Best of Season 1 Short Fics, Part 2 · 11:40pm Jun 17th, 2017
I don't have anything really interesting to say as a fun starter. Well, there is the British documentary series, The Worst Jobs in History featuring Tony Robinson, the cartoon series Adventure Time (I finally seeing the good of this), and of course working on this post that contains the best short works of season 1.
40. Ponyville Nudist Colony by Flashfox466 – As foretold by a waffle, Pinkie realizes everyone is naked.
Published: March 17th, 2011
Most Recent Episode: A Dog and Pony Show, 19
Length: 300
Characters: Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy
Genre: Random, Shipping
To start this entry off, how about a short piece that will utterly destroy your mind. Written as part of the March 300 word fic-off, Ponyvile Nudist Colony is where logic takes a vacation, bad writing is rampant, randomness is the rule of law, and jokes are launched scattershot style at the wall, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. While I could definitely find areas of improvement (such some technical errors), those who love random and absurdness will find pleasure in Flashfox’s tale.
39. Pinkamania by Sithicus – After the returning from the Gala, Pinkie Pie starts talking with her other persona
Published: May 10th, 2011
Most Recent Episode: The Best Night Ever, 26
Length: 1666
Characters: Pinkie Pie
Genre: Normal
The idea of Pinkie having a split persona isn’t exactly an original idea, but usually the concept of Pinkamania is that she’s the more insane side of Pinkie (let’s call her the Cupcakes side of her), so it’s refreshing that Sithicus does two things that are actually different. One he makes Pinkamania the more grown up one of the two (the “responsible rock farmer” as Pinkie puts it), and more strangely, he has Pinkamania be an actual separate entity of her own… somehow. There’s no explanation to how and why this is so, just that it can, and that’s the right move for a story like. Granted, I would have preferred if the answer to whether or not Pinkamania was all in Pinkie’s head was more ambiguous, but I can’t mark too much off.
What results is a interesting character piece on Pinkie and her other self, their relationship, and their past. I admit the editing could be better here, and I’m going to be frank, I’ve read some people to suggest a different interpretation for the ending that I find gross. I’m not saying I was disgusted when I first read it, just that you might think more like them than me. But beside that, give this a shot. You might enjoy it.
For an interesting comparison, check out SaddlesoapOpera’s Pinkie Pie: Schism, part of the Pony Psychology series.
38. So Being What We Sow When We Sew by the Descendant – A flock of seabirds crash down near Ponyville; Fluttersjy struggles to take care of them, so she asks Rarity’s helping in teaching her to sow to make garments for the weakened avians.
Published: March 20th, 2011
Most Recent Episode: Green Isn't Your Color, 20
Length: 12407
Characters: Fluttershy, Rarity
Genre: Normal
If you’re familiar with the Descendant’s writing, then you’re probably aware that he tends to be me more of the flowery side of things. Well, I can say that it isn’t the case here, in fact, this is one of this probably one his easiest to follow and understand stories (as far as the writing and the broader points goes; there’s some details that I’m still struggling to make heads or tails of), while still having quality word choice. On the other hand, there is one common mistake I noticed, not including commas in sentences that start with dependent commas. There are other errors that pop up as well, but none of them are as commonplace or reoccurring as this one.
SBWWEWWS is very slice of life, meaning that the plot (Fluttershy taking care of seabirds and her friendship improving with Rarity) is a mostly low-key conflict, very dry and slow-paced, although sometimes it can go to extremes; there really is nothing that differentiates chapters one and two, to be honest, plotwise. That should probably be the biggest factor to whether or not you want to read SBWWSWWS. It’s going to affect things such as how you react to seabirds dying and the emotional stress that it causes Fluttershy, to how she and Rarity grow closer together, to the replay of parts for Suited for Success, and plenty of others things that. My recommendation would be to read the first chapter and decide from there whether you want to go further. And if you do, you’ll find yourself a decent early slice of life piece.
37. Ponies and Phonies by Lopsidation – Trixie competes in a horseshoe throwing contest
Published: May 12th, 2011
Most Recent Episode: The Best Night Ever, 26
Length: 305
Characters: Trixie
Genre: Normal
Another entry from the Mid-May 300 word event, like the previous two that I mentioned, Ponies and Phonies is both humorous and features a mostly in-character Trixie. But what makes Ponies and Phonies such a treat for me is the prose, particularly when describing Trixie’s inner narration in defining her logic to how she approaches nothing more complex than a game of horseshoes (A mere positive integer scoring system is no match for my intellect!), that culminates in one of the funniest endings I’ve had the pleasure of reading.
