twilestia
After turning down Twilight's advances, Celestia must repair the bond she has fractured.
And after I tried so hard to get rid of all the Twilestia in my RIL, too. Allow me to share a quote from the person who made me read this:
It actually does bring up the problems with the mentor/student thing, early enough and smartly enough to give you hope it will dodge those brambles.
Screw you, person who recommended this to me. D: Screw you hard. Not to say I hated this: there’s a major scene with Cadence and Shining Armor that was really great, plus a lot of incidental humor around this big dramatic romance thing that I could not have cared less about. All that good will evaporates when Celestia starts reciprocating, and then it just turns into every sappy shipfic ever. This could have been a great look at why Twilestia doesn’t work as a ship, why people see the signs of it that they do in the show, and why it would be completely one-sided, but instead it’s just another Twilestia fic.
Recommended for Twilestia Shippers The Weirdos
But, was it good Mexican food or not?
I think I'll take a look at The Pale Stallion since it's the HR the bunch. I kind of got attacked by new stories and chapters over the weekend, so I'm a little gunshy about stacking too many more on that list. A 3k word fic is a pretty light commitment, though.
Anyone who thinks the fandom might be slowing down is nuts, the stories never end! D:
Apparently there was a line in 'Swans that really made me laugh. I can kind of remember it, and I really did laugh, but aside from that, your reaction to this is how I feel about most all shipping.
Seriously, the reason why I follow you is for this kind of stuff. I love it when a review suddenly and out of fucking nowhere spits the exact same thing I'm thinking at the moment.
I have friends that like Twilestia, and I get that to each his own, but gods I despise that ship.
Also Celestia is too tall so it'd be unconfortable for both parties, which annoys me a lot.
Well crap. Is there any way to find their stories? This stuff should really be web-archived.
2799623
The new brony survey had a bunch of questions about this and my reaction was "r u fkn srs m8" because I see no dying fandom from where I sit!
2799687
Not that I know. nallar.me has a crapton of archive fics, but as far as I can tell, they stopped archiving a few years ago, so it'll be incomplete. :B
Can confirm that The Pale Stallion is damn good.
can also confirm that PP is pleb-tier for not reading it when it was posted by SA :<
I'm surprised I wasn't more irritated by the missing words in Patience, She Said, since normally that sort of thing drives me up the wall, too. For the rest, Troubles Over Hot Chocolate I'll probably get round to eventually... but The Pale Stallion is the one that's piqued my interest, partly for the HR and partly because I won't be able to rest until I've found out what that single line is. :P
2799645 One word: Stepladder.
2799924
>expecting me to read things when they're posted
Look who's the pleb now. :V
2799687 2800147
It is archived!
Allow me to point you to the fimfarchive. He runs through fimfiction once every three months and back ups everything. You'll need to use a torrent client to download it though as the whole thing is 3GB. As long as a user didn't upload and then take down a story in less than three months, it should be in the archive.
2799623
And as far as the fandom slowing down goes, the only evidence for this might be the daily average wordcount additions to fimfiction. Summer 2013 saw around 1.3 million words uploaded each day, while last summer saw around 1 million a day. (Check out line 58).
But that wordcount is still five times the amount anyone is even capable of reading each day, so having less to read isn't that big of a problem.
That feeling you get when you read a review and forget to leave a public thank you for the review.
Thanks for taking a look at my fic and giving it the what-for! PoV problems seem to follow me when I'm not paying specific attention to it. I have to focus 85% of my attention when writing as to not flub up perspective as, and it pains me to say this about myself, I usually have no idea when I'm messing it up. It's so easy to point a camera to another character to jump into their head, but doing it through words alone seems to get me every time.
imgs.xkcd.com/comics/the_difference.png
PP is the one on the right.
Re: Twilightclopple quitting
Fimfarchive has everything.
Edit: oh hey someone beat me to it.
The Terrifying Prospect of Swans In Love has a bunch of great lines, but I agree that the transition to Celestia reciprocating is a bit of a mess.
But man, it has some great lines.
Incidentally, regarding Twilestia: it is a potentially interesting ship, but I feel like a lot of stories about it fail to deal with it properly, and consider the you know, minor problem of the fact that there is an enormous emotional power imbalance between them, that Celsetia is literally a thousand years older than Twilight, that Twilight has idol issues with Celestia (though they've been fading a bit over time, but they'd still creep out Celestia), that there are some indications of a semi-maternal relationship between the pair, that Celestia was Twilight's teacher from when she was a foal, and the many other issues which are, you know, a big deal, as just another issue to be overcome with PURE LOVE.
Which doesn't work.
Though at least it isn't as creepy as Sparity. Seriously, Rarity isn't a pedophile.
Clearly I need to finish and publish my Twilestia story; I seem to recall you (or maybe it was someone else?) noting that it at least explained it somewhat (though the fact that they don't actually get together probably helps too).
2800074
That is even more uncomfortable! Seriously, it's like a dog smooching a giraffe. The anatomy just doesn't work! And from a purely aesthetic sense it's weird.
Also yaddah yaddah, weird issues, Twilight being her student, Celestia knowing Twi since Twi was a foal, Celestia being way older than her, and all that stuff. But the aesthetics, dude. That's the important stuff here.
BENMAN SHOWED UP WHAT
Also, good reviews PP.
2800313
It wasn't my fault this time. :| Also, for the record, the only Twilestia fic that escaped The Purge was one you wrote, and only because it's from the writeoffs.
So when are you gonna finish it? :V
2800915
I've never been more in agreement with you than right now.
2801082
Okay... so maybe some bungee cords instead? In a completely darkened room... or... maybe I'm gonna have to rethink this.
Oh, just go ahead and tell everyone it was me, PP. My reputation is unnaturally clean. People need a way to realize that I'm terrible at heart too.
2800915
I ship Twilestia because, in my head, they are both adults and mature enough to deal with it, especially the one who's thousands of years old. Somehow, reading a lot of shipfics where they aren't has failed to dislodge this.
I need to write (finish writing) that Twilestia fic that PP et.al. won't hate now.
2801872
Oh, I think Celestia is mature enough to handle it, but I think she's also aware of what a total minefield it is, and I feel like few stories really do a good job of actually depicting Celestia as mature.
Then again, that's not a problem confined to shipfics.
2801178
Oh okay I'm the last hope for all mankind, no pressure or anything.
As a Trendermac shipper... thank you for linking that.
2801872
Mature enough to deal with it? Why the hell'd you make me read this one then? >.<
2802461
FUCKIN DO IT BRO
2800313 This made me LOL.
I haven't read it, but the title is one of my favorites. I keep picturing Twilight and/or Celestia honking at the other longingly.
This, but with alicorns.
2806941
Yeah, I kind of always wanted to read it just for the title. :B
2807357
Fun mental image. Cadance with pith helmet and binoculars, in a bush, watching Twilight and Celestia to observe Alicorn dating habits.