Fic recs, October 2nd: Friendship Games edition! · 3:01am Oct 3rd, 2015
You silly little buggers, you ruined the end of the movie for me, did you know that? It's amazing how a title and a cover image, or a few words in a description, can really spoil a climax! Such naughty children you all are.
But that's okay, because Uncle Present loves you, and he's going to share some of those silly, naughty feature box stories with you right now. There will even be a couple of extra jubbly-wubbly fun bits on top! Come read along, won't you?
H: 1 R: 0 C: 3 V: 1 N: 2
Death Is Optional by Dubs Rewatcher
Genre: Dark Comedy
Sunset Shimmer doesn’t know what to think when her friends tell her that humans cannot die.
This is definitely a crackfic, don’t let that genre tag fool you. The basic concept of it is completely insane, and yet that doesn’t stop this from tearing into some very dark territory. (Rainbow Dash, for instance, jumps off the school roof just to prove what they said was true.) That said, I laughed pretty hard at the whole thing, totally lost it at “You’re a magical musician wizard!” The dark finale is kept light by a series of OOC character moments that were just perfect. This is a hilarious way to start off what I hope will be (and darn well know will not be) a very entertaining series of stories.
Recommended for Terrible People
For the Woman Who’s Everything by Majin Syeekoh
Genre: Existential
Now that Midnight Sparkle understands magic, she has no one left to share her discoveries with. Except Discord.
This is one of those “featureless black plain” stories starring Twilight, except in this case it’s corrupted Sci-Twi, aka Midnight Sparkle. It’s an AU that carries out her ‘evil’ plan to its logical conclusion, a good bit past ‘heat death of the universe’. It feels a little rushed, all things considered, most of it being composed of single lines of narration and dialogue, but I’ll say I liked the ending, even if the characters weren’t explored too deeply.
Recommended If You Like AUs
”It Felt… Amazing.” by Gapeagle
Genre: Conversation
Sunset Shimmer helps Twilight cope with the reality of what she did.
This is a good scene: I have to say I like Sunset’s advice to Sci-Twi, and there’s a good callout to “My Past Is Not Today”. That said, this could use some work. The characters aren’t voiced terribly well, Spike especially, and I felt like the conversation was looping over on itself more than once. The narrative is a little sparse and rushed, too. But a scene like this was worth writing, and the author at least got the idea across.
Vaguely Recommended
Forever This Second by Overlord-Flinx
Genre: Moment in Time
Sunset Shimmer unleashes powerful magic and finds herself in a new place.
I don’t have a good genre to put this in. It’s one of those “moment stretched out” scenes with Sunset talking to… harmony? But I couldn’t figure out what that was supposed to mean. It seemed for most of the conversation that it was, I dunno, as if she were speaking with a personification of that place Celestia took Twilight to when she ascended, all mystical and jazz. But the voice didn’t really fit that. By the end, it seemed like she was talking to her friends? But the description suggested she was talking to the Elements of Harmony. I don’t really have enough evidence to support any of those conclusions, in the end. This comes off as a one-sided version of the previous story with the addition of just being confusing.
Not Recommended
Going Home by GrassAndClouds2
Genre: Tyrant Twilight
Sunset just wants to go home.
The opening of this has that old “You broke the rules and I can’t do anything to help my friends” shtick that I really hate; it’s a contrived reason to generate angst, and I don’t believe for a second that Twilight can’t and hasn’t bent the rules for her friends before. But then the contrivance is brushed aside as not being the real reason why Sunset can’t go home, and this turns into something I’ve seen before. Except that last time, that plot wasn’t waylaid by “also it’s a form of emotional torture” and an uber-zealous Twilight who seems to care about nothing more than her possessions and title. From that reveal on, it’s just constant lampshading. There’s the kernel of an intriguing idea here, it's decently written, and I actually really appreciate the way it uses commentary on the movies to do something plot-related, but this was never presented in a way I found believable.
Not Recommended
Sunset Shimmer Is an Omnivore by AwesomeEric25
Genre: Ponies vs. Meat
When Twilight comes to the human world for a vacation, she learns a thing or two about what Sunset Shimmer has been doing there. Things she did not want to know.