36. The Apple Family by Sithicus – Applejack returns home from the Grand Galloping Gala, disappointed from the lack of funds for the farm generated, where she has a conversation with Granny Smith
Published: March 31st, 2011
Most Recent Episode: The Best Night Ever, 26
Length: 1939
Characters: Applejack, Granny Smith, Big Mac
Genre: Normal
This is actual part of the same continuity as Pinkamania (there’s actually a series of post-gala events for each of the main cast plus Celestia and Derpy), but the stories are separate from each other so you’re not required to read them to understand what goes on. And given that there’s no plot at all
Instead, this is a character piece with the conflict arising with the disagreement of personal philosophy between Applejack and Granny Smith, with Applejack being the idealist and Granny Smith being the pragmatic. Consequently, The Apple Family is a more cynical piece than most pony fiction and certainly the show proper, and that might be a turn off for some people, especially because the story seems to favor one of the two ponies. I wouldn’t really call it a debate or a diatribe because there’s not really an argument from one of the two sides; depending on how you look at it, this might be a piece with a very heavy-handed rubber mallet of a message, though there is just enough ambiguity to slide out of it. And yet, I enjoyed the way that Sithicus writes the characters because it sounds like their having a normal conversation, and particularly enjoy Granny Smith, who comes across as less a comical old coot as a old matron that’s experienced it all. And for me, that makes The Apple Family a fine read.
February Notes
- The Star System is officially implemented on Equestria Daily. While it’s time was ultimately short (much as Equestria Daily’s own time as the go to site for fanfiction and even service as mainly as a fanfiction site), and let’s be honest, its problems were clear in retrospect (star-bombing, the fact the rating tag was dependent on the EQD staff, the fact they were never saved for future reference; okay that’s more of a Bugs complaint, but they would be a great historical tool to find out which ones were widely read and which weren’t). Having said that, the grading scale was also one that people took note of far more than the faves list of fanfiction.net or fimfiction, or the latter’s own ratings; I only take note if a story has sizable amount of red when it comes to Fimfiction, otherwise, it really doesn’t matter. I have my hypothesis of why that’s so, but now isn’t the time to bring them up. It’s worth mentioning that there are only five star rankings at the moment. The six-star has yet to be included.
- Equestria Daily has its first fic-off with the Valentine Ship-off. Now personally, I’m not a shipping fan, but good lord, this was mess. A lot really are standard shipping stories often lack plots or conflict that could make them even them interesting, not to mention too many of them were poorly edited (what does it say when I couldn’t think of one positive thing to say about half the entries). Also include there are ponies having sex (yes, there is porn on Equestria Daily), as well as a one love potion (and f you don’t see why that’s disturbing, let me ask you, what do call it when someone is forced to love someone else by an outside force against their will... yeah). The best “original” story in the competition (because the best was a remake with ponies from a sweet children’s book) wasn’t actually a shipping story, but instead a sweet story about how Dash and Fluttershy met as fillies, and how the former taught the latter to fly.
- It has to be said, that the idea of Twilight becoming a princess (although, not necessarily getting a pair of wings) was very much alive back then. Again, it’s a rarity (as opposed to a Rarity).
- I mentioned previously in January that a lot of stories are short and more like scenes than anything else. That’s still true here, but there’s another thing about quite a few of them that worth mentioning. Especially in the early half, we have what might be called the “CO phase” of the early fandom’s stories. This means a lot of them are not really stories, and jokes that are basically ponies doing thinks like swearing, having sex, drinking and doing drugs, treating each other like dirt, memes and references to various parts of pop culture, etc. you know the kind of things that are popular with high school and college aged young adults love to say on a platform that provides them with anonymity. The more random and unlike show like the idea is (or self-referencing because there’s a bit of humor meant to poke fun of the bronies themselves in the most flattering of ways; any actual biting satire that could potentially offend its audience is nonexistent), the more appealing it is seems to be the general theme (Madmax’s early comics are also in this category as well, and some really can’t be described as anything but disgusting). I would honestly say that Slywit’s Ponies Discover /CO/ is the watershed point of all this (even though it was technically written mostly in January), expanded out into almost fifteen thousand words in a episode like story with a mixture of hit and miss jokes (yes, quite a few bits in Ponies Discover /CO/ have not aged well) that could never make it onto the show [Bugs of the Present Day: Note that I don't think that Ponies Discover /CO/ is necessarily a bad story, and it made me laugh more than any story did during my first read through at that point, but I also left with some very mixed thoughts after finishing it but after that, there aren’t many like it. Again this is more true of some authors than others, not even a case of old vs. new, but it's something worth mentioning.
