Fic recs, July 2nd · 1:52pm Jul 2nd, 2015
Hey, check out my reading of Protopony’s A Story That Ignores Every Writing Tip I Have Ever Received!
VisualPony’s got a new video about fanfiction writing. It’s geared towards the new author, but if you haven’t been writing long and need some tips, check it out!
Also wow, Nimbus Productions did a fully-voiced Who We Are reading, with Scribbler as the narrator! (But I did it first! :V)
Got a lot for ya today because special editions do that. Of course, I'm about to start an audiobook, so that'll be it for a while probably. :V Go fig. But hit below for reviews of Deep Cover by GaPJaxie, Bad Horse's Twenty Minutes, Love Twi-Angles by oroboro, and seven other stories.
H: 1 R: 3 C: 5 V: 0 N: 1
Deep Cover by GaPJaxie
Reading by Goombasa
Genre: Actingverse/Philosophical
Sequel to Dressing Room
Star Power and Deep Cover play a board game to pass the time.
This story is dripping in symbolism, like, just shoves it right in your face with the reference to Machiavelli and the two characters playing Go. While Dressing Room just introduced the idea that MLP:FiM is a TV show even in Equestria, this story explores the characters, at least two of them, the fact that they aren’t really friends, and that the Equestria in which they live is a lot more like our world. There are divergences in their lengthy conversation about things like racism, but ultimately the topic is power, and that’s definitely not a thing I’d have expected to see explored in a dialogue about method acting, let alone this AU. I mean, I was just happy seeing the two of them spending time together, because it was made abundantly clear that many of the actors don’t even get along off camera. The one thing that bothers me is the cover art, actually. It seems like Actingquestria is a lot more integrated than on the show, and no bones are being made about Deep Cover being a changeling. Except it’s never brought up in the story, so I have no idea what to think about it, or even if that’s the case at all. Still, a very surprising piece, and I’m looking forward to reading the sequel, which Goombasa has also done a reading of. :3
Recommended
Dash Eats Meat! by TheRedBrony
Reading by Captain Sand
Reading by ShadowOfCygnus
Genre: Slice of Life
Gilda recounts a certain lunchroom incident from her childhood with Rainbow Dash.
There’s not much to this story, which is likely why I downvoted it once upon a time. But on a second read, I find I like it. I mean, other than not being a random comedy, it’s as “Pony does X” as they get, but there are undertones of a meeting of cultures that give it some depth. I can definitely criticize the asterisks, plus the “Gilda talks to the reader” second chapter (shoulda been author’s notes), but this is pretty decent for what it is.
Recommended for Slice of Life Fans
Twenty Minutes by Bad Horse
Reading by Illya Leonov
Genre: Sad
In the face of adversity, kindness is a luxury.
You wouldn’t know it, given the title, yet I caught onto the Fallout: Equestria undertones of this piece while listening to it. Ultimately, that just serves as set dressing, to give us a reason why zebras and ponies are at war. (Insofar as that is a reason.) This piece is like my own FoE sidefic, trying to use the setting to explore big ideas that don’t really fit into standard canon. Granted, I’d have a hard time really summing this up in more detail than I gave in that blurb. My reaction to the first part was a half-horrified “Huh”, while the second gave me some shaky chuckles and an overwhelming sense of sadness. I’m not sure if this qualifies as a tragedy (I think Bad Horse would know more about tagging his own stories than I), but it definitely gave me a lot to think about. I’m pretty sure what it’s getting at will be accessible to most readers interested in something a little heavy.
Recommended
The Secret Weapon by PaulAsaran
Genre: EiH
The ponies have come, and we can’t fight them.
This is from the most recent writeoff, and I’ll admit to some tribulation over it. The initial reactions of Derrick to the ponies kind of drew me out of the story; ultimately I really enjoyed it, but mostly because I was imagining it to be a stealth SCP Foundation crossover. That said, it does play with some fun ideas, treating “weaponized cuteness” with a seriousness that makes the whole thing surreal. I can’t say I’ve really seen a “humans interacting with ponies” story that takes quite the same tack, anyway.
