Fic recs, November 3rd! · 7:49pm Nov 3rd, 2017
Winged T. Spears has done readings of Titanium Dragon's The Collected Poems of Maud Pie, Let's Just Say by Obselescence, and Twilight Sparkle Goes to Bed by Agent Bookfort! I can see he's going to be prolific. c.c Also, Scribbler's done Mythril Moth's Rainbow Dash's Darling Day, with LillyLeaf, Keyframe and Animelodie!
This month's Flash Fiction Online offers us hope in the form of bread, siblings keep track across space with photographs, voices in space, and a delightful tale about friendship in the trenches. Not your standard fare for this rag, but be sure to give it a read, at least!
H: 2 R: 2 C: 2 V: 0 N: 1
Bad Language by Marcibel
Reading by Winged T. Spears
Genre: Drunk Ponies
An inebriated Octavia takes severe offense at a stallion's choice of words.
I had a good time with this. Octavia justifies her anger well — "filly-fooler" used to be a slur back in the fandom's early days, but now, I find it too cutesy to be anything but positive — and then goes on a tirade that is hilarious to hear coming from her. Along with Bon-Bon being the one embarrassing Lyra in public, this is a fun inversion of standard portrayals of these characters. That said, it's fairly one-note, for all that there are at least a few other jokes here, and I wish her swearing vocabulary were a bit broader, because it gets repetitive quickly. No amount of lampshading helps dull that blow. :B Still, for the puerile, for Scratchtavia fans, and for those who just like watching a bigot get his due, this is fun.
Recommended If You Find Swearing Funny
How and Why by Aegis Shield and Itsumo1489
Reading by Scribbler
Genre: Time Travel/Shipping
An elderly Twilight Sparkle visits herself in the past with a dire warning: stop studying so much!
I swear I heard people discussing a story concept quite similar to this one not long ago. c.c What a premise it is, though, one part A Christmas Carol, one part It's About Time. Coming as it does right off that episode, the time travel seems a mite confusing at first. I think what's suggested, though, is that what happened to Twilight the first time was a self-fulfilling prophecy coupled with a poorly cast time travel spell, and not an indication that time travel in Equestria is deterministic. That all leads up to a hilarious denouement with, yes, some TwiMac, in case that offends you. I would peg the shipping as the main reason for this story's existence, and yet there's so much interesting stuff going on, it feels like an afterthought. Regardless, this is a solid S2 fic, and a fun read.
Recommended
An Angel of Generosity by NintendoBoy1000
Reading by Winged T. Spears
Reading by Dr. Renegade
Mature: Sex
Genre: Dramatic Shipping
Rarity goes to Manehattan to question after Coco Pommel and finds a lot more than she'd bargained for.
This story is bad in ways I never could have anticipated — it was on my RIL, after all — and I'm not sure I can adequately cover it all. First, the good: Coco's situation is, I assume, meant to be analogous to someone trapped in a toxic home. She certainly displays the signs of someone who's actually been abused: internalizing insults, accepting the situation and continuing on while hoping it doesn't get worse, not reporting it, etc. And the scene where Rarity comforts her and listens to her story demonstrates good procedure for how to act in such a situation. Y'know, up until they both confess their undying love for each other and have sex; don't do that, by the way, if you ever find yourself in a similar scenario. <.< But actually, the point where that scene goes off the rails is when Rarity starts lambasting the city of Manehattan for being full of assholes, demonstrating that the allegory isn't exactly perfect. Then there's the fact that this is one of those stories where a character is put through intense physical and emotional trauma to make them emotionally vulnerable enough to ship. It's made worse by the fact that it's entirely pointless: Coco and Rarity have been writing to each other, keeping (and smelling) the other's letters, and have been two drinks away from confessing the aforementioned mutual undying love. So you've got one trope superseded by another trope, but they're both in there anyway. The writing is not great, overly descriptive and especially flowery in the sex scene. Also, I had to laugh when, after listing off the wrongs perpetrated against her, Coco laments that she's glad her parents aren't alive to see what a failure their daughter is. Like, come on! You really lose your audience when they want your character to stop whining, already. About the only thing this is good for is an example of how not to write a shipfic.
