Fic recs, November 12th! · 5:56pm Nov 12th, 2017
Illya Leonov has done a reading of Twinkletail's Dragons Don't Like Flowers!
VisualPony has a new website with the archive of all the readings and so forth that he's done!
Well, this is different: Super Trampoline has recorded some video fanfic reviews! While drunk, no less. I was entertained by these, it's just lots of rambling and some good recommendations for good fics. :D
Whoo, it's a long one! Don't know how I managed that. :B But you can check out reviews of Estee's On the Natural Rise and Fall of Celestial Bodies, Starlight and Trixie Do the Kiss by Super Trampoline and the newest installment of The Tale of the Lost Narrator, among others!
H: 0 R: 6 C: 3 V: 0 N: 2
How to Play With the Ponies. by Opium4TmassS
Reading by Illya Leonov
Reading by Lotus Moon
Agent0Fluffy
Sequel to The Truth About My Little Pony
Genre: Creepypasta
You'll need a television, salt, a live offering…
Sometimes authors show up on this site, dedicated to writing a single story. Sometimes it's a ship, sometimes it's a fetish, sometimes it's a particular thing happening to a particular pony because why do people do things, I ask ya? Opium4TmassS is dedicated to writing stories about MLP being a twisted, dark realm of horrors from beyond, and I can't fault them for it. These stories aren't the best written, but lordy are they fun! This one, for instance, comes in the form of a ritual, "found on the dark web", complete with author's warning not to do it. It's all classic creepypasta stuff executed with flourish. I can't recommend it too highly, because you've probably seen its like before, but again I say, it's fun, and if you enjoy creepypastas, for all their tropes and goofiness, you'll get a kick out of this.
Recommended for Creepypasta Fans
On the Natural Rise and Fall of Celestial Bodies by Georg
Read by Fimfiction
So, I tried a new thing. Since the last big Fimfic update, there's been an option to have the site use a text-to-speech program to read stories to you. Just click a paragraph, hit the read button that comes up, and… Revel in the horse words? It takes about ten minutes to read 1k words, give or take (meaning I could read this faster myself). Unsurprisingly, perhaps, we needn't worry about Youtube fic readers losing their jobs to this robot; it's pretty bad at, well, just about everything. I'd only recommend it for people who have a hard time reading words on a screen, and they probably already know about it. But it might also give me a way to get more fics read. I'll be sure to mark any I use it for.
Genre: Dramedy
Celestia and Luna have one last gift to impart to Equestria's younger alicorns.
Yaknow, about halfway through this story, I got really mad. Like, Twilight's gushing about how great Celestia and Luna are — admittedly, after having been prompted to — and I'm just like, "Fuck her already, you're kissing her ass enough as it is!" I mean, geez, I love the princesses, but I don't need a thousand words of Twilight singing their praises. Anyway, this is something of a trollfic, or a fic about trolling, and saying that might spoil the ending, but the fact is, I was caught up in enough of it that I forgot there even was a comedy tag, so I got got right alongside Twilight and Cadence. Also worth mentioning there's some good sisterly bonding for the two of them, something you rarely, if ever, see.
Recommended
Princess Celestia? Do You Have a Belly Button? by Foals Errand
Reading by Winged T. Spears
Genre: Cute
Dear Princess Celestia, today, I learned all ponies are silly, including you. :V I wish I could just leave the review off there, as that's the best moment in this adorable slice of laugh, but people would get mad. :B Also, I want to talk about the song: how on earth does any of that qualify as a song? D: It's absolutely the worst moment in this otherwise adorable slice of laugh, but thankfully, only a moment. This is thoroughly adorable, filled with Twilight being a remarkable prodigy — like, got her cutie mark years before any of her peers prodigy — being shy, and having that burning question from the title, which only a little kid would be so important. Also, good Twilight/Celestia bonding. I was overall charmed. :D
Recommended
Trixie and Starlight Do the Kiss by Super Trampoline
Read (poorly) by Me!
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Yes, they are doing the horse kisses!
How to get me to drop everything and read your story: title it something irresistible. This was so worth the read. Written in a hilariously overblown manner, detailing two horses gettin' it on in sometimes bizarre ways, and of course best canon pairing. :V I loved it.
Recommended
Twitch by Ice Star
Reading by GutiuSerenade
Reading by Plagen Shiki
Reading by Lotus Moon
Genre: Dark/Historical
It amazes me that, seven years later, the very first story MLP:FiM told us is still ripe for seeding fanfiction fruit. This short piece invites the reader to share in Luna's madness as she seethes over literally everything her sister does. She doesn't understand why Celestia puts herself on the level of regular ponies, yet she's jealous of the way they fawn over her. She doesn't even approve of Celestia's decorating decisions! The short, choppy sentence fragments convey the mood of someone losing their mind well, and while this maybe doesn't cover much in the way of new ground, she also doesn't turn into Nightmare Moon, which is the way similar pieces tend to go. Definitely worth the read!
