HoofBitingActionOverload is unpublishing a bunch of his stuff next week - you should go read his stuff right now · 4:07am Aug 29th, 2016
HoofBitingActionOverload is going to be unpublishing all of his stories from FIMFiction in one week. As one of the best authors on the site, that's a pretty sad thing. You all should go read his stuff before he does it, because he's a really good writer.
Here's a bunch of his stories I've written reviews for. You really should check them out. Like, now. Especially the ones I recommend or highly recommend. Seriously, you will regret it if you don't.
Stories in this post (all previously reviewed):
Ponies and Throwing Knives by HoofBitingActionOverload
Spring is Dumb by HoofBitingActionOverload
Her Blood Ran in Hollows of the Floor by HoofBitingActionOverload
A Good Princess by HoofBitingActionOverload
Blood, Sweat, and Algae by HoofBitingActionOverload
A Final Farewell on a Moonlit Evening by HoofBitingActionOverload
Bouts of Forgetful Artistic Destruction (AKA Wing Lock) by HoofBitingActionOverload
A Lascivious Rainbow Dash and a Shared Bath in Tomato Broth by HoofBitingActionOverload
There’s Something in the Woods by HoofBitingActionOverload
Sometimes Maps Are Dumb by HoofBitingActionOverload
Ponies and Throwing Knives
by HoofBitingActionOverload
Romance
11,609 wordsRainbow Dash closed her eyes, trying to think about anything but the straps that bound her to the wooden board. She cracked one eye open just enough to see Applejack, smiling mouth full of the knives that would soon be racing though the air towards her. The things some ponies will do for love...
Why I recommend it: It forges a relationship between Rainbow Dash and Applejack in a way I’ve never seen before. Nothing builds trust like having deadly weapons hurled at you.
Review
Rainbow Dash has a crush on Applejack. But she can’t just, you know, come out and say it. That would be totally uncool. She has to like, impress her into liking her.
So when a knife throwing competition comes along, and Applejack manages to taunt her into competing, Rainbow Dash thinks it is her chance to impress.
Except it turns out that you have to have a partner for it, and Applejack has already signed up with her.
Oh, and knife throwing is actually about throwing knives at another pony while they’re strapped to a piece of wood.
A spinning piece of wood.
So this is pretty much the best way ever to impress Applejack… if she doesn’t screw up and accidentally kill Rainbow Dash with the throwing knives.
Rainbow Dash trusts Applejack to do it right, right?
This is a very cute story of Rainbow Dash being in more than a little bit of denial. If you’re familiar with HoofBitingActionOverload’s excellent Spring is Dumb, you’re likely familiar with Rainbow Dash’s voicing here, though she isn’t quite so deeply in denial here.
This story fits quite a bit of emotion into Rainbow Dash’s thoughts, and it is a fun read as Rainbow Dash is a total brat with a crush and it is completely adorable. Applejack, too, works quite well, and her little trust exercise with Rainbow Dash – along with her combination of patience and confidence – is really fun to watch.
If you’re an AppleDash fan, this is a piece you shouldn’t miss.
Recommendation: Recommended.
Spring is Dumb
by HoofBitingActionOverload
Comedy, Romance
9,255 wordsRainbow Dash knows one thing for sure, she is definitely not a barbarous, uncivilized dolt who doesn't know polite conversation from a hippopotamus's rear end. And also that she's definitely not the one who's wrong. Rarity is wrong. Rainbow Dash is absolutely, totally, a hundred percent sure of it.
But then why did Rainbow just buy a wagon load of apology bouquets?
Why I recommend it: An absolutely hilarious story with an amazingly voiced Rainbow Dash.
Review
Rainbow Dash stomped through the Ponyville market, glowering and glaring at everything and everyone, and thoughtfully considered the importance of grounding oneself. Because Rainbow Dash put thoughtful consideration into things all the time, and she made sure to glare at everypony she saw who might dare think otherwise.
A young, fit, snazzy, totally hot, totally smart, definitely-not-a-simpleton could know little for absolute certain among the confusion and disorder of life. Grounding oneself was important. Not literally. That would be terrible. Rainbow Dash glared extra hard at the guy who sold bananas to show him how terrible it would be. Metaphorically or symbolically, or maybe both. They were probably the same thing.