Recommended If You Don’t Mind Humans in Your Ponies
Love Twi-Angles by oroboro
Genre: EQG Shipping Comedy
What will Sunset Shimmer do when both Twilight Sparkles tell her they love her on the same day?
Okay, this story is way funny. It’s highly self-aware of its own tropes, and by the end, feels a bit like a crackfic, which… C’mon, it’s about two Twilights fighting over Sunset Shimmer, what about that isn’t cracky? There’s a scene in the middle, in a cafeteria, where concepts like sexuality and polyarmory are discussed in a fairly dry manner, but by the end, this really makes up for it with an anime-esque romantic fight and some stealth shipping. I may not have liked the reading, but I’m very glad I got to read this.
Recommended
Daring Wakeup by RainbowBob
Reading by VisualPony
Mature: Sex
Genre: PWP
After a night of drunken celebration, Soarin gets reacquainted with the mare he woke up next to.
I don’t have a lot to say about this. The writing is decent. The characterization is “hetero male sexual fantasy”. The dialogue is “porn movie”. SoaringDo is a cute pairing. Shower sex is hot. There’s a weird thread throughout this that seems determined to convince us Daring Do is the hottest mare on the planet. It needed more comedy, because I got bored pretty quick (phrases like “she gurgled on my cum” only go so far). But if you like steamy shower scenes with ponies, hey, here’s one!
Recommended If You Like Pointless Clop
A Stallion for the Time Being by Sharp Spark
Genre: Romantic Comedy
All Twilight Sparkle needs to do to get Minuette from destroying the space-time continuum is set her up with a nice stallion. How hard could it be?
Wow. I’ve read a lot of good stories by Sharp Spark, but I had no idea he was this good at writing comedy. No scene in this avoids being hilarious. The running gags are awesome, Pinkie is marvelous, and the whole first chapter is a cavalcade of wonderful wackiness. I was a little baffled that we start so tightly in Minuette’s perspective, only to shift to Twilight’s for the remainder, but this ends up being mostly about Twilight in the long run, fresh out of Magical Mystery Cure and struggling desperately with the trappings of princesshood. (And I really can’t fault that first chapter.) This ends up being just a marvelously wacky misadventure in dating, metaphysical beings, and self-identity, and I am distinctly looking forward to the sequel.
Highly Recommended
Tank Wins Equestria by Protopony350
Genre: Trollfic
I don’t even know. I don’t even know. At least I knew what I was getting myself into.
Troll Recommended
Twilight Reads a Fanfiction by Deathare
Reading by Captain Sand
Genre: Crackfic
This is not a good story. Just about anything wrong with writing, you can find here: LUS, flat dialogue, telling, needless details, poor characterization, the list goes on. I can see what the author was trying for, I guess (I mean, who doesn’t love a good fic about ponies reading fic?), but they’re definitely nowhere near it.
Not Recommended
All’s Well That Ends Well by billymorph
Reading by Scribbler
Genre: Episode Reinterpretation
This is basically just “Magical Mystery Cure, but different”, yet turns out to be a worthwhile read (and paced better than the episode). The draw here is the idea that, given another permutation, the cutie mark-swaps wouldn’t necessarily have caused the mane cast undue stress. Though we never get to see Fluttershy, it’s at least implied that everyone is happy with the way things are, even if they never anticipated getting these particular cutie marks. This is undercut somewhat by the final scene, which is an unfortunately expected joke that doesn’t play off Rainbow’s canon personality. My other criticism is that that joke is where the story ends. I’d have liked, if not some resolution, then at least some follow-through. And why is Scootaloo also aware that things have changed? Still, a fun read with a good take on the idea, even if it doesn’t amount to much.
Recommended If You Don’t Mind Non-Endings
Y'know, my very first genesis for the Love Twiangles idea involved more of a Three's Company setup, with Sunset stuck in an ongoing love triangle while also living with them or something.
Would have required messing with the setting too much though, and eventually settled on the fic as it is now.
I've watched way too many harem anime. -_-
This fact redeems a great many otherwise unremarkable [cutesy euphemism for some some kind of sex act]fics.
A stallion for the time being had been on my RiL list for a while. I'll have to bump it up in priority.
3200807 Do it, it is one of the funniest fics on the site, and probably my favorite shipfic.