Fanfic Spotlight #25 · 8:22am Feb 23rd, 2015
Welcome back to another week of recommendations every pony. We got some nice simple fics here. All Extremely creative, but all simple in premise. We start with a simple equestrian fairytale, jump to young adult style adventure about a sun stuck up bake, and finally we get to a creative little comedic glimpse of Season 5.
A Tale of the Sun, Moon, and Stars
by DalTRS
Words: 4,546 Complete: Yes
Recommended by Asylum1388
This fic begins with a simple premise: Twilight reading a fairy tale to a young, unidentified filly. From there it spirals into a deeply metaphoric story spanning several of the series’ backstories, starting with a well-crafted creation story involving three deity-like beings, to the familiar tales of Hearth’s Warming, Luna’s fall to madness, and the moment Twilight got her cutie mark.
Told mainly from the point of view of the Stars themselves, the story is skillfully-crafted prose, easily passable as a classic fairy tale from this world. While it lacks an ending moral that many of our tales have, it does include a twist ending that should thrill most readers.
Shadow Of The Sun
by Starwin
Words: 118,134 Complete: Yes
Recommended by Silver Flare
I was fast asleep the other morning, probably dreaming about pastries or something, when someone rolled me out of my comfortable bed, spilling me to the floor. As I blinked my eyes open, a dreaded image resolved into focus. It was Xepher’s Angel Bunny slippers. And they were glaring at me. “Silver,” he grumbled, “Why didn’t you submit a review the other week?”
“Well, my good sir,” I replied, “I fear I’ve simply run out of stories to recommend. At least, stories I’ve loved that I can recall without effort.” To the untrained ear, however, it may have sounded like “Whelmehgrsrrr’sipruglrbstrr’mrrrrs.”
I could hear him shrug. Like, with my ears. “Maybe you should read some fanfiction.”
“I read pony fanfiction all the time!” I mumbled.
“Maybe you should read something that isn’t that neverending Austraeoh story.” Both Angel slippers made sure to add their scowls to his words. “You know how this works. You get to read pony fiction, and then we get to learn what’s good out there. It sounds like everyone wins, doesn’t it?”
My ears perked up just then, quite the feat with ordinary human ears, let me tell you. Then I somersaulted across the room, vaulted over the upstairs railing, and landed in my computer chair with a caramel macchiato in one hand and S’mores Pop Tart in the other. Four hours later, I found this gem hiding in my read-later list.
It seems as though the sun has stopped moving, hovering ominously at high noon over the town of Ponyville. When it shows no sign of setting, and the temperature begins to climb, our favorite ponies need to come up with a plan. The premise alone piqued my interest as it stood, but as I read further and further I discovered that things grew far worse than I anticipated. It’s not a grimdark story per se, but the blazing sun does destroy crops, evaporate rivers, obliterate Cloudsdale, and that’s just in the first couple of chapters! From a plot standpoint, Starwin delivers. I’d also relate, with glee, that I had no idea what would happen next even as I approached the last twenty-five pages or so.
The first thing I should point out is that Shadow Of The Sun is an adventure written for young adults. It doesn’t have the verbose descriptions and eloquent philosophy I’ve come to savor in my old age. What it does deliver is a lighter fare, an adventure able to be savored by anyone. Don’t let the straight-forward delivery dissuade you from discovering the twists and turns that await, for there are plenty. And surprising. If you yearn for adventure, but you don’t want to spend the next several months reading through some ponderous tome that never ends, maybe Shadow Of The Sun is right up your alley.
by MonoGlyph
Words: 2,513 Complete: Yes
Recommended by Ckat_Myla
Every season the show has had to up its ante, to try and top itself even after four successful seasons. With season five approaching, this story gives us a comedic look at what could possibly happen if/when there just *has* to be another alicorn princess added to the ever-expanding roster.
Celestia and Luna are taking applications for a fifth addition to Team Horn+Wings, as Princess Twilight Sparkle works to expand her own empire of friendship... by any means necessary.
MonoGlyph paints a picture of the characters (especially Twilight) that reminds this reviewer of a few certain parody series that could be mentioned in the best possible way. A quick, humorous read with such entertaining descriptions as relating Luna's hair-stars to dandruff (which this reviewer happened to find quite clever).
That's all for this week everypony. Look forward to next week when we explore the apocaly...
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-Piquo Pie, Asylum1388, Silver Flare, and Ckat_Myla
