Fic recs, August 29th · 10:50pm Aug 29th, 2016
In case you haven't heard it from Titanium Dragon yet, HoofBitingActionOverload is unpublishing his stories at the end of the week. He has a good reason for doing this, and while he could have easily deleted everything, I'm totally okay with this compromise. So get on board the HBAO train and get those stories read! (I have in the past given good recommendations to Sometimes Maps Are Dumb, Where Have the Stars Gone?, and In Quintuple Time, for the record.)
Kind of a mess right now, too many things to do, just have five random shorty fics, none of them terribly outstanding. @_@
H: 0 R: 0 C: 4 V: 1 N: 0
Wishes by Briarpelt
Genre: Slice of Life
A star falls, and those who see it make a wish.
This is an interesting way to structure a piece, with each section being from one of perspectives of numerous characters all doing the same basic thing. The wishes themselves are sometimes sad, sometimes heartwarming, and frequently very tidy little bits of characterization. I wish it had a stronger unifying theme — I thought, given one character's wish, it might be tragedic in nature, but quite a few of these wishes come true eventually — but as it is, not a bad little story.
Recommended as Light Reading
Nightmare Moon: The Prettiest Alicorn That Everyone Loves No Matter What Tia Says by Dark Chocolate
Genre: Comedy
This isn't written particularly well (I do detest that "biased" is a word that seems to have fallen out of our collective consciousness), but it is more or less what I was hoping for, namely Celestia and Luna snarking at each other. It is full of fairly stock jokes, however, Celestia being fat only the tip of the iceberg, and I'd have liked to see a more gradual ramping up of the 'hostilities' (I mean, this is basically just a story about how childish Luna is). It just kind of peters out at the end, but I was at least somewhat amused for most of it.
Vaguely Recommended
Thorax Is Secretly a Changeling by Palm Palette
Genre: Comedy
Or is he?
I literally wanted to upvote this just from reading the description. This isn't quite as absurdly hilarious as I'd hoped, but it's still full of laughs, and the ending is really great. For a ridiculous take on changeling panics coupled with the recent episode, look no further.
Recommended for Laughs
Pale Cocoon by Inky Notebook
Genre: Pale Cocoon Crossover
This is, as far as I can tell, a ponification of a one-shot anime I've never heard of. I mean, reading a synopsis of the thing on Wikipedia is exactly like reading a synopsis of this story, and that's disheartening. But, as you've likely never heard of Pale Cocoon either, this has some merit on its own. The story is told in fits and starts, sometimes seemingly moving back and forth in time, which cleverly mirrors the archive restoration our characters are trying to accomplish. Unfortunately — and I don't know if it's just that I'm very tired from having a long, difficult weekend — I found a lot of it hard to follow, mostly the "what are they doing" parts. The setting and background are interesting, and the personal drama is really intense, but I never got a solid grasp on the mystery, and mystery is what post-apocalypse is all about. Still, this is something of an oddity from the past, and might be worth a read if you like this kind of thing.
Recommended for Sci-Fi Fans
A Beautiful Day in Equestria by Sir Politic Am-Be
Genre: Metafic
It was not supposed to be one.
Is it bad that we can go all the way back to 2012 and find a story taking on the tropes and cliches that still reside in ponyfic? In this, Twilight is stuck in something of a time loop, where she keeps fucking up a spell and breaking Rainbow Dash's wings and then shipping ensues and it's always a bright and sunny day in Ponyville. But she remember what happens each time; the effect is surprisingly darker than it is comedic. Unfortunately, the existential despair eventually gives way to just grimdark stuff, the platitudes feeling more platitudinous. It doesn't help that there are some oddly worded spots ("the same was suffering a great tree in Ponyville"). But overall, it's a curious little piece, and might be worth a read anyway.
Recommended as a Curiosity
A Beautiful Day in Equestria is a parody ship fic/EQD trolling attempt, which WAS trying to use many fandom cliches.
It was written by Greg, he of Rainbow Dash Presents, they actually made an RDP for it:
Stick to the end if there's any doubt of its nature.
4180541
Wait, it was written by Georg? Well shit! :V
I think A Beautiful Day is actually supposed to be super meta, where Twilight is semi-aware of the infinite amount of times she's been shipped with Rainbow Dash and all the other ponies by an infinite amount of callous ship-fic authors, and the author/s is/are yelling at her when she tries to escape.
A beautiful Day in Equestria was like the first meta pony thing i ever read. It almost reads like a spooky "found footage" movie, with weird cuts and an oppressive atmosphere. If it's not already, PLEASE read his unfinished fic "administration is magic" It's the one unfinished fic from before fimfic that I was depressed to see never finished. That author is way too good to have dropped off the map.
4180589
I get this, no doubt.
It's just that it starts to feel less like it's mocking fanfiction and more like it's falling into the same tropes in the middle. Keeping the focus on Twilight and Rainbow Dash, with maybe the mention of Rarity to show it's not just them, would have been a better way to go.
4180675
He didn't drop off the map, writing was just too easy and unchallenging for him so he went off to do scripting, voice acting, songwriting, singing, composing, editing and full blown animation.
He's SSAE level when it comes to sheer artistic output.
Maybe someone can convince him to go back to fic but I doubt it.
4180776
Holy fuck, you said Greg, not Georg. D: I'm dumb.
4180781
I bet Georg could write a mean RDP script.
4180776
4180736
4180675
4180589
Besides an extremely confusing time travel story I cant name from years ago, this story I just red made my mind cannibalize itself. http://www.fimfiction.net/story/225511/outofcharacter
4345836
I did like that one, which was surprising because I like skirts, but usually not his horror or random stories. Was the time travel story severing/reconnection?
4345871 Doesn't sound familiar, but I can say for sure that it starts with Rainbow Dash meeting many many versions of her future self in the present around Ponyville to the point you think its nonesense, but the story covers every single one and all the nonesense is wrapped up. He even made an extra page after the end covering smaller weird things and what they ment. Haha.
4345836
I think we were talking about different authors, I was referring to Greg, he of A Beautiful Day In Equestria, but better known for Rainbow Dash Presents and the Mentally Advanced series.
4345871 Just by chance, I found it im 99.99% sure. One of the few people I follow, for a reason apperantly. http://www.fimfiction.net/story/836/double-rainbow