With all the uncertainty in the world, it was important to ground oneself by picking out one thing in all the disorder and confusion that one could know for sure was real. It had to be something utterly, undeniably true. A rock on which one could steady oneself in times of worry and adversity. It had to be the one unchanging principle that defined one’s entire life.
Rainbow Dash’s one life-defining principle was that she was definitely not a barbarous, uncivilized dolt who didn’t know polite conversation from a hippopotamus’s rear end.
Obviously, anyone who said otherwise didn’t know what they were talking about. They would have been laughably wrong. To prove it, Rainbow Dash let out a loud, barking laugh. And then all the ponies around her started giving her weird looks so she shut her mouth and glowered again. Whatever. She had proven her point.
Anyone who genuinely believed it wasn’t laughably wrong must have been a prissy, uptight unicorn who was way too sensitive about things that no one else even cared about.
A bright red bird flew down in front of Rainbow Dash, and she glared at it, too. Songbirds flew and tittered everywhere overhead, enjoying the early spring. The early spring that Rainbow Dash had given them. Sure, some other ponies had helped, but it was Rainbow Dash who had petitioned the mayor for an early spring, and it was Rainbow Dash who had argued with the Central Weather Office to let them do it, and it was Rainbow Dash who had organized the early Winter Wrap Up while Twilight was away. And Rainbow Dash had done it all for Rari—them. The birds. Because Rainbow Dash did stuff for birds sometimes. She was, like, at least half bird, after all.
And what thanks did she get for all her hard work?
Well, a whole lot of thanks, actually. An early spring had earned her an entire evening of personal thanking. The morning after, too. And the night after that.
But not now. One little mistake and the birds instantly forgot all the nice things Rainbow had ever done for them and wrote Rainbow off as an ‘insufferable brute.’ Not that she had even made any mistake. She hadn’t done anything wrong at all. Except do all that work for nothing. Nothing but the worst season of the year. Rainbow Dash hated spring. Spring was dumb, and she glared up at the birds to show them just how dumb it was.
Rainbow Dash hoped it rained all over all of them, ruining all of their dumb spring and tree blossoms and bird songs. One of the worst storms Ponyville had ever seen. That would show them.
Thus begins one of the greatest and most hilarious RariDash stories on the site.
Rainbow Dash is in love with Rarity. But they got in a fight – their very first fight. Rainbow Dash isn’t going to apologize. She didn’t do anything wrong. Clearly she’s just buying this wagonload of flowers, and jewelery, and strange foods she can’t even pronounce, because she likes them.
That’s it. It definitely isn’t an attempt to make up.
Rainbow Dash’s internal thoughts in this story are absolutely hilarious and are a total blast to read. HoofBiting captures them excellently, but while there is a great deal of comedy in here, there’s also some real pathos as well, as we come to understand exactly what caused the fight and exactly why Rainbow Dash’s ego won’t let her come to grips with it fully, and we actually end up feeling for Rainbow Dash by the end of it, as Rainbow Dash comes to grips with her emotions and we see exactly why she loves Rarity so.
This story is great from start to finish, and everyone should read it, even if they don’t ship RariDash.
Recommendation: Highly Recommended, and one of the fifteen stories you should read.
Her Blood Ran in Hollows of the Floor
DarkNo pony can hold onto their magic forever. Inevitably, a pony's body will be broken, and their magic will return to the air and soil. Celestia has held onto her magic for a very long time.
After many long years of preparation, the time for Twilight to succeed Celestia as Bearer of the Sun has come. But as the abdication ceremony in which Celestia will relinquish her power approaches, Twilight begins to desperately search for a way to stop the dread ritual of the ceremony and save her friend.
Why I added it: Normally, I read HoofBitingActionOverload’s stories as they come out because they are quite good; I put this one on my read later list because I knew it was going to be dark and I didn’t feel like reading it at the time. Every time I’ve seen it, reading the description made me a little bit sad, but I knew I would have to face the music eventually.