Not Recommended
The Buffalo Telegraph by Horse Voice
Reading by ShadowOfCgynus and Dark River
Genre: Adventure/Shipping
A strange mare shows up on Troubleshoes Clyde's doorstep in need of help. Just like he figured she would.
Word to the wise: come here for the adventure, not the shipping. The latter is very perfunctory — Daring just more or less suddenly caring about having a special somepony — but thankfully takes up very little of what is otherwise a stellar Daring Do adventure. Everything about the adventure is fantastic, from the pacing to the use of body language to world-build. Daring and Clyde are both written excellently, as one might expect, and what the title refers to is just so fantastic, I don't even want to talk about it. Go experience this for yourself.
Highly Recommended
Your Date With Trixie by Phenrys
Reading by Winged T. Spears
Mature: Sex
Genre: 2P Anthro Fetish Fic
Your newest blind date does not go at all how you expected.
I got an unexpected nostalgia bomb reading this: it made me think of my early days in the furry fandom. Y'know, back before some of you were born. <.< (Hopefully no one who reads this story, though!) A very weird thing to be reminded of, but I appreciated it. That said, while I got to thinking that this was considerably better than your average clopfic — it's interesting how both characters start off human, though I think Trixie's anthro form is her real self — there are a couple seriously goofy similes during the sex scene that really killed it. (Don't ever refer to your partner as being like a fish during sex, for any reason. c.c Just don't.) The ending was weird in a way I didn't appreciate, either. Still, I've seen far worse, as clopfics are concerned.
Recommended If You Like Forced Transformation
Our Weary Daugher, Rest by HoofBitingActionOverload
Reading by Uncr3at1ve
I've hung out with Uncr3at1ve at cons, I know what he sounds like. <.< He's got a methodical, somewhat dramatic delivery that makes up for his mic quality but doesn't always fit this story. That said, this is his only reading so far, so onto the list he goes! :D
Genre: Character Death
The end of Applejack's journey lies just over that last hill.
Okay, I take it back, this story is a little dramatic in places, but it's all done in the service of lending ponderous weight to every action and thought of Applejack's. The extended death metaphor isn't exactly hard to suss out, but that likely isn't the point, either. This is the kind of story I recommend to people who like reading writing, because what's really on display is wordcraft and imagery. It's chunky, but not without purpose.
Recommended
Statuesque by Pascoite
Genre: Poem/Romance
Pascoite has really outdone himself. This is an impressive piece of poetry, filled with continual wordplay and a stellar rhyme scheme. It tells a fairly classic story of unrequited longing, but tells it not only through the poem, but the civil documents included in the final two chapters. And that is some masterful storytelling. Don't pass this up.
Highly Recommended
"Buffalo Telegraph" was a ton of fun but yeah, the shipping was kinda just... it happened to technically be there?
"Statuesque" was great. Excellent flow, and clever wordplay throughout, and it's the kind of story of devotion that tends to grab me. However, towards the end I was twice pulled out from it by the use of acute accents in place of what I think would more commonly have been grave; after the first I was distracted, and after the second I only managed to skim the last few lines. The downside (for me specifically) of the tight construction is that when combined with my idiosyncratic over-literal conversion to imagined phonetics the whole thing strongly breaks flow and immersion on hitting that.
4716993
...Okay, even I am not going to be pulled out of a story because the accent marks are pointing the wrong direction. c.c This one's on you, buddy.
4717008
Well, there's a reason I repeatedly said things like idiosyncratic and for me specifically. <.<
And even there it applies a lot more to poetry than prose.
4717013
Why does poetry bring out the idiosyncrasies so? c.c
4717015
I'd say probably for two reasons. I tend to read poetry more slowly and deliberately, so it's harder to just blow past it. And because the pronunciation, word flow, and secondary meanings/implications of words constitute a much larger part of the whole product than for general prose.
I guess it doesn't help that poetry tends to be shorter, so there's less time to get reoriented and move on, too.
The stuff that pulls me out of prose tends to be more about events or ideas than mechanics, unless we're talking about stuff that's a lot less subtle than this.
I missed this review when it ran, because I've been away having the craziest couple of weeks I've had in years. But this was something really nice to come back to. Thank you.
And yeah, I admit I don't really understand romance. But the contest prompt was "unusual ships," and it is always good to try new things.