Recommended Story Reviews #3 – Just Words, A Lot to Think About, Trust, Memories we Never Had, Refraction · 2:08am Apr 11th, 2015
Sometimes, folks write stories which twist or reframe the basic premises of the series. Maybe they alter the relationships between the characters, or maybe they show us a different slant on things, a different way the world could have been with the same ponies – a world which adheres closely to the world we know, but which changes one thing and goes off in a different direction.
Many of these stories are marked as Alternate Universe, but not all of them are – some of them are entirely consistent with the show itself, but still change our understanding of the world the ponies inhabit. And some of these stories are really, really good.
There are a few such stories that I really adore, and here are a few of them.
Today's reviews:
Just Words by Device Heretic
A Lot to Think About by chronicLurker
Trust by Bad Horse
Memories we Never Had by HiddenBrony
Refraction by shortskirtsandexplosions
Just Words
by Device Heretic
Tragedy, Sad, Slice of Life, Feels
5,560 wordsTwilight breaks Celestia’s doors.
But then, you’d be mad too, if your stupid brother got drunk and told you that you were adopted…
Why I added it: This is the “Celestia is secretly Twilight’s mom” story.
Review
The idea that Celestia is Twilight’s mother goes back to season 1 – I suspect to the very second episode, when this happened:
A mentor-student moment, a mother-daughter moment, or the moment ten thousand Twilestia shippers were born? Yes.
Device Heretic fundamentally wrote this story to illustrate how messed up that would be. It does a pretty good job of it.
Twilight finds out from her (drunk) older brother that she is, in fact, adopted, and, after throwing a temper tantrum and yelling at her family, stalks off to confront Princess Celestia about it. Celestia knew, of course, but had said nothing. And she continues to say nothing, and after determining that Twilight’s family hasn’t spilled the beans, deflects Twilight while comforting her, trying to tell Twilight that it doesn’t really matter, all the while hiding the fact that the person comforting her is the person to blame for it.
The rest of the story is a flashback, as Celestia thinks back to how it happened – and unlike many stories of this type, there’s actually a reason why Twilight Sparkle looks like Twilight Velvet.
This story is quite good. Its greatest strength is in showing us the sort of person Celestia would have to be to keep this a secret for so long, despite all the time she and her daughter have spent together. It not only makes Celestia fallible, but shows us that Celestia is aware of her own fallibility and yet still lies to Twilight to avoid the inevitable confrontation, in order to stave off dealing with her mistakes that much longer. It has a few very good lines from Celestia, both in words and in thought, and the theme of the story and its title are tied up in a neat little package.
The story very much is a tragedy, because it is time for Celestia to come clean, but she resists doing so – even as Twilight seems to be silently beseeching her to give up the act, even if that is only in Celestia’s own mind. The final few lines are excellent, a nice, final tap to the gut with a hint of sweetness at the end when many will have their insides twisted up by the rest.
Recommendation: Highly Recommended.
A Lot to Think About
by chronicLurker
Sad, Alternate Universe
1,015 wordsIn the aftermath of the ruined wedding of Shining Armor and Princess Cadance, Celestia and several others maintain a vigil at Canterlot General Hospital. AU.
Why I added it: This story examines how light Celestia got off by ignoring Twilight in A Canterlot Wedding, and looks at a universe where things went much worse for them as a result of Celestia ignoring Twilight.
Review
“You have a lot to think about.”
Those seven words haunt Celestia throughout this story as she sits by an unconscious Twilight Sparkle’s bedside. The changelings have been defeated, but Twilight and Cadance were left underground for days without food or water, and were on the brink of death by the time they were found. Now, Celestia waits by her bedside, thinking back about what she could have done differently, while talking to Luna about the aftermath of the invasion.
This story is short and strong; the repetition of “You have a lot to think about” works very well at reinforcing Celestia’s guilt, but at the same time, Celestia doesn’t become a puddle of sad. Instead, Celestia thinks about what she did wrong and accepts responsibility for it, even as it pains her deeply. I liked the portrayal of both Luna and Celestia here, and I think it did a good job of doing what it was trying to do in a very small number of words.