Recommended
Can You Stay? by Xandra Dash
Reading by Winged T. Spears
Genre: Sad
First, the positive: I appreciate what the author was going for here. The message of "your friends will be there for you, even when you're at your lowest and feel like no one cares" is a good one. It's just swallowed up by everything else in this piece. The writing is simplistic, with your usual slew of typos, even in the description. The narrative is often disjointed and confusing. Nothing like delicacy or nuance is given to the approach of a topic as heavy as suicide. Oh, and let's not forget "-FLASHBACK-". Obviously a good attempt from a young writer, and I hope they keep at it.
Not Recommended
Flame and Misfortune by PonyThunder
Reading by Dr. Wolf
Genre: Comedy
After the publication of the Friendship Journal, Spike is feeling left out and jealous.
This was a nice episode followup right up until the point where Spike gets a letter that suggests he's basically at least a part-owner of the Journal's copyright and thus entitled to legal recourse. And sure, he rejects the notion of taking legal action immediately, but I just had to wonder, why bring legality into this at all? It paints this as one of those stories written by an author upset at how Equestria in the show isn't "realistic" enough, trying to add in needless real-world details that drain the setting of its charm. And compare it to the second letter, which is outwardly stated to be a joke: that I could maybe believe (though should we as a fandom be joking about DMCA takedowns? Those kind of always hurt), but the context for the first one doesn't come out until well into the story, when I've already lost my suspension of disbelief. I mean, Spike had no reason to think it wasn't real, why should the reader? Confoundingly, the final punchline to this story is really legitimately funny, a good example of how humor derives from the unexpected. It's just unfortunate that it comes at the end of what could have been a nice story seeking to explain why Spike was absent from the episode and maybe restore some of his dwindling dignity, but is instead marred by the promise of money.
Not Recommended
That's the Spot by Jujubeland
Reading by Winged T. Spears
Mature: Sex
Genre: Romantic Clop
Soarin has kept only one secret from his wife. And it's just come to light.
Soarinjack is one of only a handful of straight pony ships that I'm really interested in. I say this because the introductory paragraph runs us through their relationship and marriage in short order, and while I was down for that, non-shippers may find this a hard sell. That said, it's totally worth the read because it's funny and cute, and those aren't things you usually find in mature fics. A case could be made that it didn't need the sex, for all that that scene is all but perfunctory, but it does sort of give this a meatiness it otherwise would have lacked. I dunno, that sounds like a negative when I read it on the page. <.< Well, I liked this, and fans of SoarinJack or married couples being playful will too.
Recommended
A Story Written With Ink by TheLostNarrator
Reading by TheLostNarrator, et. al.
Sequel to Stained Memories
Genre: Grimdark
Once, there was a little pink bird, who no one loved…
Another Halloween season, another installment in the dark and tragic tale of the Lost Narrator! So, Lost is of course best known as a narrator; as writer, though, it turns out that her forte is in crafting characters who are thoroughly loathsome. Our — I hesitate to say 'protagonist', there are no good ponies in these stories — narrator this time around is almost assuredly a clinical psychopath. She uses ponies to get what she wants, she's stalking her ex because she wants to have control over her once again; even little things help build her character, like "pain makes you stronger" being put in the same list of "things you just know" alongside water being wet. And, of course, she kills a colt because he's being a little shithead, as kids are wont to do. <.< Despite its placement in this series (one part to go!), this is also directly related to The Tale of the Lost Narrator, being a retelling of its events from a third perspective (after A Beloved's Curse), so you may want to refresh yourself on that story if it's been a while. Otherwise, enjoy your brutal foal murder! :D I sure did!
Recommended
Happy by RarityEQM
Reading by Winged T. Spears
Genre: Twixie
Trixie realizes something important.
Damn, I'd kind of forgotten we ever shipped Trixie with anyone who isn't Starlight. Yes, even Maud. <.< I feel bad for the die-hard Twixie shippers who never jumped on the Starxie train. Uh, anyway! This is cute. It's fluffy. It's a little bit melodramatic, but just a little. It won't appeal to you if you can't accept the ship being in place from the start, but if you can? It's a nice little slice of adorable. :)
Recommended for Shippers
Ice Star is a loser. >:(
also i can't find enough surpised/speechless rarity .gifs to convey human emotions help
I seriously thought about breaking On The Nature into two parts, except the obvious line from Twilight.
I'd probably highly approve is Strixie if I liked starlight at all and/or liked trixie less.
But i revel in the death of Twixie
Twitch was a wonderfully atmospheric look into Luna's mind at the time, though what stood out to me were the occasional run-on (and possibly absurd) sentences that punctuated the brief, clipped background. Like overwhelming moments of emotion and maybe disconnect amid the more grounded simmering.
I don't think there's really anything to add about "Do the Kiss." It's rendered beautifully, and captures both the characters and the silliness of the obvious coverup quite well. Okay, maybe it could have done with a bit of Trixie being an awful (and adorable!) little shit, but I don't actually know how it could be shoehorned in.