- It got released back in January, but I should mention Cupcakes by Sergeant Sprinkles at this point. I don’t think there’s a single fanfic that is as referenced whether it is as a parody, “take that”s, or just the suggestion that Pinkie might be a little more psychotic than this one (’m curious how things are going to look in April when Party of One comes out). Because I did read for this, I guess should state my own personal opinion on it, so I’ll just post my notes: The Sarge intended this to be funny, but there are a lot of problems with that (there’s a bit where Dash sees the head of foals, which is gross, we are also hear Dash’s reaction to her pain, which as decades of cartoons have taught us is one of the first things you need to minimize in order to make hurt gags work). Dark grotesque humor is hard to pull off, and reading Pinkie is more likely watching the Frank Miller Joker torture someone as opposed to the Caesar Romero one. In fact the only thing that’s close to being funny is how Pinkie reacts in some cases (when Dash spits out some meat for example, after Pinkie shoves it in her mouth, “If you didn’t want it, you could have said no.”), because in a stretch, it is like Pinkie. Yeah. I admit that I don’t find Cupcakes traumatizing like people apparently do, so I don’t know if that’s because I’m a hard-nosed cynic, or just that I first read it an older age . Believe me, that are other stories that made cringe more than this one.
- Vinyl makes her first appearance. It’s amazing how a seven second appearance of basically doing nothing and having a cool pair of shades can lead to fame … wait a minute. Of course, this is still pre-The Vinyl Scratch Tapes and pre-Octavia, so what fandom personality she has isn’t quite established, especially with only two main roles.
- I said last month that formatting was a problem. Well, it still. There is a noticeable number of stories where the author forgets to hit the enter key when a new speaker talks. In fact as far as grammar and spelling goes, there’s really not a lot of difference between January and February (with regards to the type of errors and amount of them).
- Introduction of a few notable new authors include LawnPygmy, Lucres, Moabite, Phoe, Cereal Velocity, Friendly Uncle, Midnight Shadow, uSea, Achesst, Squeak, RoyGBiv, Ebon Mane, and The Descendant to come try their hands at the art of pony writing. As far as the more prolific authors, it’s similar to last month with Pacce, RagingSemi, and ButterScotchSundae being the top producers with LawnPygmy, Midnight Shadow, Squeak, and BrotherPrickle, and Nathan Shepard (and older writer) joining them.
- Normal (aka the most useless tag every) and shipping make up four-fifths of all story tags there are. So imagine my surprise in that there’s not really a prevailing pairing. The closest would be Twilight-Fluttershy (Flutterlight? TwiShy?) and PinkieDash, but those have only four stories where most have one or two.
- I just realized that there was a 3 sentence mini-event. I didn’t look into because there were no titles, it was too late, and you can view it here. I don’t think I’ve read a greater concentration of spelling errors and grammar mistakes in my entire life (and to be fair, it seems many of the writers noticed them as well). I know these sentences were put together quickly, especially because Seth said he’d only repost the first one hundred from the comments, but come on, a quick glance would be nice. Even past that, there are a lot of really dumb examples (like I said above, this is still the “CO” phase of the fandom) including such sentences as Dash discovering she’s gained weight and decides to counter that by vomiting, one that is nothing but a pony putting a gun to the forehead of another (both were written by Sergeant Sprinkles), Ditzy Doo asking Derpy Hooves why everypony is laughing at her cutie mark (because it looks like a scrotum), Pinkie snorting flour like cocaine, etc. It’s tempting to assume that alcohol played a role. But there were a few I did like such as.
6. One day Fluttershy found a nice but lonely seabird. She helped it find another nice seabird to live with. Leaving the beach, Fluttershy smiled and said "One good tern deserves another.
10."You can't hold your breath forever Derpy Hooves!"
Derpy exhaled, color returning to her cheeks.
"OK then you can hold it for me!"