I have previously spoken about this story in my first “Why Does It Work” blog entry, but I never really did a proper “review” of it.
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Trust
by Bad Horse
Dark, Alternative Universe
2,353 wordsTrixie had made mistakes. Trixie had lied. Still, nopony had expected it to send Celestia into a rage. But nopony but Celestia understood the true importance to Equestria of trust.
Why I added it: This is one of my favorite stories on FIMFiction. It is an alternate take on the aftermath of Boast Busters, seen through the eyes of Princess Celestia.
Review
It is the end of a long day in the Day Court of Princess Celestia. All the petty disputes have been resolved, and only one thing remains – to deal with Trixie, who, by abusing the trust of ponies, had nearly destroyed Ponyville.
This is a story about the importance of trust, and how it can not only help create ties between ponies that make Equestria the fine land it is, but also how it generates a sort of responsibility – a responsibility that ponies like Trixie, who want unearned trust, are not ready to bear.
This story gives us a great deal of insight into Celestia’s mentality in it, as well as the kind of pony who would value trust so highly. It is also one of those stories that you read all the way through twice – once to see what is on the surface, and once to see all the things you missed the first time when you get through to the end.
I’ve always adored this story. The alternate ending is for those who misunderstood the original story, and saw it a different way.
Recommendation: Highly Recommended, and one of the Fifteen Stories You Should Read
Memories We Never Had
by HiddenBrony
Slice of Life
4,880 wordsOn a cloudy day, four friends find refuge at Rarity's Boutique over a barrel of cider. But when Twilight Sparkle flies home from Canterlot to see her friends early, can she understand what's really going on?
Why I added it: It is another look at the potential fallout of Magical Mystery Cure, and the alternate lives they had lead which lead up to them getting the wrong cutie marks.
Review
This story is actually really two stories, with each chapter telling its own, separate story.
The first chapter is about the rest of the mane 6 having a get together where they discuss their alternate lives and think about and practice their alternate talents – Applejack sews, Rainbow Dash is making friends with Rarity’s cat, Rarity brightens up their day, and Fluttershy makes little jokes. Twilight is confused and a little bit worried, but her friends are alright – they may even have been enriched by the experience of having lived another life, and realized that they have other talents, other possibilities that they can hone in addition to their already pretty excellent lives. And Pinkie Pie is missing something from her alternate life perhaps a bit more than the rest…
The second chapter, Glimpse, gives a view of an alternative universe, where the ponies all had the “wrong” cutie marks, and were given the “right” cutie marks by Twilight’s spell. And there, we see something a little bit different – something where some of their possibilities had been cut off, and others grew in their places. But all is not quite well in that universe, and there are little hints that maybe they all missed out on something by choosing the path they did through life.
I really liked the look they gave into their thoughts about what happened, and I really liked the ending of both the chapters, but particularly that of Glimpse.
Recommendation: Highly Recommended.
Refraction
by shortskirtsandexplosions
Sad, Slice of Life, Alternate Universe
18,611 wordsIt's a perfect day in the life of Twilight Sparkle. Ponyville's chief librarian has everything she wants: her books, her studies, a faithful dragon assistant, and the opportunity to go visit Sugarcube Corner on a beautiful afternoon, hanging out with the best friends that a young unicorn could ever ask for.
And yet, in spite of all this, Twilight has the distinct feeling that something is missing...
Why I added it: This story examines the impact of Twilight’s friends on her life; each chapter of the story is set at the same point in time, but in a world where one fewer friend exists than did in the previous iteration.
Review
Short Skirts and Explosions (AKA SS&E) has written a number of very interesting things. Refraction is one of his “great idea” stories – each chapter of the story is a retelling of the same scene, with one fewer friend in existence. Each time, reality gets a little bit less bright, but we see how Twilight still is Twilight, and how she still strives even in a world where some of her friends never existed. But this isn’t a simple experimental story – no, it is a single, continuous story, with each chapter ending with Twilight encountering a stranger who appears to be resetting things, one time after the next, removing a friend with each iteration. But why? What is their purpose in getting rid of Twilight’s friends?
