Fic recs, February 17th · 2:53pm Feb 17th, 2016
So I'm starting to get the sense that I may be burning out on ponies. Like, not burning out burning out, just that with nothing new coming for a few months, there's little to keep me drawn to them and this site and reading fanfic. I've been neglecting everything I should be doing, from reading to writing, in favor of other, flashier things with continual updates. <.< On that note, I forgot to mention this last time: I wrote a new SCP! Thanks to Noble Thought for reminding me. :)
But yeah. I'm not sure how to feel about this, because I never thought it could happen to me. Anyway, just five today, but it's a coveted hat trick! That's worth getting excited about. :)
H: 1 R: 1 C: 1 V: 1 N: 1
Water Pony by BlazzingInferno
Reading by ABagOfVicodin
Edited by Me
Genre: World-Building
A minotaur’s life is turned upside-down when a pony shows up at his house, asking to marry him.
This is a pretty singular piece, exploring a very original and well thought-out minotaur society through a minotaur’s eyes, rather than using the lone pony character as audience stand-in. We're given a look at a fairly oppressive culture, and Kev (I maintain his full name is Kevin :V), our main character, trying everything he can do to cling to anything above its lowest stratum. The pony is a classic complication to his life, and the whole thing about them getting married… Suffice to say, I yelled at Blazzing for making me read interspecies, but this isn’t really a romance, nor is it really a story about two people from different cultures learning to get along. I mean, it is, but it focuses more on overcoming hardships and the shackles placed on us by our societies. The pacing is good, and the climaxes emotional. It is, overall, quite a worthwhile expedition on which to embark.
Recommended
The Package by Tales
Reading by Emogak and Wolfboy91
Genre: Kids’ Horror
Stuck inside the farmhouse during a storm, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon’s afternoon is turned upside-down by a mysterious package.
I’m honestly not sure how to classify this. It’s tagged Adventure/Comedy, and I would say it’s neither. Fully a third of the story is painfully slice of life setup of the sort I’d expect for a story written for young kids: the language is simple, a lot of time is spent telling us who the characters are and how they get along, and nothing that happens does anything to set up the ‘actual’ plot. As for said actual plot, it’s built around a neat enough idea, but if we’re going with the ‘written for kids’ idea, I wonder if some of the better horror imagery isn’t a little too scary for them. Granted, it ends up coming across as one of those many Gremlins wannabes from the late 80’s and early 90’s. But overall, I found myself uninterested in what was going on, and questioning a lot of the narrative choices. If you’ve got small kids who like ponies and horror movies, this might be worth reading to them, but otherwise, I don’t think it will have much appeal.
Vaguely Recommended
Musical Rainbows by RainbowBob and TittySparkles
Reading by Captain Sand
Mature: Sex
Genre: Clopfic
Tasked with watching Rarity’s boutique for the afternoon, Rainbow Dash gets a lot more than she bargained for when a certain musician shows up for her Monday appointment.
I’m not a huge stickler for “characters must explicitly consent before sex”, but when a character explicitly revokes consent — twice — I start to look askance. Of course, on top of the maid outfit, badly rendered BDSM, foodplay and threesome, the dubious consent is just one more thing out of many that didn't appeal to me. Was there anything I did like? Well, I appreciated the first scene, where Lyra’s character is laid out and Ponyville is defined through the inhabitants’ sex lives. (Even if Town Bicycle Rarity is a trope I'm not overall sure how I feel about.) Rainbow x Lyra is not a pairing you generally see. And I realized, about two-thirds of the way through, that all the bad dialogue and questionable narration was meant to invoke a sense of watching a porno. Granted, that gets us into “purposefully bad is still bad” territory, but whatever. It still did nothing for the odd phrasings, close repetition and sliding POV, but that’s about the most I can salvage out of this. Honestly, it’s just your average slightly uncomfortable clopfic, and I’m not sure who’s going to be into it.
Not Recommended
Dr. Horse by Admiral Biscuit
Reading by ShadowOfCygnus
Genre: Dark Comedy
When Silver Spoon’s pet is hurt, there’s only one thing for it.
You might notice that this story is not tagged either Dark or Comedy. I mention this because the joke is entirely meta: if you know anything about horses, the combination of “Silver Spoon’s pet breaks his leg” and “Silver Spoon’s pet is a human” should tell you where this story is going. Otherwise, it comes off as a slightly pointless, bittersweet story about a little girl losing her pet. It’s got that Silver Spoon characterization where she’s a decent enough person when Diamond Tiara’s not around being a bad influence, so that’s a thing to keep in mind. Altogether an odd duck of a fanfic.
Recommended If You Like Dark Humor
In the Lissome Light by Frickadilly
Reading by Scribbler, et. al.
Genre: Literary
I use the “Literary” genre here for three reasons. First, the writing is gorgeous; anyone who enjoys “reading writing” will want to get to this right the heck now. Second, it’s a story the bulk of which features people at a party standing around talking, a very "English class canon" literary conceit. Third, if you stand back and squint at it, this has the trappings of a proof-of-concept for an original piece, or possibly a ponification thereof. It really doesn’t feel like fanfic, and that may actually drive a few readers away. For instance, it’s not until the mention of a mannequin wearing a saddle that it becomes obvious these are ponies and not humans. The mentions of Christmas made me think it was EQG, but in fact this was written slightly after season two… Which begs the question of why they aren’t celebrating Hearth’s Warming, since we knew about it by then. Other offputting notions are the unponified mention of something being “Machiavellian” and a lot of Britishisms. Still, I can’t stress how good this story is from a technical standpoint. Frickadilly has two fics, no blogs, eight followers and hasn’t been seen for almost a year; it would be a travesty to let this fall through the cracks of Fimfiction.
Highly Recommended
If your burning out here's my advice. Take say a week off from thinking of ponies and then comeback and see if you are still burning out. After that I have no idea.
If you feel like you need to take a break from ponies, don't hesitate to do so. I don't want to see you go, but I'd much rather you let yourself recharge than burn out completely.
I think I can commit to reading 3k words.
How do I request stories for you to do for this?
Also, can my own stories be a choice, or do you only do people suggesting stories they've read, but not written?
3760451
WELL MAYBE IT'S TIME FOR THAT JOURNAL NOW
3760507 That doesn't really answer my questions...
Delete ponies from your mind
Play only XCOM
Become XCOM
WELCOME BACK COMMANDER
If you're feeling the burn of written ponies, try a different medium. Have a tablet? Try drawing!
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Go check my newest post. :B
Somebody get this man on a rainbow IV drip!
Seriously, though, take a break if you need one.
Thanks for the review of Water Pony on top of the fine editing. I've got lots more stuff that you could be yelling at me about (some of it without romance even), but I'm also broke.
I have to admit, I avoided reading Water Pony for a while, but after that first chapter, I was hooked through the jaw. Nice review, PP.
In the Lissome Light sounds wunnerful. I'll add it in at to my RIL list at number 3,456? Damn. Okay, I guess I should DL the reading and listen to it while I work.
As for burnout... I've been experiencing that lately myself. It's in a weird way, though: I'm burned out on the mediocre stuff. If someone I really respect as an author puts out a new story or chapter, I still get excited. Same with new art or music. But everything that is less than excellent... meh. I used to be very forgiving of middle-of-the-road stuff if it was wrapped in pony, but no longer. I don't know if that's a bad thing or not.
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3456! :D
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You laugh at my pain!