Read It Now Reviews #78 – A Flim Flam Family Affair, Is It Real?, The Truth Is…, Miracle, Do That Again · 7:50pm May 18th, 2016
Getting back into the swing of things! Five new stories, five new reviews, all in the span of just a couple hours of work. Glad to see a number of folks are writing new stuff, as I’m always happy to see things from folks I follow.
Today’s stories:
A Flim Flam Family Affair by bookplayer
Is It Real? by Majin Syeekoh
The Truth Is… by naturalbornderpy
Miracle by Winston
Do That Again by Bad Horse
A Flim Flam Family Affair
by bookplayer
Slice of Life
5,309 wordsFlim has a golden ticket. Princess Twilight and her new wife Applejack desperately require his signature on some very important paperwork. Obviously this is the sort of thing that should be worth quite a lot of bits up front, with the potential for favors at some point in the future. Flim and Flam hold all the cards, and there's no way this could go wrong.
Oh yeah, and there's a foal involved too. Not that that really matters.
Why I added it: I liked it in the writeoffs.
Review
Flim gets a letter from Princess Twilight and Applejack about a foal they want to adopt.
His foal, from one of his illicit liasons, to be precise. With one of Applejack’s cousins.
Flim, of course, doesn’t care at all about the foal – but the possibility that they will pay him for the right to be his parents? Now there’s a pile of opportunity just waiting there for him.
But that’s against the law, Twilight and Applejack are good ponies. They aren’t going to give him money to try and buy his son, who he has never known (and, frankly, doesn’t care about), away from him. But maybe there’s something more valuable that even a scoundrel like Flim would appreciate.
Flim and Flam are as terrible as ever, and are definitely a lot of fun, but there’s also a bit of humanity to them which is exposed throughout the story. The conflict between them and their rapscallion ways and Twilight and Applejack’s loving, stable family is sharp enough to cut a story on. The conflict works well enough emotionally, and on the whole, it is a sweet story, with Flim being shown just what being a part of Twilight and Applejack’s family will mean – and how different a life it is from the one he and his brother lead.
If you like heartwarming stories, or are a fan of Flim and Flam, you’ll very likely like this piece.
Recommendation: Worth Reading.
Is It Real?
by Majin Syeekoh
Slice of Life
1,025 wordsCelestia comes to visit Twilight and Starlight after Hearth's Warming Eve festivities die down for the night.
Starlight, figuring she'll never have a chance like this again, asks the immortal alicorn about what went down all those years ago.
Why I added it: It was featured.
Review
This is a very short and simple thing, a brief little interaction between Princess Celestia and Starlight Glimmer. It is cute for what it is, but ultimately, it isn’t very long and isn’t very deep, and, as advertised, it isn’t a story so much as it is a scene – a little moment between Starlight Glimmer and Princess Celestia.
There is something of a theme here – deceiving others in order to make them happier, or, perhaps, the concept of "useful fiction" as Majin puts it – but the whole thing feels a bit lightweight.
That said, it is a very short read, and much as I’m complaining about it, it actually is cute, and the core idea isn’t bad, even if it feels a bit underexplored.
Recommendation: Worth Reading.
The Truth Is…
by naturalbornderpy
Comedy, Random, Slice of Life
4,423 wordsAfter finding Discord hiding out in his closet, Twilight Sparkle soon learns the most horrible of truths about herself and the world surrounding her.
And then she learns another truth.
And another. And another. And...
Why I added it: It was featured.
Review
While visiting Discord’s house, Twilight goes searching for Discord, only for Discord to tell her a terrible, terrible secret.
That is to say, the secret is terrible, in that it isn’t true at all, and is, in fact, on balance, both false and ridiculous.
As are all the others.
This story is just serial nonsense, as Discord tries time and again to get Twilight to believe increasingly implausible lies. Unfortunately, many of them didn’t actually end up being all that funny, and consequently, a great deal of the middle of the story is, rather than being funny, just kind of boring and repetitive.
It picks up a bit at the end, with the final “secret”, but really, by that point, I wasn’t really all that interested.
Recommendation: Not Recommended.
Miracle
by Winston
Slice of Life
3,758 wordsSunset Shimmer has grown and changed from who she was. For a long time she's kept to her own path through life in the human world and kept her silence from across the rift that separates her from Princess Celestia.
But there's something important to say and a lot of healing still left to do.
It's time they talked again.
Why I added it: It was his most recent story.
Review
Sunset Shimmer returns to Equestria to make amends with Princess Celestia. But she has an ulterior motive as well – she knows that Princess Celestia made her. Not out of clay, but out of many, many years of subtly influencing ponies and introducing them to each other and letting the magic happen on its own. All for the purpose of saving Luna from herself.
And Sunset Shimmer wants to talk about it.
Unfortunately, this story didn’t really resound with me. It isn’t that the core idea isn’t good – it is a fun one I’ve seen played with before – it is that the story feels like it is lacking in real emotional tension. Everyone already knows, and the whole thing is played out very flatly. That may be logical under the circumstances, but it doesn’t make for a very interesting story – instead coming off more like a headcanon dump than anything else. The core conflict of the story is nebulous and never really feels like it really congeals, as it has already more or less been worked out by the ponies involved.
Consequently, it didn’t really do a whole lot to suck me into Sunset Shimmer or Celestia, and ended up being a bit flat.
Recommendation: Not Recommended.
