Hap Recommends Even More Scribblefest #4 · 4:11pm Mar 10th, 2016
Back again for more recommendations from the EFNW 2016 Scribblefest. I've managed to scavenge a fair bit of variety for these three, which is pretty neat, and maybe you'll find something you might enjoy giving a read.
If you've not already checked out some of the other blog posts I've done, be sure to give them a look: there are some pretty decent stories in some of my previous recommendation blogs, so do give them a look if you have the time. And now, onwards!
The Mare of the Equestrian 8th, by The 24th Pegasus
Poetry! Do you like poetry? If you do, you're in luck, because this story is one long poem reciting the tale of the alternate universe Rainbow Dash, more specifically, the cool one with the robot wing and damaged ear. The poem just details how she went from enlisting to after the war ended, how she lost her wing, and how she went from being all happy and Rainbow Dash-y to a grim-faced war vet.
Unfortunately, I really don't like poetry. My time learning poems in literature class back in France has led me to really, really loathe it. I've always found it pretentious and super-special-snowflake-y. As poems go, this isn't a bad one, since unlike the myriad other literature equivalents of a painter painting a big red dot in the middle of an A4 sheet of paper and saying how special it is, it actually has a story to it and goes over Rainbow's journey.
It still doesn't have much persistent conflict, though, and it feels more like something you merely observe than actually get invested in. Additionally, because Rainbow doesn't ever speak, it can be hard at times to remember that this is Rainbow and not some other character interchangeable with hundreds of other generic war vets. Thankfully, this story does focus a lot on her flying, which is a strong reminder that this is still Dash we're dealing with.
The rhymes are nice, for the most part, although some of the word choices felt stilted and forced at times, probably to keep the pacing of the poem consistent. Even so, for the most part, it was an easy read. You could do much, much worse if you were looking for a strong story in poem format.
Recommeded to: Anyone who likes poems and people interested in the AU from the season 5 finale. Really, liking poems is an absolute must for this one for obvious, 'it's a goddamn poem' reasons, and you will have to deal with it being the sort of thing you take a step back from and simply watch happen instead of try to get really, really invested in. However, for any poetry fan, you'll get some very good mileage out of this story, and if you're simply in the mood for a story that tells itself in a less typical manner, this will give you something to ooh and ahh over for a bit.
Ashes, by IceStarPony
This story is actually a sequel, but insists that I don't have to have read the prequels to understand what's going on. After getting through chapter one, I immediately realize that this isn't the case, as Discord's letter alludes to a lot of things we aren't given any explanation for, such as him travelling with a younger Celestia and Luna, him looking for his parents, and really, their entire relationship dynamic, what kind of world they live in (it doesn't resemble the Equestria I'm familiar with) and more.
The story in of itself isn't very long and it told for the most part through Celestia's point of view, who appears to be much younger than her show counterpart. The things that happen in the story feel a bit haphazard, and there doesn't seem to be much in the way of consistent conflict. Much like the poem, it's something I feel you have to step back and watch, if that makes sense.
On another note, the story doesn't seem to really begin and end at the proper times. It feels like this is almost a chapter of a larger story and that I'm getting an incomplete look at it.
On the plus side, it is rather charming in how it presents Celestia, Luna, and Discord. They all feel rather childlike and innocent, which is a nice departure from many other 'Celestia is a hardened Alicorn and spends her days belittling Luna, sending her to the moon every other Tuesday' interpretations. I rather like it, and if I didn't feel like the story was incomplete and didn't give me enough context to work with, I'd probably have liked it.
Recommended to: Anyone interested in a headcannon-y look at Celestia and Luna's past, as well as anyone who is already a fan of IceStarPony's work. Because the story feels incomplete, I feel that if you're already familiar with his/her stories, you might get a lot more mileage out of it than others. Additionally, it's a more fairy-tale-like look at Celestia and Luna's past, which can be quite charming so long as you're comfortable with this individual story being a bit hollow and feeling unfinished.
Give a Like, Feed a Changeling, by Lise Eclair
One thing you may or may not have heard me whining about is the prevalence of 'ooh, I'm a poor wee orphan changeling, spare a little love for a lost and confused insect-pony' stories, which have come to severely grate on my nerves considering they often miss the two coolest aspects of changelings: they can change their shape (seriously, how many changeling stories just show a changeling in their normal form?) and how they feed off love to survive. Usually it's just 'changelings are misunderstood, stahp killing the changelings, ponies!' which gets real old.
This story span what was for me, a new look at changelings feeding off love, one that I particularly liked since it's very internet relevant. In this story, changelings can feed off likes and upvotes, which was both amusing and reminded me of a lot of IRL situations where the positive attention makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. (Speaking of, upvote all my things pls) Especially for me, where the only thing I really get in exchange for stories is a bit of attention, it felt really cool that changelings could literally feed off that.
I also liked how changelings can 'taste' appreciation, and how prevalent that was in the story. It was a nice way to highlight the slightly sinister nature of the changelings in a rather light-hearted manner. This changeling would do his best to get appreciation from everyone around him, which was both manipulative as well as interesting (a cheap laugh is less nutritious than a warm hug, and tastes very different).
I really liked that manipulative nature being shown here, even if it was light-hearted. It made for a likeable changeling, but not a glorified or misunderstood changeling.