Review
This was exactly what I was expecting it to be a – a story about a terrible sacrificial ritual, and Twilight’s feelings about it. It is a very evocative piece, with the writing and the structure strongly supporting the tone of the piece. I felt Twilight’s reluctance in proceeding to the ritual, a kind of gradually rising sickness as the ritual inexorably approaches. The rule of three is in full effect, as Twilight seeks a way out, first through herself, then Luna, then finally Celestia, but the price, it seems, must be paid.
Or must it? The whole tragedy was ultimately unnecessary. The ritual didn’t have to be renewed in this manner, Celestia could have kept on going… ultimately, it was a “I’m tired of living” story about immortality, though there were some implications that perhaps it was not quite so. She was beaten down by over a thousand years of life, of doing the right thing, and apparently couldn’t take it anymore… but I’ve never particularly cared for such things, or really bought that argument, to be honest. Still, it worked well in the context of the story, and it hung with the general flow of the piece, and it meant that there was still a meaningful choice to be made, which meant that the characters, despite the darkness, still had agency.
I think by having the characters actually make a choice it made the piece a lot stronger. A lot of pieces like this just arbitrarily decide that something bad has to happen, and that it isn’t really a choice – which, in the end, really means that the author just decided to try and make people sad. Here, by giving the characters a choice, and making them consciously make the decision, it lends more weight to things, because it wasn’t a diabolus ex machina – the ritual didn’t have to take place, but the characters felt that it should, and not for arbitrary reasons.
Recommendation: Highly recommended. This is a story worth reading if you want to read an evocative piece about a magical ritual sacrifice. If the premise of the story doesn’t turn you off, you’ll enjoy this.
A Good Princess
by HoofBitingActionOverload
Slice of LifePrior to the events of "A Canterlot Wedding" Princess Celestia asks Cadance what ought to be done with the changelings that have been discovered living hidden in Equestria. Cadance's proposed plan of action is swift, brutal, and ruthless, but absolutely unnecessarily so. Celestia has never heard Cadance speak an ill word of anyone, and she cannot fathom why the young princess seems to so despise the uncovered changelings.
Cadance just can't fathom why the uncovered changelings have chosen to forsake their own kind to live among the ponies.
Why I added it: I watch HoofBitingActionOverload sleep at night.
Review
Set prior to the events of A Canterlot Wedding, Chrysalis is disguised as Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. She goes to a meeting with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna wherein they discuss the fate of the changelings within Equestria. Chrysalis fears that her invasion has been discovered, but finds out that instead they are talking about rogue changelings, lone defectors from the hive – in some cases, her hive – something that Chrysalis simply cannot believe. Chrysalis believes they are traitors and that they should be treated as traitors deserve, and then that they should be imprisoned and questioned, but Celestia and Luna are far more merciful and want to let them be. Under the guise of Cadance, she convinces them to hand over their locations, and goes to observe them and see what they are up to.
The style of this story helps to carry its content. In this story, Chrysalis is never referred to by name; instead, she goes by the name of the pony she is disguised as, even in the prose. There is some sort of hive-mind, but changelings can choose to cut themselves off from it, and a number of them have, apparently, done so – and Chrysalis simply cannot understand why. We get to see her own alien mindset, as well as her ability to sense the emotions of others, and how a paranoid tyrant might use that ability – and be both set at ease and disquieted by reactions she doesn’t expect. Her fear of discovery shines through quite well at the start of the piece, and it really says a lot about her thought processes by showing us what conclusions she leaps to in the piece.
It is an interesting take on Chrysalis, and I thought it was worth my time to see.
Recommendation: Worth reading.
Blood, Sweat, and Algae
by HoofBitingActionOverload
Slice of LifeCelestia and Luna were once foals, and as all foals do, they had a natural aptitude for casual slaughter.
On a stuffy, hot summer day, two fillies go out from their home and find a brook to play in. When they leave the brook that afternoon, they do not leave empty-hoofed. Afterwards, Celestia achieves something incredible while Luna silently watches on.
Why I added it: HoofBitingActionOverload is a good writer.
Review
This is a bizarre story, written in an oddly rambling sort of way. Luna and Celestia do not yet have their names, and are apparently orphans, or simply never had any parents, and while Celestia looks after her little sister, Luna seems to have no small amount of resentment towards her.
