Fic recs, February 10th! · 2:05pm Feb 10th, 2018
Did you guys know I review music albums? I've been posting them fairly regularly to my Tumblr lately, as I go through old shit from like 20 years ago. :B
Scribbler's newest reading is Karnagar's Bail, with a whole bunch of people!
This is a short-short today because I wanted to go through some regular audiobooks for once. And I was going to do more, but now I want to double-down on Interwoven Colours and get that done. So have five reviews!
H: 1 R: 1 C: 0 V: 1 N: 2
The Destiny Trap by AndrewRogue
Genre: Adventure
A trip to a strange new magic shop sends Trixie and Starlight into a load of hot water.
For once in my life, I read a story which starts with Trixie cold and wet in an alleyway, and I am not asked to feel sorry for her, o frabjous day. :V The "protagonist meets strange person in shop that wasn't there before and gets magic thingy that makes their life worse" setup is tried and true, but nothing about where this goes from there was anything I expected. It was a real joy, being surprised time and time again, watching Trixie show the good pony and true friend beneath all her bluster, and revelling just a little in what happens to Starlight. V: This is also good friendshipping for her and Trixie. Plus, I can't say I've ever seen a full stage or street magic act written in prose before, and this pulls of the patter naturally. Overall, an eminently worthwhile read.
Highly Recommended
Luna's Alarm Clock by P0nies
Reading by TheSlashawar
Honestly, this wasn't too bad. It's weird seeing a guy's face the whole time he's reading a story, that's for sure. And this is live, so there's no editing and tons of background noise. But his voice is good, his delivery is light-hearted, as befits the story… That being said, that's also the problem for me, and the reason why I probably won't follow him. There's really loud stuff in here as well as really quiet stuff, again fitting the story, but not the consistent volume I need to hear readings over my own noise, so I went and listened to Winged's reading to get the whole story. But he's probably perfectly fine for your own purposes.
Reading by Winged T. Spears
Reading by VisualPony
Genre: Pony Discovers X
Princess Luna had planned on sleeping in today. What she hadn't planned on was the alarm clock.
I've read this story before, about six years ago. It was called Luna Versus the Microwave, and… Well, it was six years ago, I don't actually remember how good it was. <.< Need to reread that sometime. Anyway, the point is, this is just an excuse to buy some laughs by having Luna act dumb because out of touch with modern Equestria. There's nothing to it, I had maybe a couple chuckles, but by the end, I felt like my time had been wasted, for all that this is only a thousand words long.
Not Recommended
Rainbow Dash Wants a Hug from Applejack by FireRain
Reading by Winged T. Spears
Genre: Shipping
I have to give this author credit: they spell out in the description exactly why you shouldn't read it, from the self-imposed low word count (and apparent fact that the description was written before the story?) to the "so bad it's laughable!" that, honestly, doesn't apply. This isn't bad, per se, just pointless. If you're into slice-of-life with light shipping, it might make a small diversion, but you can probably find better of both elsewhere.
Not Recommended
Dead Pony Flying by Dusty Sage
Reading by Scribbler
Genre: Uplifting
She may be dead, but that's not going to stop Rainbow Dash from taking one last flight.
There's something really heartening about seeing Rainbow Dash be so darned positive about her own death. No wheedling or regrets or spectral tears in this fic! I appreciated it, and the first scene with her and Celestia (I was really surprised to see Celestia as psychopomp, but look at how old this is) is the strongest. I wasn't as impressed with the scene from Rainbow's POV, as it's mostly a "here's what's happened" with some bad shipping shoehorned in. But the final scene is almost as good as the first. Overall, this reeks of positivity, and given its subject matter, that's rather an impressive feat to have pulled off.
Recommended
Oh, Darling! by TechnoNerd and Skittle Sky
Reading by Winged T. Spears
Genre: Random
Rarity has just about had it.
This bills itself as a trollfic specializing in out-of-character humor, but doesn't quite reach the heights I would expect for such. Rather than "Here's Rarity being a parody of herself", she just kind of does things she wouldn't do, for no particular reason. That's not to say this isn't funny; I had some big laughs. But there are very discrete points of humor in this piece that don't quite gel into a cohesive whole.
Vaguely Recommended
i didn’t but this is really good to know! Followed!
Really enjoyed Destiny Trap. Granted, it ended up pulling the same stuff the show tends to--what's the rule, present consequences are for males? (until you become unexpectedly super popular--hello Discord's return!). Seriously, though. Discord (until they flip-flopped on that), Tirek, Sombra, the Storm King -- all killed or imprisoned, everyone else gets insta-forgiven or to run away (Chrysalis originally might be an exception).
Anyway, that rant aside, I liked the lower key magic there, and all the supporting motivations. The way Starlight for just a second had a bit of self-awareness before completely retreating from that was perfect.
Dead Pony Flying was pretty nice, but seemed a bit burdened by exposition. Just felt like it could have been trimmed a bit. Anyway, the little taste of early-season storytelling was a nice change of pace.