Fic Recommendation: Jake and the Kid · 11:17pm Apr 19th, 2016
I shall post this recommendation here, as I found out after writing it that it does not qualify for Rage Spotlight, its original intended destination.
Genre: Comedy, Human, Romance, Slice of Life
Description:
A young human girl runs away from home with her best friend, and finds herself much further from home than she ever expected. Her arrival in Equestria will cause ripples that affect ponies from the lowest to the highest.
Meanwhile, a young Nocturne mare begins an epic quest to earn the right to clean Princess Luna's porcelain throne.
Be sure to check out the Continuation. "How to Train Your Batpony" Not a Clopfic!
Let me extend thanks to Georg for letting me play with some of his characters and situations, and for proof reading and contributing some really good lines here and there.
Secondly, I would recomend reading some of his stories to better understand the jokes and situations that pop up in my story. Most especially I would advise you read A War of Words - The Opening of the Guard and possibly Genealogy (or the mating habits of Nocturnes Pegasi) (which is very long)
Reviewer's Notes:
Human in Equestria fics are much maligned on this site, and not without reason. This is not because HiE's are an inherently unworkable idea, rather, it is a matter of the typical HiE protagonist. I invite you to picture him (nine out of ten are male), my good ladies and gentlemen. Just take a moment.
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Now, if you are anything like me, you will have pictured a lad in his late teens. Simultaneously, he will be an 'average collage student' whilst being strong enough to wrestle large, powerful predators into submission with his bare hands when he inevitably appears in the Everfree forest. He will be loved unconditionally by his waifu of choice, and every other pony, despite being a whiny, entitled, moping, ungrateful, unpleasant, wangsty little bitch.
Obsessed with whatever the latest, greatest 'mature' dark and edgy video game is, he will sneer at the ponies as beneath his notice because they and their world are not as dark as, say, the world of Dark Souls Three. Despite the fact he is rude, demanding and deeply unpleasant to be around, the ponies will go far out of their way for the dubious pleasure of his company, and love him unconditionally for 'being him'.
In other words, most HiE's are wish fulfilment self insert fics written by self obsessed wangsty brats writing what they know, and with no life experience to draw upon besides from being self obsessed wangsty brats.
Most people (or at least, most people with taste) don't what to read about some sulky teen moping his way through a badly written adventure in Equestria, and so most people don't want to read your typical HiE.
Jake and the Kid is not a typical HiE, and it quite certainly doesn't have a typical HiE protagonist.
The protagonist of the piece is the eponymous kid, Curry. Curry is a ten year old tomboy who is obsessed with horses. And I don't mean obsessed with horses as in 'likes horse riding and horses in general providing someone else does the work' but as in 'shows up at the stables everyday, rain or shine, at seven am and only leaves when forced to do so'.
Curry is a delight: she is fun, smart and loveable; there is a gorgeous innocence about her that makes her one of the most convincing ten year old girls I have ever encountered in fiction. The author makes no attempt to make her genre savvy (she has a bad habit of thinking in terms of Disney movies), there is no attempt to make her a miniature adult; she is a cute little girl who just loves horses. And now she's in Equestria, she's living the dream, and she knows it.
Despite it's immature protagonist, there is a remarkable maturity about this fic: fillies have to be told that they have to be gentle with Curry, because she is much more delicate than they are. They could hurt her, badly, without ever meaning too. The adult ponies are worried that more or less everything is bigger and stronger than Curry is. Curry has a bad habit of seeing the ponies as glorified pets with the opposite also being true: many ponies see her as a pet, and a potentially valuable pet at that.
This maturity continues with Curry's companion, Jake. Jake was Curry's horse, a percheron stallion. For reasons that I won't get into in order to avoid spoilers, Jake becomes alicorn shortly after entering Equestria (it is later revealed that he isn't really an alicorn, he merely resembles one), in a lesser work, this would be naked wish fulfilment.
Not so here; as well as being an alicorn, Jake is a five year old colt in an adult body, which is treated as a real problem. Why is this a problem? Because there are any number of ambitious mares who will deal with any amount of squick in order to discover if alicorns breed true. Because he is assumed to have a crap ton of power he has no clue how to use, which makes him dangerous (little Flurry Heart has since made this very canon). Neither of these things are remotely good for the mental wellbeing of what is, in essence, a small boy.
The contrast between the childlike innocence of the protagonists and their adventures, and the genuine adult worries in the background, going right over Curry and Jake's heads, is wonderful.
As with Curry, Jake is brilliantly characterised: gentle, laid back and innocent, he is the very picture of a sweet little boy, contrasting marvelously with his physical appearance.
The characterisation in general is right out of the top drawer in this fic. The Mane Six are all awesome here, as are the Apples (Big Mac is a real stand out), and several other good OC's are to be found in supporting roles, many from the work of Georg. Any fans of his stuff really should read this.
To conclude, this is one of the very best HiE's on site. All those shitty self inserts? Forgot them. It's fics like this that really show the HiE tag at its best. That prove that there is good to be found in that genre. It really is a lovely read, and I recommend it to everyone.
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On a different topic, I have been mulling over writing a series of essays on the various main types of badfics, in which I intend to really go into detail about why these go wrong, how and why they come into being and what author's can do to avoid falling into such traps.
I would be interested to learn if there is any interest in such a thing.
I'm a big fan of cautionary essays. They're a great way for me to go "Oh good, I'm doing it right." And when I'm not, I can learn why.
Also, definitely going to check out the story.
... You didn't say it was over two hundred thousand words.
Still on my Read Later list, but dang.
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Cool, in that case I shall get to work. First will be either Spike badfics or bad crossovers.
Also, I really should remember to note fic length when I make recommendations; I got a similar response from Elric of Melnipony when I recommended Harmony Theory to him, which was about four hundred thousand words at the time.