50. Luna sat on her throne and sighed, alone. The vines had destroyed the bricks of her castle, the Everfree forest had reclaimed the grove. Even as the room sat silent and empty, Luna's mind echoed those first words Celestia spoke to her: "I missed you, sister."
89."Okay, I'm on all fours, everyone around me is a talking horse, and I don't appear to have fingers anymore; Al, what the hell is going on?"
"We're still trying to figure that all out; we don't even know what year it is here...but we do know that your name is Twilight Sparkle, and Ziggy says there's a 93% chance that you're here to learn about the magic of friendship."
“Oh Boy.” [Fun fact: I think the comics actually had a throw Quantum Leap gag at the end of one of their stories]
96.Sunlight scatters in the upper atmosphere, illuminating the lower atmosphere, and the surface of Equestria is neither completely lit nor completely dark. This is the time of day that has baffled yet intrigued Princess Celestia for thousands of years. That may be why, when the fair princess found a purple unicorn infant sobbing at the castle's gate, Princess Celestia named the babe after the time when it's not quite day and not quite night; Twilight.
- As with last month, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, and main-cast in general dominate the main character selection (by quite a bit as well, there are about 3 times as many Twilight-centric stories as Rarity ones), followed by main cast centered ones. Pinkie also has quite a lot as well, followed by Fluttershy, Luna, Applejack and Celestia, and then Rarity and Spike. Big Mac also has a sizable amount, being the only real stallion on the show (sorry Spike) will do that for you when people want to do straight shipping. Derpy, Trixie, and Gilda also have quite a few. The cute mark crusaders on the other hand, have almost nothing. Apple Bloom has a fair number with her family, granted, but Scootaloo has only one, while poor Sweetie Belle has nothing without the other two (even Snips and Snails get more).
35. Big Mac’s Big Promise by LawnPygmy – Big McIntosh makes a promise and he knows that no matter how silly or painful it might be, he has to keep it. Especially if it’s for his kid sister on her birthday.
Published: February 14th, 2011
Most Recent Episode: Feeling Pinkie Keen, 15
Length: 1121
Characters: Big Mac, Applejack, Apple Bloom
Genre: Comedy
Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way first. There are a few parts where a new paragraph needed to be created to indicate a different speaker. Not that it’s too difficult to figure out who is speaking (sadly, LawnPygmy doesn’t indicate who is talking with direct speech verbs), but mistakes are mistakes. (Apple Bloom is also spelled as one word as well.) Also depending on how you look at it, Applejack can come across as being a bit of an jerk for what she does to Big Mac, which will probably affect your enjoyment.
Now the good. This is a really funny piece about Big McIntosh and what he’s willing to do keep his promises that doesn’t go on any longer than the joke itself. While it doesn’t necessarily provide any deeper insights into him except in a roundabout way, I do find to be one of the character’s better portrayals. Going back to my point earlier about Applejack, I should point out this falls into the category of cruel and dark comedy (not black, just that a lot of the jokes revolve around Big Mac being teased and humiliated). Personally I found that made me laugh for reasons I can’t get into without spoiling anything, I will also admit that it’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea (or apple cider). Still those that don’t mind should consider this one.
34. Mother May I? by Moabite - Derpy and Dinky’s life, and the hassle of Derpy’s strabismus, and what it means about their relationship.
Published: May 1st, 2011
Most Recent Episode: Party of One, 25
Length: 1508
Characters: Derpy, Dinky
Genre: Normal
Part of the April Friend-Off (more about this when we get to the April Month notes), while short, this piece contains plenty of pony goodness. For one, the prose is well done, through strong word choice and few grammar and spelling errors. Two, this is a really respectful take on Derpy, suggesting she is neither stupid nor silly, but instead a person (or pony, thank you, Gardez) that is trying to do her best for herself and her daughter despite the difficulties set upon her by her condition (the story doesn’t attempt to find anything laughable about it as seen in a part taken from Feeling Pinkie Keen that was played for an unfunny gag). In fact, because of the way Moabite contrasts the sadness and pain of Derpy messing up because of her lazy eye with the more heart warming stuff with Dinky, the latter comes across as more sweet and touching (after all, what better way to deal with the pains of the outside world than the love of a child) than it would have been on its own. And while the story is essentially plotless (the only real conflict besides Derpy dealing with her sight problems), and the ending feels a little abrupt (don’t get me wrong, it’s adorable and isn’t terrible, but it also just stops, fitting in with the rather slice-of-life approach of the tale), I don’t find it to be a major problem.
