Fic recs, May 28th! · 8:08pm May 28th, 2017
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Quick update: I am changing Lost Time's rating to Highly Recommended: Top Fifteen, not that it matters for too much. I don't know why I didn't rate it that way when I reviewed it, but it really is one of the best fanfics I've ever had the privilege to read. And let me tell you, it was agony trying to figure out which stories to drop off the list, because — spoilers! — that's not the only new addition…
The list feels weird without them there. :C
Lastly, a story idea for anyone who wants it: Write Rarity as an elderly busybody who solves crimes while utilizing the fact that ponies tend to underestimate and overlook their elders, a la Miss Marple. Cuz if anyone could do that, it's Rarity, and she's already got crime-solving experience!
H: 2 R: 4 C: 0 V: 0 N: 0
Cleave by BlazzingInferno
Reading by AJ Pony
Paid Review for BlazzingInferno
Genre: Characters Piece
Candy Heart wanted to get rid of the parts of herself that were holding her back. Instead, she created two entirely new ponies.
In something approaching regularity, I'll declare of a fic "Elevates Sad Luna to new heights" or "Slice of life done right" or "The best TwiDash since Twilight's List". The commonality in all these superlatives is that they are based on a familiar concept done right. Cleave is not familiar in the least. Oh sure, it slots into "new take on Lyra and Bon-Bon", but that sub-sub-category by design is filled with originality. On top of that is a portrait of a sociopath, painted in the most fanciful-yet-cutting way possible. This story just has the most stupendous concept, and the execution fulfills the promise therein completely. I've never seen something quite on this level of both "well conceived" and "well written". It's just an amazing story, however you slice it, and I hope everyone will take a moment to go read it right the heck now.
Highly Recommended: Top Fifteen
Scootaloo's Family by Alaborn
Paid Review for Alaborn
Genre: Scootafamily
Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom realize they've never been to Scootaloo's house. It's time to change that.
I'm going to spoil this a little bit: Scootaloo's family in this piece is perfectly normal, if somewhat dysfunctional and distinctly creative. That she's reluctant to introduce her friends to them gives the story its heart. This is really just about family and the tribulations that come with it. I dearly love that she's the oldest of, what, five? and all the rest are colts. Her brothers are absolute terrors in their own special ways, and the general dynamic and the way it's displayed really makes you feel like you're visiting your friend's place for the first time and realizing things like, "Oh yeah, their parents yell at them, too."
Recommended
Anytime by Super Trampoline
Sequel to Feeling That Way
Paid Review for Super Trampoline
Genre: 2P/Tragedy
The war doesn't feel over, because it never felt like it had begun.
This is a strong continuation from the original piece, with some caveats. Naming the characters removes some of the allure of second-person perspective, though it still works in a role-playing sort of way. To be honest, knowing your name does make the drug use go down better. Giving an identity to the war, to who was fought, just sort of left me with questions. And damned if it's not excruciatingly depressing, though that's a feature more than a bug. The ennui I praised last time is back in full force, explicitly so; this is a story about falling out of love and the ways war can change a life without firing a single bullet at it. It won't be for everyone, but it's still quite a nice little piece.
Recommended
Unicorns Are Magical by wille179
Reading by Luna Farrowe
Genre: AU/Horror
It's the eyes, really.
Be sure to read this story's description, it's just great, like the story itself. Oh sure, it could use another editing pass, but this is a completely unsettling piece that plays with its own status as an AU to set the reader on edge. If nothing else, it shows us what the core of each of Twilight's friends is, and how things like wings might be superfluous. The characters are familiar even when they're not, and that helps make the situation all the scarier. I couldn't really explain what was going on in this piece, save to say that it's totally worth experiencing. Be sure you read this.
Recommended
Heavy Rock by CoffeeMinion
Genre: EQG Shipping/Drama
A chance encounter at an open-mic night leads Limestone Pie to question just what it is she wants out of life.
Consider this: Picture of a young woman, bellicose, antisocial, content in her life. Into this life steps a charming young man, and she suddenly finds herself questioning the very purpose of her existence. Together, they will enter an experience of music, drama and romance the like of which they could never have imagined. The like of which can only be found in… The Equestria Zone.
Recommended
Fun in the Summit by FrontSevens
Genre: Comedy
Celestia's plan to survive another thoroughly boring summit? Rarity.
Spawned from the same cloth as your standard bureaucratic comedy though it might be, this has a certain breezy quality to it, between the ineffably glib narrator and the way Rarity and Celestia ignore their way through a tense political meeting. The final scene brings an unexpected note of poignancy to the goings-on (I mean, Trollestia will as Trollestia does, but let's be serious) without dragging a good comedy down into immortality angst. I mean, just look at what they're doing! This is implicitly very positive and uplifting, along with being hilarious from start to finish.
Highly Recommended
Rarity as Miss Marple does sound like a fun idea, but given the mortality rate of Miss Marple's friends, I worry for the rest of the Mane Six in that story.
Also, I'm definitely going to have to check out Unicorns are Magical. Anything that borrows a riff from Discworld looks promising.
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I figure they'd probably already be dead by then. :V
Wait, is there a list of your top 15 somewhere? I want to be able to judge you whenever you change it!
Funny Already did a Halloween review of cleave no it was by the same guy who made a de that story about Big Macs 'last ' of talking wink wink
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Check my userpage!
Stuff like "Cleave" is why I think of BlazzingInferno as one of the best newer writers I've seen. Which probably isn't fair, since he's been around for... over three years now!? 0_0
"Fun in the Summit" was fun, and I thought that was a great use of, and nicely played up depiction of, Rarity. (Also relevant to the top of the post is that it has Rarity and Celestia playing detective with each other.) I thought the ending stretched a bit and didn't quite gel with the rest, but nevertheless added something on its own.
"Magical" was dark, and eerie, and a great AU in the sense that so much of it feels right, but those changes make such a difference that the whole is something entirely different from FiM.
That was a well spent dollar :)
The description of 'Magical' appears to be a Dresden Files reference- Dresden says the same thing as the description nearly verbatim in one of the early books, but that itself might be a reference to something even older.
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I think it comes from Wheel of Time or one of those other classic fantasy series, which Harry was no doubt quoting, because that's all he's good for. :B
Saying "I'm glad you liked it!" doesn't cover it, but… I'm glad you liked it!
Cleave was partly born out of a desire to take the smarmy "Best Friends" bit from Slice of Life in a totally different direction. Getting to listen to a reading of this one is on my bucket list, assuming somebody out there is willing and capable of giving Candy Heart her screechy due. If I was capable of voicing female characters, I'd try to do it myself…