I really liked this story. The chapter names reflect the disappearance of characters, and each time, we see how Twilight’s life has changed due to the deletion of another character from her life. Things start off only changing a little, but as more and more ponies disappear, things keep getting more and more different, and worse and worse for the ponies in the world around her. Ponies’ names change, and the world becomes increasingly less recognizable – and yet, we can still see the characters we know in each iteration, no matter how divergent it is.
It is a bit depressing as Twilight’s world closes in on her more and more, and the first couple chapters are very close together to establish the theme, but as the story goes on further, the chapters become more and more different, and rather than being just simple variations on a single scene, they start changing pretty dramatically.
The only thing that really keeps this out of being highly recommended is that the start is a bit repetitive; the first three iterations are fairly similar, and I almost lost interest before I got to the point where I realized that the story was going to go a lot further afield than I had originally given it credit for. The start of chapter 4 is when I realized just how different things were going to become. This is less of a "flaw" than it is just the way the story is. The start of the story needs to be the way that it is in order to get the audience on board with the premise. It makes sense that the world would not be wildly divergent in those cases, and it establishes a pattern so that you can understand what is going on when things start getting really weird. That being said, it does mean that the story has a rather slow start, and the first two chapters in particular are pretty similar.
If you can deal with the repetition at the start of the story, though, this is quite good, and while it is sad, it doesn’t leave the reader in darkness but casts them back into the warm light at the end.
Recommendation: Recommended
Summary
Just Words by Device Heretic
Highly Recommended
A Lot to Think About by chronicLurker
Highly Recommended
Trust by Bad Horse
Highly Recommended – one of the fifteen stories you should read
Memories we Never Had by HiddenBrony
Highly Recommended
Refraction by shortskirtsandexplosions
Recommended
I hope everyone enjoys these stories as much as I did; they’re pretty great, and the ideas in them are very neat explorations of some interesting What Ifs.
Number of stories still listed as “Read It Later – Important”: 65
Number of stories still listed as "Read It Later - Recommended": 239
Number of stories listed as “Read It Later”: 1548
A couple of these I had read, I just read Trust and A Lot to Think About (and it feels like someone punched me in the stomach with the ending to the latter), and I've added that SS&E fic to one of my lists for later.
Trust didn't hit me quite so hard, probably because I had convinced myself that the lie was that Trixie was actually Luna in disguise (don't know why, it doesn't really fit) and so I was kind of confused by the ending.
I can't Trust these reviews because they're all so well regarded by you and, well, it's Just Words that I know can't be. Normally you'd give the writers A Lot to Think About in terms of improvement, but here you are gushing over everything like some IGN reviewer.
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To be fair, it is a lot easier to recommend everything in a review set when they're, you know, all taken from your recommended/highly recommended stories shelves.
I read a lot of stories before I started doing reviews.
Fun/scary fact: I've got 105 stories on my Highly Recommended shelf, but I've only HRed 10 stories since I started doing reviews outside of the recommended story reviews (which are all stories I already read).
So much recommending, I cannot believe.
You must've seen something in Just Words that I didn't, because I upvoted-but-panned it. :B I've never put any stock into the idea that Celestia could be Twilight's actual mother.
Do you think I should unpublish chapter 2 of Trust?
Wow so many stories to add to my read later list.
Speaking of creepy alternate universe stories, I'm curious if you've read the alt-season 3 finale one where Twilight gets murdered before she can switch the marks back to normal and a very changed Rainbow becomes a detective to track the elusive culprit down. I think it had a stained glass window as cover art and was a deeply unique story, though I only read the last chapter since I'm a wimp.
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I don't think it detracts from it, though it isn't as punchy as the end of the first version.
2971265
I don't think Celestia is Twilight's mom. That being said, I do like the idea of exploring how messed up it would be if she was, and I liked Just Words for that very reason.