Fic recs, January 3rd, 2016! · 8:21pm Jan 3rd, 2016
PP, why are you starting 2016 with a bunch of cruddy minifics? Because fuck you, that’s why. :V Seriously, Cold in Gardez people keep adding damn chapters to their collections, so I gotta do something. :B And I’m trying to get through a bunch of decently long stories, too, and I’d rather post now. Plus, I got rid of three of the darn things this time around! Well, two and I'm saving one for something special, but that counts.
I’d also like to start the year with a PSA: If ever you leave a comment on any chapter but the last in a fic, please be sure to check back later to see if there’s been a response. It turns out, when you get a notification that someone’s left a comment on your story, and you use that link to reply, you’re replying in a different chapter (i.e., the last one) than the original comment was left, and the system doesn’t notify the original commenter of the reply. It’s stupid, but that’s the way things work. Writers, you can avoid this simply by clicking the chapter title at the top of the comment before you hit reply. I’ve been putting this to work on Project Horizons lately. c.c And if I’ve ever left a comment on your fic, especially long fics and collections, and you wondered why I never read your reply, that’s why. Link me to the comment, no matter how old, and I’ll read it now! :V
One last thing: anyone know Undertale fanfiction? <.< I wanna do what I did for SU, namely do a reading of a short, funny fic. I’m in no shape to produce Youtube videos still, but it’s something to start thinking about for the future. Onward!
H: 4 R: 8 C: 3 V: 0 N: 0
No Natural Predators by Cold in Gardez
Genre: Thriller
A pony meets a foal who is not a foal.
I’m slightly at a loss with this one. Again, it’s using characters from something else that I don’t know, so the ending is definitely lost on me. All I can do is conjecture as to why this guy goes with a pony he knows isn’t a pony, and why he says what he does at the end. Mostly, I was amused by the preponderance of names that I know better these days as coming from Steven Universe. :B It’s good, I guess?
Recommended
A Good Time by Esle Ynopemos
Genre: Shipping/Comedy
When Twilight said ‘date’, Applejack hadn’t been expecting she’d wind up in jail.
This is one of those spaghetti incident pieces, where everything’s already happened, and the humor comes from the characters discussing the events in vague terms. I was quite amused, though I’ll note the middle consists of two memes mashed forcefully together, so YMMV. I can also say that the shipping doesn’t add much to this, so only attempt it if you don’t mind such.
Recommended for Shippers
Scootaloo, M.D. by Chris
Genre: Comedy
When radical surgery is called for, Scootaloo is the doctor who’s willing to get radical.
Yeah, it’s just the CMCs playing doctor, but this is lots of fun and doesn’t linger too long on the “is this really happening or is it pretend?” angle. Funnily, the original writeoff version had a second scene where they actually got their cutie marks in medicine, which has been amputated excised here. But I can’t complain, because Chris took my advice on changing one important thing. :V
Recommended
Or Best Offer by Pascoite
Genre: Shipping
Derpy wins big at the Ponyville Charity Auction.
This is a short, but very cute, piece about a Charity Bachelor Auction. Or it might have just been a Charity Dating Auction? I can’t quite figure it out, but it’s hinted that both mares and stallions were available for dates. For all that this covers a lot of ground other pieces have, it’s really pretty sweet, and only the truly romance-averse need not apply.
Recommended
Potato Run by Wanderer D
Genre: What
Scootaloo has never been a potato before.
I have no words for this. I don’t know if it’s nonsense masquerading as philosophy, or if my mind is just telling me it was deep to make up for the fact that it has no intrinsic value. But this was definitely something. Fuck it, first H of 2016.
Highly Recommended
Finished by Ezn
Genre: Crackshipping
It’s not the stallion, but Photo Finish.
Okay, yep, if this is any indicator, it’s gonna be one of those years.
Highly Recommended
The Lake of Dreams by Nonagon
Genre: Slice of Life
There’s something very Zen-like about this piece. It captures a single moment in time, giving nothing before it, nothing after it, and no speculation as to why it happened. I kind of feel like I want to sit and meditate on this.
Recommended
What If Scenario by FuzzyFurvert
Genre: Comedy
Celestia suggests skipping court. What would it hurt?
This is just a quick conversation between Celestia and Twilight about what might happen if they skipped court. It’s also — and I’m really just speculating, here — Twilestia. If it’s not, well, it doesn’t need to be, and while it could be argued that Celestia is a smidge out of character, it’s only a smidge. In the name of comedy, it works.
Recommended
The Beginning of the End by HoofAndQuill
Genre: Heist
Sunset Shimmer orchestrates a complex and desperate revenge.