If you enjoyed this story by Moabite, let me also recommend A Candle to the Sun by the same author. While it lacks some of the strong emotions that emerge from Mother May I?, it’s still a sweet tale.
33. Twilight October by uSea – Twilight and her friends (and Spike) roleplay as submarines and other naval vessels
Published: Februrary 28th, 2011
Most Recent Episode: Stare Master, 17
Length: 1291
Characters: Main Cast, Spike
Genre: Comedy
Want a silly comedy that isn’t random or abandons the character’s personality for the sake of a dumb joke? Then take a look at Twilight October. With a fast pace, a good selection of jokes and funny dialogue ("Release me you capitalist pig-dog!" cursed Spike in a terrible Russian accent. With one hand keeping his hat from falling off, the other joined his legs in their wild flailing.) that will at least make you chuckle.
If this piece seems brief, that’s because there’s not much to talk about Twilight October. It’s shallow, unlike the imaginary ocean the ponies and Spike are playing in, but that’s fine because it’s fun. Sometimes, you just want some light food.
32. What do You do with a Drunken Unicorn? by Tumbleweed – Pinkie has a shindig at the library and Twilight gets inebriated
Published: March 30th, 2011
Most Recent Episode: Over a Barrel, 21
Length: 2094
Characters: Twilight, Main Cast
Genre: Comedy
Ponies getting drunk (or high as can be the case) is its own subcategory of comedy. In all cases, given the huge difference in tone and humor from the show, such stories have to have breezy pacing, a quick succession of jokes or amusing situations, and a general acknowledgement of the ridiculousness of the concept. Of them, What do You do with a Drunken Unicorn? is probably the best one.
Not only does most of the humor to this random comedy come often enough and quick enough, but they’re silly enough as well to keep the idea of Twilight being tipsy and spouting off her thoughts and feelings from being problematic, with even her letter to the Princess being treated as a gag. This isn’t a deep work by any means, and it’s clearly not intended to be. If I have a compliant, it’s that doesn’t have any big gut punchers nor does it quite descend into madness like I usual want from these type of stories. Granted, that’s a personal preference, and things do get a little crazier as they go on. However, while this the story was mostly error free, Tumbleweed often uses periods where commas would be more accurate when it comes to the dialogue. Note that this story won’t appeal to people who don’t like adolescent humor (I admit there was at least one part that made me cringe) and people who don’t find alcohol funny should avoid this as well, but others take a peek.
31. Luna’s Biggest Fan by Tales – Celestia tells Luna that her biggest fan has come to meet her in the garden, and
Published: May 1st, 2011
Most Recent Episode: Party of One, 25
Length: 1218
Characters: Luna, Celestia
Genre: Sad
This was also an entry for the April Friend-off, and my personal favorite as well. Unlikely most of the entries, Luna’s Biggest Fan didn’t just use the comic that served as its source as a reference, but instead a springboard. The triumph of Tales’ tale is that it starts out looking like it’s going to go one direction that seems obvious from a mile away (particularly if you know the basis) and then ends up turning it around and going to a completely new one that ends up being deeper and more powerful while not seeming out of place. That’s not easy to do.
I can’t really talk about more of it with going into spoilers (and this is a story you should go in as innocent as possible), but I do feel like I need to justify my stance on this story, so those who are confused by my approbation can read below. What I like about this is that it’s a typical sad Luna because it doesn’t involve her being mopey about her past, but instead about someone who hasn’t gotten over her feelings about it, someone who needs social comfort. I like this as well goes it sheds some unflatteringly light on Celestia’s treatment, that probably did help push Luna in into her initial.
If there’s a big problem with Luna’s Biggest Fan, it’s the fact that the paragraphs are not separated with tabs or spaces, though perhaps because of the above average sized font, I didn’t see it as much of an issue as it usually would be. Maybe you’ll disagree, or maybe you’ll enjoy Luna’s Biggest Fan as I did.
Well that, and I know there were much later links to the extra porn chapter of Fallout Equestria, and a surprising number of times they either lined to pages with porn on them or included actual porn images in Drawfriends... In that respect, neither consistency nor quality control was ever absolute.
I think I've also heard "FlutterTwi."