Fic recs, September 4th! · 10:41pm Sep 4th, 2017
ScarletWeather's released her first fic! I mention this because it's A) not complete yet, and B) rated Mature. It's also related to the Clocktower Society series, so it's gonna get me to read at least one of those. <.< Check it out if that kind of thing interests you!
Hey, it's the start of a new month, and that means it's Flash Fiction Online time! This month's theme is science fiction, which means building/falling in love with robots, trying to escape the apocalypse, and the last man on earth doing stuff!
This blog is so late. ;_; I was gonna do so many things today, and I did none of them. Well, I took a walk, at least. Which is good, because running out of data on my phone last month meant a week of having no reason to go for walks. D: These fics won't read themselves, for some stupid reason.
H: 1 R: 3 C: 1 V: 0 N: 1
Mission of Mercy by Trick Question
Reading (part 1) by Scarlett Blade
Genre: Dark/Philosophical
When a new pony literally appears in front of Fluttershy, she ends up questioning what friendship and kindness really are.
For all that this story employs copious time skips, there's a lot to unpack after reading it. Rest of the review will be spoilers, because I'm essentially thinking out loud about major plot points. Suffice to say, read it, because it will at least give you something to think about.
First thing, this is an HiE that's not an HiE. There's just enough ambiguity to keep the lack of Human tag from being an oversight, yet it's hard to think anything else about Mercy. She appears out of nowhere, she hates being naked (granted, there's a second reason for that), she's human-colored, she knows Fluttershy and Twilight by name, Twilight's delve into her memory reveals another world whose imagery is traumatic, and yet we never get any confirmation that this interpretation is the case. I'm honestly impressed with how well Trick Question incorporated HiE tropes into a story without actually making it an HiE. So that's one thing.
Next, let's talk about reader reaction. There's a ton of author headcanon in this story, and a lot of it is confusing or off-putting. (Though I do love the explanation for why nopony knew about them being the Elements for four seasons!) Why, for instance, can Fluttershy grasp a pony's head and 'draw out' their name? What even is that? Then there's talk of "The Wild", which it took me a bit to realize wasn't just the ponies referring to wilderness, but to some concept of wildlife outside Equestrian control. Then there's the big one: genre-awareness. Fluttershy and Rarity spend a good deal of time talking about whether the situation they're facing with Mercy is an "adventure quest" or a "friendship lesson". That was off-putting. But it soon becomes apparent that "everything happens for a reason" is actually a core conceit of essentially an Equestrian religion. And then this gets twisted by the end into some kind of friendship cult, trying to indoctrinate Mercy into their ranks the best way they can. It's heavy stuff!
Which brings us to the central themes of the story. If there's one thing done right here, it's the idea, stated plainly, that ponies don't have a word for 'suicide'. They understand depression — Pinkie is pointed to as an example — but it never gets as bad as what Mercy suffers. Depression, self-loathing and suicidality run a gamut of foreignness, which helps reinforce the idea that Mercy is literally from another world. And as someone who suffers from at least one of those afflictions, I can say they're depicted well.
Which brings me to an odd conclusion: despite the fact that Fluttershy is our POV character, I can't help but feel that this story is written from the perspective of someone with severe depression. The "friendship cult" idea reinforces this: happy people sometimes seem cultish, from the perspective of a depressed outsider. The difference between this story and real life is, the ponies can use magic as a shortcut to mental recovery. I hope others will read this story, because I want to see how many other interpretations there are of it.
Recommended
A Taste of Meat by InsertAuthorHere
Reading by Scribbler, et. al.
Reading by Savrin Drake
Genre: Dark Comedy
Rainbow Dash dares Sunset to eat meat.
There is nothing that fills me with existential trepidation quite like a story with a silly premise that lacks a Comedy tag. c.c This one needs it, if you ask me. It's got all the trappings of a random comedy, from Pinkie being Pinkie to everyone in the school cafeteria freaking out and going silent after Sunset orders a meat product for lunch. It's funny enough that I wasn't even focused on it being yet another of the myriad Meat Problem fics. I suppose the tag is missing because of the way this ends, with a strong friendshipping moment for Sunset and Dash, and an overall message of "don't be a dick to someone because of their dietary habits". But as meatfics go? This one's worth reading.
Recommended
The River by Ruirik
Reading by Chaotic
Reading by Scarlett Blade
Genre: Sad
Yesterday, Spike was sharing life with his friends in Ponyville. Tomorrow is years away.