Unfortunately, as Bad Horse pointed out in the comments, the story feels a bit weird – while the story’s ending seems to imply that something has changed, the rest of the story doesn’t really give us that impression at all. Luna is clearly pretty evil here, even as a small child, while Celestia seems more caring, if careless in the manner of a child.
It is only 1,600 words long, but the story felt a bit too disjointed for me to really end up caring. If you'd like to read a dark experimental tale about Luna and Celestia as foals, you might like it, but it didn't really quite do it for me.
Recommendation: Not Recommended.
A Final Farewell on a Moonlit Evening
by HoofBitingActionOverload
RandomRarity wakes one night find that her mane has detached itself from her head and packed its bags. Her mane tells her that it is leaving to pursue new ambitions, alone, without her. Their time together is at an end, it tells her, but the blissfully sweet years they shared will never be forgotten. Before it says its final farewell, they make love together one last time under a moonlit starry sky.
Why I added it: HoofBitingActionOverload is a good writer.
Review
“I can’t, Rarity, I just can’t anymore,” her mane said, turning away from her, its voice heavy with sadness, a sadness so passionate and saturated with emotion that it rumbled off every hair follicle and through the air and physically shook the bedroom and then passed through the walls of Carousel Boutique to the outside air and into the wind and dissipated across the land. At that moment, sobs seized the chests of the brokenhearted all across Equestria, sudden and seemingly divine inspiration for shoddy prosody and maudlin despair struck hack poets everywhere, and some even claimed to see the moon itself shed a solitary, mournful tear that fell to the earth in the form of a monstrous boulder that crushed a crippled, friendless filly as she lay in bed on the first night of her summer vacation from school, overwhelmed with joy at the prospect of three months free from failed tests and peer harassment. She died the way she lived, her classmates said. Stupidly and without the use of her legs.
This is one of those stories that grabs the random tag and just takes off running with it. Rarity’s mane, it seems, is tired of being Rarity’s mane, and is off to make its own way in the world, despite the love it and Rarity shares – the only kind of love that an itchy bunch of hair and a beautiful mare can share. But Rarity cannot simply let her love leave her like this so easily, can she?
If the quoted section caught your interest, you will probably like this. If that quoted section seemed dumb to you, then you’ll hate this. It revels in being silly, and it made me laugh throughout.
Recommendation: Recommended if you like silly nonsense.
Bouts of Forgetful Artistic Destruction
by HoofBitingActionOverload
SadIn a nearly empty library, a librarian tears pages out of books and tosses them out an open window.
Twilight studies in the same library, alone.
They exchange words and a dance.
Why I added it: It was one of my favorite stories in the Closing Time writeoff competition.
Review
This story was entered into the Closing Time writeoff under the title of Wing Lock, and was rather different there. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Gale is a librarian at the Canterlot Public Library. A pegasus, she’s stuck inside waiting to close up the library for the evening; there’s nothing to do, no one to help, and the only reason she is still there is that Twilight Sparkle is there, doing a late bit of research.
There’s something wrong with Gale. She can’t remember things quite right; she is ripping apart a book idly, but she can’t really remember why. She makes up stories about the cat-faced clock nearby, being an unloved thing bestowed on the library by someone who once loved it, but who is now long since forgotten, along with the story of the clock.
And she thinks about Twilight. There’s something wrong with her, too, Gale thinks. Twilight is isolated and has no friends. She is caught up in her own little world, her personal reality of books and study, and oblivious to everything outside of it. Twilight reminds Gale of her grandmother, a pegasus artist who also had something deeply wrong with her. She painted things, and then burned them because she forgot that she had painted them. And then, she withdrew completely.
It is a disease called Wing Lock – a disease of the mind, a terrible thing which cannot be stopped, only slowed down. Pegasi can get it, but Gale wonders if Twilight can, too. But there’s a festival outside, and maybe Gale can draw Twilight out of her shell by going with her…
The original version of this story was similar, but much more subdued. Gale was a much more sympathetic character in the original version of the story, where the fact that she herself was suffering from wing lock was much, much more subtle. There seemed to be a lot more hope for Gale there than there was in this version of the story, and that made Twilight’s failure to recognize that Gale was trying to be friendly all the more tragic.