Do That Again
by Bad Horse
Sex, Comedy
2,917 wordsThe day after Hearth's Warming, Snowfall Frost thinks back to her encounter with Applejack and decides that maybe she hasn't learned her lesson, not entirely. Maybe she needs a refresher.
It's time to put the romance back in necromancy.
Why I added it: How could I not?
Review
The day after Hearth’s Warming, Snowfall Frost re-creates her potion to end Hearth’s Warming forever. Naturally, the spirit of Hearth’s Warmings past shows up to stop her.
Clearly, Snowfall Frost has no ulterior motives here. She’s just a slow learner. Definitely doesn’t just want to get that feeling of the spirit of Hearth’s Warming Past walking through her again. Or tying her up with her lasso again. No, that’s definitely not why she did it.
Okay, maybe just a little.
Or a lot. 
This story is totally, 100% shameless and terrible.
But I laughed.
Recommendation: Worth Reading
Summary
A Flim Flam Family Affair by bookplayer
Worth Reading
Is It Real? by Majin Syeekoh
Worth Reading
The Truth Is… by naturalbornderpy
Not Recommended
Miracle by Winston
Not Recommended
Do That Again by Bad Horse
Worth Reading
No real stinkers here, even if a couple of them were rather flat. I’ve got a bunch more recent stories to catch up on, so hopefully that will happen soon. That said, I think I’m going to spend my afternoon working on writing a high school biology test and working on finishing up a story.
Incidentally, if you didn’t see my question about pony phylogeny, be sure to go check it out and answer my question. Clearly you all have taken high school biology and know how to make a phylogenetic tree, right? 
Number of stories still listed as Read It Sooner: 134
Number of stories still listed as Read It Later: 454
Number of stories listed as Read It Eventually: 1928
Why do you post a comment with a link on the stories you review even when you don't actually recommend reading them?
If I was in your place I would merely post a comment on the stories that are "worth reading" and highly recommended from your reviews and for the not recommended I would opt to pm the author with a link to their review as to notify them of any and all constructive criticism I might have to offer.
I mean, you wouldn't want to be the reason someone decided not to read a story they would have read and possibly enjoy otherwise would you?
~Leonzilla
3954514
I've had people complain in the past when I failed to do such a link to my review, actually. Sooo... yeah.
I just do it universally. It helps me keep track of what stories I've reviewed, helps me find a story review by looking at the comments, guides people to my blog, ect.
But I would want to be the reason why someone decided not to read a story that they wouldn't have liked. We all have limited reading time; hopefully, my reviews can help steer people towards stuff they like. There's a reason I do more than just give a verdict on a story.
3954595
I don't think it's for certain they wouldn't have liked them until they actually read them.
I understand about putting the links of the stories in your blog, but I don't think you have to put a link to your blog in all the stories you review.
I just can't imagine why somebody would mind you not advertising a negative review you made of their stories? Maybe I misunderstood what you meant?
Thanks for the review!
Although I see it less as deception and more as "useful fiction", if that makes any sense.
3954652
No. But if you read a review by someone else, and they talk about the story, and it sounds like something you won't like, isn't it better to go and read something which seems more appealing?
Time is a real cost. If you hear "Eh, that wasn't very good" from your friends, would you want to go out of your way to read it, or would you want to read something else?
Same general idea.
They felt like I was trying to hide the review.
3954652 Reviews aren't just for the authors. Traditionally, they're not for the authors at all. Only in fan-fiction are authors even very likely to read their reviews. Reviews are for readers. As a reader, I would mind not seeing a negative review that could have saved me from reading a story I was unlikely to enjoy.
3954802
I have to admit I'm always excited to read reviews of my own stories.
I have a hard time imagining that a lot of people don't read reviews of their own works out in the wild, though; I'd want to know what critics were saying. I know some folks do refuse to read them, but given some interviews with actors, it seems like at least some of them track them.
I actually had the creator of Dropsy respond to a review I did of their game on Steam, which surprised me. They were nice, even though I didn't like the game.
But, yeah. My reviews are primarily intended for readers. I do like notifying people that I reviewed their story, though, and leaving notes serves the purpose of notifying them, leaving a future point of reference for myself, and advertising my reviews to a general audience.
Incidentally, reading reviews by people of games you've played or works you've read is actually a decent way to calibrate yourself to them; if their review seems to be addressing real issues within the work, to be talking about the pros and cons in a way that makes sense to you, it makes it much more likely that their other reviews will be useful to you in the future. If their review seems to be nonsense, then you probably won't want to read their other reviews. I've gotten a fair few followers via that route.
Saw that coming. One of those stories you finish and then go, "This is kinda bland, but I did spend a couple hours on it. Release it anyways!"
What did I tell you about reading my bad stories? Stick to my good stories!
And where's my "Only Day" review?
3954864
Haven't gotten around to it yet, I'm afraid.
3954652 It's his way of networking. Pulls in a lot of views when you post a link on a popular story, you see. Logically, he could copy and paste his review, and then people wouldn't have to click a link to see it, thus saving people the time he talks about saving them not reading the story. But then they wouldn't be reading his other reviews, or looking at his latest story/update for a story.
TD is a very clever dragon.
3955137
az616578.vo.msecnd.net/files/2016/04/17/635964524048897363281606567_marketing%20.jpg
Besides, reviews don't do much good if no one reads 'em.