Fic recs, October 5th! · 3:04pm Oct 5th, 2017
ShadowOfCygnus has done a reading of Oroboro's Little Apple!
This month's selection of flash fiction features monsters, love, and a little bit of sadness. It's another really good edition. :) (But really, make sure you read Claire Weinraub's Top Five Sea Monster Stories.)
I delayed this a day because next up is yet another long audiobook. :B Go figure. I think, when I get to the end of the current crop, I may actually try adding new readers before I go into Pink Eyes. I just keep not doing that, is all, and it's high time I did, I think.
H: 1 R: 2 C: 4 V: 0 N: 1
Pinkie Pie Realizes That Celestia Is Really Hot! by TheCrimsonDM
Reading by Lightning Runner
He's good. I find I have more appreciation these days for readers who read out the tags and description and everything at the start of a reading. (Just, y'know, make sure you specify that; when you don't, it gets confusing.) His music wasn't too loud, his Rainbow Dash sounds like Goombasa's, his outro went on for a while, but otherwise, to the list he goes!
Genre: Comedy
This is a very silly one-joke fic, but it got more than one laugh out of me, so that's good. Mostly, it's about how Celestia doesn't take herself nearly as seriously as everyone else does. I've always liked to believe that, when she and Luna were sharing the Elements of Harmony, Laughter was one of Celestia's, so I appreciate this lining up with that headcanon. :V Fun!
Recommended for Laughs
First Flight by Martian
Reading by ShadowOfCygnus
Genre: Cute
It's time for little Rainbow Dash to fly for the first time.
For once in my life, marking a story as 'cute' is not meant as a condemnation of its content. Oh my god, it's so adorable you'll want to die. The writing in this piece is an absolute joy, there's a story, and every inch of it is saturated in excitable blue filly. Hold on to your teeth, seriously. What's amazing is, this is old enough that "Rainbow Dad" was not a thing, yet, aside from notes on their coloration, I could see Rainbow's canon parents in this situation. I am unspeakably upset that this is not heralded as an all-time fandom classic. Everyone needs to read this.
Highly Recommended
Sure as She Made Little Green Apples by Vagando Baronessa
Reading by Scribbler
Genre: Sad Romance/World-Building
Alone on her front porch, Granny Smith waits for the Princess of the Moon to return.
This is one of the absolute most creative and original fics I have ever read. It's got Granny Smith as you've never seen her, plus some interesting ideas about alicorns… And that's all I can really say. Yes, this basically just comes up with its one awesome idea then soundly explains it to the end, but watching everything unfold is the joy of reading this piece. Make sure you do.
Recommended
Friend by Martian
Reading by ShadowOfCygnus
Reading by VisualPony
Genre: Cute
A filly plays with her best friend on a winter evening.
After the marvel of First Flight, this kind of loses something. It's still very cute and very well written, but with all these good Martian fics in a row, the novelty is starting to wear off. Worth a short read.
Recommended If You Like Cute Stuff
Apple Sense by Godzillawolf
Reading by Hero541
Genre: Headcanon
As it turns out, Applejack and Pinkie Pie might have even more in common!
This story is kind of all over the place. Temporally, it takes place right after Fame and Misfortune, but leans heavily on Somepony to Watch Over Me and can be summed up as "Feeling Pinkie Keen with AJ as both Twilight and Pinkie". Tonally, it vacillates between high comedy, episode followup, headcanon dump and heartwarming slice of life. But the jokes, while far between, are all really funny (the line about eyebrows!), and the headcanon is explored in not so much of a dumpy way, considering the characters discuss alternative explanations and holes in the possible theory. It's overall interesting, though the writing doesn't always prop up the narrative. I'm not sure who'll get the most out of this, but… ah, screw it, it's fun and worth reading.
Recommended
Familiarity by Obselescence
Reading by IsThAtYoUmAn09 and TrebleSketch
This was an odd reading, in that the sound effects were clearly of higher fidelity than the narration. Also, his background music tended to be on the loud side. But with that said, he's within tolerances for my needs, and he does a good King Sombra! (TrebleSketch, meanwhile, is a fantastic Rarity, fic readers take note!)
Reading by Scribbler, Agent0Fluffy and Flame Lionheart
Genre: Drama
The reconstructed pieces of King Sombra see a familiar face.
The Sad tag exists on this piece for one reason: we're meant to sympathize with King Sombra. How able you are to do that will determine how much you get out of this. It does have some interesting headcanon, which makes it worth reading (though I'm not sure it holds up to scrutiny; Crystal Empire, Unicornia?), but I felt like a lot of it was going through motions and applying them to Sombra without actually making them stick. Not Obs's best work, but still better by far than most.
Recommended for Fans of Interesting Headcanon
Frantic Foal Frenzy by Jake R
Reading by Scribbler, et. al. (Ver. 2)
Genre: Shipping Drama
Applejack's about ready to give birth to her child, but it's Twilight who's acting emotional.
I have apparently read this one already! O.o And downvoted it, and I have to agree with myself on that account. This seems to be meant as a comedy about Twilight freaking out over the birth of her child, but it's more a cautionary tale about how she's a terrible wife, mother and pony. Seriously, I've never seen Twilight written as such a jerk. And it's not that she's saying mean things in the heat of the moment after having argued with Granny Smith: she belittles Apple Family traditions, to Applejack's face, more than once. I can't believe that someone like that would marry into the family. Applejack says more than once that she's afraid of Twilight, too, so the whole scenario comes off as Twilight harassing her wife to do what she wants. This isn't a healthy situation to bring a child into. You're going to need a seriously large amount of both investment in this ship and forgiveness for this story to work.
Not Recommended
OH BOY by Super Trampoline
Genre: Random
Rainbow Dash likes things! OH BOY!
This is meant as a parodic inversion of Things Rainbow Dash Doesn't Like, so I had to read it (what did I tell you all?), and, yeah, it kind of works. XD I have no idea how this fits into that weird spate of blog posts across the site a couple weeks back. (Look at the cover art, you'll know what I'm talking about.) It's probably an inside joke. Anyway, I spent a lot of time being highly amused by this. I'm impressed the chapters are all exactly 100 words. And yes, they all have the same punchline (or do they?), but it turns into this kind of weird mantra that you want to see how each chapter gets to. Also, who doesn't love pancakes? Features references to Austraeoh and those Rainbow/Time Turner shipfics, as well!
Recommended for Laughs
Man, dat cover art tho
That was my desktop wallpaper for quite a while in the early days.
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It makes me think of "Gimme RD" by ISMBOF :B Memories...
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I remember crafting that to be my Emblem in Call of Duty 5 years ago, gods has the time flown.
Of course Super Trampoline wrote an OH BOY fic.
PP reviewed my fic?!
“OH BOY!” Super exclaimed.
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OH BOY
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I was amazed to find it was still up on DeviantART when I had to go looking for it for the reading. So many people have taken their stuff down in the last seven years . . .
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I get very sad every time I look through my faves and there's a gray box.
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I feel ya.