A lot of people in the competition missed that Gale herself had wing lock, and the new version made it a lot more blatant, and also made the story feel much more like a lot of HoofBitingActionOverload’s other stories; the narrator was more erratic and more blatantly unreliable than she was in the original version. We get a much better idea that she is projecting onto Twilight, though it also seems that the version in the second story is much more aware of the fact that there IS something wrong with herself. The new version starts out with a lot more in-your-face activity and a much stronger hook, while the original version was much slower at the start, only really picking up with Gale’s grandmother, who was a bit different in the original, and likewise seemed to be more of a source of regret for Gale.
All in all, I’m not really sure what to make of the changes. I preferred the original, more subtle version of the story, but HoofBiting decided to make it much more in-your-face and give it a much stronger hook at the start, and Horizon seemed to like the new version a lot more than I did.
Recommendation: Worth Reading.
A Lascivious Rainbow Dash and a Shared Bath in Tomato Broth
by HoofBitingActionOverload
Romance, Random
5,455 wordsRarity and Rainbow Dash take a princessy bath together in a vat of steaming tomato soup in the Canterlot Castle royal suite. Along with the brothy broiling bubbles, long hidden feelings rise to the surface. Rarity finds that she must make a choice that may change her life forever, a choice between love and fabulousness.
Trigger warning: Tomato Soup.
Why I added it: HoofBitingActionOverload is a good writer.
Review
Rarity dreams about Rainbow Dash in a ridiculously exaggerated style.
This story has a wonderful narrative voice; Rarity is completely over the top in her dream, and has a completely over the top dream, which definitely doesn’t reveal any deep-seated issues, no sir. It is very funny, and the commentary on Rarity’s psyche is wonderful, all the more so because of how self-aware it all is, and it transitions out of the ridiculous over-the-top strangeness of the story just as it is about to become wearisome for Rarity to make sense of it all.
If this story had a weakness – and it does – it is that the mane thing at the end feels very forced. I’m sure it inspired the story, but I don’t think it was really necessary to include here, and I don’t think it really improved the story all that much. It seemed like an unnecessary side-note that got focused on a bunch at the end, and it felt weird and really brought me down from the high I had been feeling throughout the rest of the story.
But this wasn’t real life. This was a dream, and in dreams, even the most humble of mares are allowed to indulge in a bit of vanity now and then. So, in Rarity’s dreams, everypony was in love with her. And in this particular dream, as many of Rarity’s dreams seemed to go, Rainbow Dash was the particular pony who was particularly in love with her.
Rainbow Dash also appeared to be in love with condensed tomato soup. And so did Rarity, apparently.
But Rarity was mostly certain that Dash was more in love with her than with the tomato soup, and that was what counted.
The dream had begun with Rarity wallowing in pitiful, yet still classy and attractive, sorrow.
Rarity, despondent, dressed all in black, tears burning in her eyes, threw open the doors to her bedchambers in her princessy castle and strode out onto her balcony. Because she was, obviously, a princess who lived in a castle. Just as she deserved to be in waking life, deserved much more so than Twilight.
Not that Rarity believed Twilight didn’t deserve her ascension to Princesshood. The way Twilight naively played at her books and her spells and her hayburgers was… cute, a little bit, sometimes. Rarity could understand why Celestia might have developed a pitying form of affection for the frumpy academic, but what she could not fathom was why Celestia would choose Twilight over Rarity to be the next Princess of Equestria. Surely, upon seeing Twilight and Rarity standing side-by-side, anyone would agree that Rarity appeared the more regal, the more resplendent, the more blessed of the two.
Rarity was not jealous. No, not at all. Jealousy looked unsightly on any mare, and Rarity had never once looked unsightly in all her life. She was simply confused. But she was certain Celestia would realize her mistake soon.
Recommendation: Worth Reading
There’s Something in the Woods
by HoofBitingActionOverload
Slice of Life
2,411 wordsOne night every month, Rarity creeps out of her house and sneaks unseen into the Everfree Forest. Her saddlebags are full and her destination is secret. She is going in search of The Witch, and Rarity will find her. But some monsters we create ourselves and others aren't monsters at all.