The pacing was sometimes a bit quick, but I had no real trouble with it. If you're particularly picky, it might make you pause from time to time, but not so much that it'll really stand out, I think. It's not perfect in that regard, and now and then it can feel slightly stilted, but it should be nothing the fun concept doesn't make you overlook.
Recommended to: any changeling fan and anyone who really, really likes upvotes. I think the story is much improved when you care more about public reception, since it'll hit closer to home and probably amuse you more. The similarities between like-hungry internet-goers and Bee is amusingly cynical and quite interesting, at least for me. It's a nice changeling story that presents them not as misunderstood rejects of society, but as cunning manipulators that just happen to have a friendly side when it suits them. That said, if you really hate changelings, no matter how they're presented, then maybe stay away.
That's all from me for now. If you see anything that looks interesting, do give it a look, and if you have any recommendations of your own, do post them below!
I'm aware of a small handful that do that...
I might just be compelled to do that.
Only after I get around to reading them though. 
3801261 I think I wrote Making Changes partially to have fun with changelings being able to disguise themselves as anything they want. Apparently it went down well with peeps too.
Changelings often come off as either this big evil army of cloned bugs, or lost little confused lambs. There are a bunch that exist in-between, but I really wish there were more of them.
I'm catching up on my stories now too, especially now that EFNW has put up the list of stories. I was actually surprised... 40 is considerably less than I expected!
And yeah, I think Lise did a good job on her story as well, as you could probably tell by my review. Not without its flaws, but it certainly was a more original take on Changelings.
3801283 Yeah, I really liked it! And the list is up? I guess I'd better check it out!
3801286 Yep! Here's their section of entries. This will make reading and reviewing them much easier.
3801290 It'll especially make varying the story types in each of these a bit simpler, as well as varying the rating levels. Up till now it was pretty much first found, first served, which meant the fist one was pretty much all SoL, and I had to try a lot harder to find different types later on.
3801292 I read a fairly interesting one by the author of one of my 2015 top picks, if you're up for something a little more mysterious. It wasn't entirely unpredictable, but just enough to keep me interested, and I'd be lying if I said it didn't keep me gripped.
3801294 I'll have to give it a read. I'd have already done Inadequacy, but I left it at home, so I'll have to do it when I get back.
I like the look of the one with the disappearing castle. Might do that one too.
3801296 Same!
Btw, I keep meaning to say this, but at least 10% of my enjoyment of these quickfire reviews is the "peace out" GIFs you end on.
3801297 They'd better be enjoyable. At least 20% of the work goes in finding them!
Thanks for reading another one of my stories! Also, just so you know I'm female if you want to change the him/her part. I'm sorry if you didn't enjoy it, and a response to the incomplete feel, most of my short stories with Celestia and Luna involve that sort of incomplete/air of mystery/ something's missing feel, which I try to fill in as much as possible with the one's I mark as standalone. Although if possible could you elaborate more here, since this confused me a bit (I guess you could say the excerpt below felt incomplete
).
I'm just a sucker for feedback.
3801609 I wouldn't say I didn't enjoy it, just that it ended without feeling like I had really gotten anything at the end. I'd say it was harder to enjoy than others, which doesn't mean it's worthless in my book.
3801614
Thank you for clearing that up, cryptic writing is just something I do.
I always felt it gave meaning to my shorter pieces. In regards to the excerpt, what Equestria are you familiar with? 
<---the closest I could find to a curious face.
3801624 In broad terms, where Discord doesn't travel with Celestia and Luna, where Celestia is in charge of a kingdom, and Luna was Nightmare Moon.
I understand that the story takes place in the past, but outside of Celestia and Luna's sisterly relationship (which isn't even explored much in the show) there's not much that feels very connected to the show. Not much description was made to their surroundings, so it was hard at times to actually imagine where they were.
Whilst I don't really mind this, since the environment and situation of the character was either different to that which I was expecting or not elaborated upon, it felt like there wasn't much connecting the story to the show.
3801634
Oh. You relise they are children in here, I put an author's note saying the age of the sisters in case it was too hard to guess and so forth. Celestia mentions the setting name once or twice, although the setting itself is not the most important part, if it wasthen this would have to be a start from the first story no but's about series where every detail must be absorbed into the reader's brain.
3801634
Oh! Just one more thing, if I didn't follow you I would have never known you were reviewing my story. Next time you ever review a story of mine or something of the sort, would you please leave a comment on the story's page as well as a link? It would be very helpful.
3801638 Of course I realize they're children.
But even so, there isn't much link between what happens here and the show. It's very, very vague, and dropping a few names doesn't really help all that too much. Whereas if there was a lot of focus on the environment or their surroundings, and the context they were in, we might have seen more to firmly establish what's happening into the show's continuity. As it is, there was very little.
3801654
Yes, although there weren't any cities or other ponies so he setting detail was kinda minimum, not that landscapes aren't wonderful! I also had to sit down and think how much a child is going to describe a landscape if the child in question is an immortal thousand year old goddess child who has seen such things before. I like to focus on characters a lot as well as write in first person so what is left unsaid can be just as valuable as what is said, which is also most likely something I picked up from being a biblophile. Always have to pay attention to words!