I think the worst thing I can say about this is the concept has been done to death. To. Death. Well, and it needs another editing pass. And it’s really long-winded. But I dunno, I was kind of amused. Also, this one seems to take place prior to Friendship Games, so there’s that.
Recommended If the Concept Doesn’t Feel Overdone Yet
Sunset Shimmer Goes to the Zoo by KitsuneRisu
Reading by Me!
Genre: Dark Comedy
Sunset’s life is great because she has New Twilight for a friend, and New Twilight will never ever leave her like Old Twilight did. Oh, and they go to the zoo.
Once again, KitsuneRisu has managed to come up with the perfect Present-destroying title/art combo. I died before I even opened the fucking story. The moment you read that description, you just know you’re in for a ride. Because this is a ride and a trip, and my favoritest thing ever, by which I mean an unreliable narrator, and we get a gleeful children’s tale about [REDACTED] and oh my god, this whole thing just destroyed me. I knew we would have a winner again. Just mind those story tags!
Highly Recommended
Apologies to my patrons who won't be getting advance notice about this journal, Patreon is down and that has me worried. :/
Also, I'm currently writing my own Friendship Games crackfics to cope with all the fucking updating I need to do to get my computer back into working order. D: So expect those sometime.
I imagine the Patreon thing is probably because they're beefing up security or going over their logs to see just what got stolen or revealed... I really doubt they revealed everything to the public.
Edit... or because it's broken.
Editedit: Notification about outage.
Well, I never know how to do Spike anyway.
Glad ya took your time to read it though.
3438485
It's just really bad timing.
Someone who was griping about the leak and comparing them to FurAffinity was more right than they could have known.
3438495
I think Sunset came off the best, as far as character voices go. You're not the first person I've seen have trouble with Spike, anyway. Just keep writing! :)
Is my story an SCP now
3438503 Spike has always given me trouble. Dog or not. But I guess that only goes away with experience.
Keep writing? Will do!
Going Home had a very dark undercurrent to it that I really liked. Squinting fairly hard at it, the plot seems to be that Twilight created a prison dimension for Sunset with artificial characters in it until Sunset 'learns the lessons of friendship,' EXCEPT that Twilight accidentally put the compassionate fraction of her own personality into the prison too, leaving the Twilight outside of the prison too jaded and cruel to permit Sunset to leave. (That is, of course, what I took away from the story. Your actual mileage may vary.)
3438608 I think that's pretty much the plot. You don't really have to stare too hard
Seriously though... Going Home was... eeeeeh. I mean, I can totally see what the author was going for but... it's SO incredibly OOC that the TyrantLight doesn't shine through as disturbingly as it should. It just makes her look crazy.
3438537 no YOU are at this point
3438771
What would my SCP story be
Glad you could enjoy my fic, sweetie.
3438608
Yeah, and I got this, but I think 3438646 sums up my reaction to it. Maybe if the reveal had been gone into more; if this was chapter 1 instead of a stand-alone, it would work.
3438824
"Lock it in a box in Site-57 and throw away the key. Any personnel even so much as thinking about this thing are to be terminated immediately."
3439177
You hurt my feeling.
Just the one. =(
3439202
Let it consume the other and thus grow stronger.
3439268
But what am I going to do with over-excessive horniness?
I can't help but notice a certain Friendship Games-related story missing...
3439300
Oh, I think you know. <:3
3439953
I can't help but notice a certain Friendship Games-related story being incomplete...
3440206
So you really DO want that Rainbow Dash diarrhoea jar fic to be written huh
You should just ask me directly.
Okay, so I'm interested in reading the one you gave an H to, except I still haven't seen this movie yet. I don't really want to catch it in theaters like I did the last two. You can PM me with the location if you have to.
And yes, I know that apparently the movie is a four or five out of ten, but I'm a completionist for everything except the GM Berrow books. I need context for the superior fanfics that will follow.
3440212
You're a terrible person. D:
3440683
Yeah, it's about a 5. Try yayponies.
3444630
Authored by PresentPerfect.