Why I added it: HoofBitingActionOverload is a good writer.
Review
Rarity goes into the woods to meet with an old mare who fancies herself a witch. Rarity ruminates on the meaning of playing pretend as a child, and why she loved it, on the way there.
This is fundamentally a character piece about Rarity; for a while, I thought the witch might be Zecora, but the story revealed otherwise and made more sense that way.
An introspective piece about Rarity, I just was never all that thrilled by it. The ending was cute, but overall the story didn’t feel like it really said much of substance, and in the end, it didn’t leave much of an impression on me, emotionally or otherwise.
Recommendation: Not Recommended.
Sometimes Maps Are Dumb
by HoofBitingActionOverload
Comedy
4,632 wordsThere's another friendship crisis in another far away place, this time the land of the llamas, and Twilight's magical map once again calls on a heroic pony to solve it. But this time the map doesn't call Twilight or any of her friends, this time it calls somepony else entirely.
But Trixie's true reasons for accepting the map's call may not be wholly altruistic, and it turns out she's not nearly as over being upstaged by Twilight during their past encounters as she lets on.
May the gods have mercy on those poor llamas.
Why I added it: It was in the last Write-off.
Review
A strange but familiar looking cutie mark is glowing over the map, and a strange and all too familiar pony’s butt is glowing. It seems that duty has called the Great and Powerful Trixie to solve a friendship problem that even Twilight Sparkle cannot!
Or so Trixie believes, anyway. Twilight and Applejack just kind of go along with it. I mean, the map has never steered them wrong before, right?
Right?
This is a very silly little story with Trixie going back and forth between llamaland (the Lloronda Jungle – an odd place for llamas, but maybe all the mountains were taken by dragons) and Twilight, lamenting the indignities placed upon her while dreaming of the favor that Princess Twilight Sparkle will bestow on Trixie once she returns.
And it is funny. Every scene ends with a laugh, the story hangs together very well, Twilight, Applejack, and Trixie are all a hoot, and Trixie’s obsession with Twilight and perseverance in the face of llama spit is a wonderful thing to behold. I can even hear the whine in Trixie’s voice every time she returns to Ponyville to complain about her mistreatment.
The crystalline map sparkled and glittered in the throne room of Twilight Sparkle’s sparkling, glittering crystal castle in its usual crystaly, sparkly, glittery sort of way. What was unusual was that an unfamiliar cutie mark symbol had appeared over one of the far corners of the map. Much to Twilight consternation, it didn’t match her or any of her friends’ cutie marks.
“And it’s been there since last night?” Applejack asked, examining the errant cutie mark.
“Yeah, I haven’t even had a chance to sleep yet.” Twilight took another gulp of coffee and wiped her frizzy, uncombed mane away from her eyes. “The map is only supposed to call us, the former Elements of Harmony. That’s how it’s supposed to work. I think. Or at least I thought. This could big. Huge! Groundbreaking!”
Applejack yawned. A few minutes earlier she had been lying in bed at Sweet Apple Acres, just about ready to get up. And then her room had disappeared and she had been dropped onto the cold hard floor of Twilight’s castle and assailed by an over-caffeinated Twilight Sparkle.
Applejack would have been annoyed, but it wasn’t the first time and it wouldn’t be the last, and Twilight looked kind of cute with her mane all frizzy. “You have any idea what place it’s hangin’ over?” she asked. The cutie mark hovered over a clump of mountains and jungles along the edge of the map.
“Of course!” Twilight grabbed one of a dozen atlases off the floor and opened it for Applejack to see. “It appears to be the Lloronda Jungle, home of the llamas.”
“What’s a llama?”
“A race distantly related to camels,” Twilight said. “I checked my library, but I couldn’t find much information on them or their culture. They’re apparently very reclusive.”
“And you don’t know whose cutie mark that is yet?”
“I know exactly whose cutie mark it is.” Twilight said, frowning. “Whose cutie mark it is is exactly the problem. You really don’t recognize it?”
Applejack looked intently at the hovering cutie mark. It was in the shape of a wand and aurora. Her eyes narrowed and then widened. “Oh no…”
Then the doors to the throne room burst open, a cloud of bluish smoke spread through the room, and an outlandishly dressed unicorn waltzed inside. “Trixie’s posterior is glowing,” she cried. “And Trixie doesn’t like it.”