Spike's long life doesn't quite qualify for the 'immortality angst' tag, but this story is a good example of how to do that right. Not only does it end on an uplifting note, it very economically demonstrates how life for someone long-lived, immortal or not, is going to start blending together after a while. The "yesterday… tomorrow" mantra ties all of this together, it's the heart of the story. This is really quite good.
Recommended
Ruled by Sin by Pearple Prose
Reading by Illya Leonov
Genre: World-Building
Why does a race as powerful as dragons suffer from greed?
This is cool. :D I haven't seen pure world-building like this for a while, and the end result is totally worth reading. Not only do we get explanations for things like what dragon flame actually is, but some origin stories for stuff you might not expect was dragon related. Plus there's epic magic fights, and a sense of this truly being an in-world legend. This is just really awesome stuff, be sure to read it.
Highly Recommended
My Favorite Beat by zoddtheimmortalone
Reading by Scarlett Blade
Mature: Sex
Genre: EQG Clopfic
While this has all the hallmarks of your average wish-fulfillment fic, I still have to wonder about it. I mean, the main character's name is Brad Berrypunch. I just… do not know how to react to that. And yeah, he comes off as a self-insert, especially given the detailed musical tastes, but he's also 19 and still a high school junior. <.< I think I can shortcut this review by saying this just has every indication of being written by someone who doesn't have a lot of experience with, well, anything. I hope they persevere at both life and writing.
Not Recommended
Drunkwriting V: The Crystal Empire Strikes Back by horizon and Bradel and everyone else
Reading by KwirkyJ
Genre: Crackfic
Trixie seeks Starlight Glimmer's help to avoid being turned into a rainbow changeling. Also they have to help Thorax's minotaur brother stop breathing air or something.
Another year, another drunk writing excursion from horizon and Bradel. If you're at all familiar with these, you know what to expect, and you will find considerably more than that. Pooping, entrails (and all they entail), singing, secret changeling police, Sunset Shimmer: you name it, it's here. I was highly triggered amused. Also, this is the first fic I've seen confronting head-on the dangers of Breathairianism. Godspeed, you brave warriors of justice! Why is this 23 pages long? But they make the grave error of using Comic Sans, so I'm going to have to give this about a million downvotes, for the good of the world. Such a shame.
What's a Recommendation?
The most amazing thing about The River is that it was written for the EFNW Iron Writer Competition.
Mission of Mercy is a fascinating take on a truly alien pony society (and, indeed, alien universe) as far from "humans in funny suits" as it can get while still being comprehensible to human authors. And only after following the link did I realize I'd only read it in the Writeoff. I'll have to rectify that.
I didn't contribute nearly as much as I'd have liked to to that drunkfic. I was nominated to be a substitute Bradel when his Internet crapped out, but apparently that's part of the position given the technical difficulties that cropped up shortly thereafter. Alas.
Oh wow. You hadn't read A Taste of Meat yet? Huh. That caused quite the bit of hubhub when it came out.
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Really? As far as I'm concerned, it's just one of many. :B What did the do?
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Well, it has 22k views and was in the feature box forever.
Holy shit, Ruled by Sin continues to puzzle me by being highly rated despite being written when i was like 15; oldest thing by me on the site after all.
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Issa good fic :V
I think I really need to be there as the drunkwritings are happening, drinking alongside. It's not that the results aren't kind of fun, but it's so easy to see that it's better if you're there as it happens.
On "Mercy," I could have done without the gender aspect, as it seemed to muddy things a bit in ways that weren't really additive to the story as a whole. I get the headcanon (though with the celebrity thing you also need to be very selective about it, such that things like Fluttershy becoming a supermodel can slip through), but it's still off-putting for something I'd want to take seriously. That said, it certainly grabbed and held my attention.
Frankly, "Ruled by Sin" never pulled me in, and the aspect of connecting to dragons "now" seemed kind of tenuous. Still, not bad as far as those things go.
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>being 15 on the site
Don't forget to credit Not_A_Hat as one of the drunkwriting perpetrators! This one was a team effort between him, Bradel, and I (until Bradel's internet died and we had to acquire substitute authors from the audience). In fact, since !Hat's internet didn't die and he wasn't distracted by the peanut gallery like me, he was the single most prolific contributing author.
Comic Sans was all me though. I figured I would embrace the "litmus test for bad taste" thing.
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I'll put him in the spreadsheet. :B