The first problem with this is that it hasn’t been edited; it’s not unreadable, but sticklers take note. Second, it feels like the first part of a longer work, but it’s all we get. Third, there’s no motive for these characters to be doing this, since two of them had supposedly been reformed by the time this was released. But dang if this isn’t a really cool action sequence. It’s full of desperate escapes and close calls, and it’s only two thousand words long. Plus, they’re all characterized well, motives aside. Definitely worth the read.
Recommended
Mental Health Day by FanOfMostEverything
Genre: Comedy
Discord explains what he’s done.
This is a really great piece, presented as a monologue to which we never hear the responses. That technique is pulled off perfectly, and leaving a lot of Celestia’s reactions to the imagination makes it even more fun. Discord is characterized perfectly as well; his version of the Pinkie Promise is a hoot! I’ll admit the punchline is a tad “wha?” but the card this is based on at least provides an explanation. Really, it’s just a marvelous bit of absurdity.
Highly Recommended
Party by darf
Genre: Dark
I can sum this up as “what if Party of One didn’t have a happy ending.” I’ve seen other stories recently where Gummy is actually dead (no spoiler there, it’s easy to figure out), so this lacked a lot of impact on me. I will say that it did a good job storytelling via setting, at least. Just not a story I’m that interested in anymore.
Recommended for Grimdark Fans Only
Luna Orders Room Service by Admiral Biscuit
Reading by ShadowOfCygnus
Genre: EiH
This is one of the goofiest comedies I’ve ever read. I don’t want to spoil any of it, but suffice to say it’s short and won’t waste your time. I can only wonder what spawned it.
Recommended
Seamstress by AugieDog
Genre: Poem
This is a poem called a “chant royal”, which I was unfamiliar with before now, but which Augie pulls off with aplomb. Given its heritage, it’s perfect for Rarity. Content-wise, this is her contemplating her distance from the elites and reaffirming her ambitions as what drive her. In all, a very pleasing form that makes a very pleasing read.
Recommended
The Sweetest Prize by Silvernis
Genre: Slice of Life
This is really a “story”, per se. It more sounds like a setup for one. That said, it is amusing — a listing of how various parties approach an annual bake-off — and it has a fun punchline. There’s just no real conflict, merely a laying-out of what is.
Recommended as Light Reading
An Afternoon for Dotted Line by GhostOfHeraclitus
Sequel to A Canterlot Carol
Genre: Bureaucratic Comedy
Ordered to take Hearth’s Warming for himself, Dotted Line finds he had more to do than he’d thought.
Y’know, I should’ve had Obiter Dicta in my minific list after the Never the Last Word compilation, but somehow it slipped my mind. D: Oops. Anyway, this is a great piece that comes directly after the events of A Canterlot Carol, if I don’t miss my guess. For all that that’s a perfectly wonderful story, this is a perfectly wonderful followup. I honestly have to wonder why it wasn’t published on its own. If you’re familiar with Ghost’s Civil Service characters, don’t pass this up.
Highly Recommended
3661809
PP sees the fic somewhere and goes "yeah that'll do".
As per the blog itself -- man, tons of known names in here. No wonders there were no "not recommendeds"; quite the crop you chose.
I never mind you doing a minific review. It's fun to see what art and madness people can stuff into relatively few words. (Plus, something of mine will likely be mentioned, which is always nice.
)
Scootaloo is best potato.
3661809
Aragon's pretty much got it right. :B I have to come across a story, or find it on someone else's recommendation, or hear it as an audiobook. Very rarely do I take requests.
So, not only a hour after I finish updating the big master list, but it's a whole bunch of single chapters from short stories.
I don't have to ask this. Obviously the answer is you hate me personally and have vowed to spend the year attacking all that I have built.
The prices on the room service menu at the hotel I stayed in for Bronycon. Shoulda taken a picture of the menu. Maybe next year.
Guess I really need to hurry up and add some more of my shorts to my collection. Wouldn't want PP to actually finish anything, would we?
3661996
the game is afoot
3662215
NO, NO, WE WOULD, IT WOULD BE LOVELY
Well, I expected you to be amused by it, but I can't complain about this honor!
Actually, I believe the Writeoff story you are thinking of where the CMC get their cutie marks in medicine after attempting (or seeming to attempt) surgery was mine, Friends Forever, Insides and Outside from the I Regret Nothing prompt. I think it was actually two months *after* Chris's story too, so I may have been unduly influenced.
3662489
Someone else mentioned it in the comments, which is why I assumed it was that one. c.c
3661809 Often, because somebody PP listens to does an audio reading.
i.imgur.com/PBmy9jd.jpg
:(
srsly tho <3
3663492
More like new chapters, ya silly. :V
Some. Nothing short and funny, though.