Recommendation: Recommended.
Summary
Ponies and Throwing Knives by HoofBitingActionOverload
Recommended
Spring is Dumb by HoofBitingActionOverload
Highly Recommended
Her Blood Ran in Hollows of the Floor by HoofBitingActionOverload
Highly Recommended
A Good Princess by HoofBitingActionOverload
Worth Reading
Blood, Sweat, and Algae by HoofBitingActionOverload
Not Recommended
A Final Farewell on a Moonlit Evening by HoofBitingActionOverload
Recommended
Bouts of Forgetful Artistic Destruction (AKA Wing Lock) by HoofBitingActionOverload
Worth Reading
A Lascivious Rainbow Dash and a Shared Bath in Tomato Broth by HoofBitingActionOverload
Worth Reading
There’s Something in the Woods by HoofBitingActionOverload
Not Recommended
Sometimes Maps Are Dumb by HoofBitingActionOverload
Recommended
Seriously, go read them! Act now, supplies are running out!
Why is he pulling his stories?
That's a pity.
If anyone stumbles on this blog a few weeks in the future, don't lose hope, the Fimfiction Archive has you covered.
4178961
He's a starving artist doing original fiction now and is planning on scavenging his fanfics for parts for original stories.
4178983 Ah, that answered my question before I asked then.
Understandable, I guess. But definitely a bummer. :( Any idea if he'll do any new pony stuff as well?
4179014
He quit doing pony stuff somewhere between S5 and S6, so... unlikely, unfortunately. I did note to him that we do original fiction writeoffs now, so we'll see if he's interested on that front.
4179021 Ah. I was unaware he had done so.
Well, best we can do is wish him luck then. He's damn good, so I hope he strikes gold.
4179026
Well, you know how it goes - you aim for the stars, but sometimes, you hit London.
I've never read anything from him and have no reason to think I'll like it... (besides this post)
but nonetheless, just in case, I downloaded everything. If anyone wants to read something after it's gone. send me a PM
Nooooo!!! Spring is Dumb is one of my favorite stories. And Maps Are Dumb is a great Trixie characterization piece. It fits her so well. And you can't get much sillier than Rarity's mane packing its bags and leaving.
*sniff*
Spring is Dumb is awesome. To any potential readers: if you have to read just one of his stories, choose that one.
TD, thanks so much for this action item. I very much appreciate you getting the word around.
For the sake of people's lists, would you mind dropping a page break somewhere early on in this post? Maybe it's just me but this whole darn post showed up in my feed. Thank you!
4179320
I know, right?
Though on the upside, he is working on original fiction. I look forward to seeing what he ends up producing.
4179322
Spring Is Dumb really is amazing and everyone should read it, even non-shippers.
4179395
Sorry about that. I constructed this post by hand rather than using my template and left out the page break. It should have it now. Apologies to everyone whose feed ended up with a mile-long post in it.
4179314
HoofBitingActionOverload is a very good writer. Some of his stuff is a bit strange (which makes it a matter of taste), but a lot of it is very good. Of the 28 stories of his which I've read, 7 are either recommended or highly recommended, and almost all of them are worth reading.
Thanks for the heads-up about HoofBiting and Spring is Dumb. I'm normally not a huge fan of shipping fics, but it was absolutely hilarious!
And you're definitely right about Dash being perfectly voiced in it! 
Liked and favorited.
4178961
Im sorry he's a good writer But i just can't have sympathy for him when his logic is so ridiculously broken, no freaking publisher is gonna be checking this site, nor are whatever new audience he's going for. In fact he'd be best served by trying to leverage the audience he has here into a base for a new audience.
Basically everything about this just seems incredibly misguided.
4183141
I'd tend to agree really, but I'm biased.
Just a reminder, you can download all those horsewords, in three formats even
. Don't have to desperately binge-read them all in one go. I snagged all of them but the in-progress story in .html myself.
Hope he retains the blogs though, they present an interesting timeline of his own journey through pony history.
Y'know, I think they're still there.
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He changed his mind as a result of people talking to him about it.