Rapid Reviews of Recently Read Highly Recommended Reads (Summer Edition) · 3:29am Sep 15th, 2018
(Help, I need more words to add to my alliterative title!)
In my ongoing quest to say more with less (which is admittedly going poorly), I'll be writing some quick reviews of some stories I read recently that I think more people should read. Aside from some basic metadata stuff, like important tags and simple summaries/descriptions, I'm aiming for a maximum of five sentences. In any case, here are some wonderful stories that I read over the summer!
Ship of Fools by Hap
Important Tags: Romance, Drama
Basic Description: Rarity assembles a crew of ponies all united by a quest for impossible love.
Just from the description (seriously, read the one Hap wrote; it's an exceptional one), Ship of Fools teases a story of unrequited romance. Contrary to conventional expectations, however, the story does not focus on the sadder aspects of this idea--of feeling vulnerable and unwanted--but instead tackles it in a more positive direction. Rarity's answer to being spurned is daring, dramatic and determined, illustrating her resilient and ambitious nature, but also her ability to empower those around her even as they dream and chase for something impossible. The characterization in this story is simply superb, particularly due to Hap's careful focus on emotive body language as well as thoughtful and poignant dialogue (note that this is not merely limited to Rarity: all the significant characters are portrayed very well). In this respect, the word economy of this story is solid; every sentence pushes a significant development and it's hard to find stories that feel so polished.
Railroad Seven-Three by Defoloce
Important Tags: Adventure, Dark, Human
Basic Description: Set in a post-apocalyptic vision of The Conversion Bureau universe, a team of humans works to escort ponies through the dangerous routes to Equestria.
I'm a sucker for good worldbuilding, and while the TCB-verse seems to be bursting with potential, I had a lot of difficulties finding stories that could harness it, which is why I was so pleasantly surprised when I found Railroad Seven-Three. Evoking the old escape network that led thousands of slaves towards their freedom, the members of the Railroad provide escorts to newly converted ponies on their path towards home and safety in Equestria. This path does a wondrous job of highlighting a civilization in its swan song, with its collapsing infrastructure and lawless landscape - during their journey, the Railroad face dangers from without and within as the wildly divergent cultures of humans and Equestrians clash. The resulting story is thrilling not only because of its thoroughly engaging setting but also because Defoloce accomplished a masterful pace: every major scene works to build the tension and raise the stakes in an explosive fashion while still remaining thoughtful and character-driven. This story broke into my top fifteen on the site because it managed to combine these elements so seamlessly--having exciting action, exploring major ideas related to the topic of conversion, developing convincing and even tragic character motivations, and so much more... all tightly packed into a neat sub-30k word story.
Equestria 485,000 by Unwhole Hole
Important Tags: Sci-fi, Adventure, Dark, AU
Basic Description: Thousands of years into the future, Twilight Sparkle returns to a long abandoned Equestria in the hopes of saving ponykind.
Yet another story with phenomenal worldbuilding, Equestria 485,000 excels somewhat differently from the above story. In this case, the strength of the worldbuilding comes less from the story's atmosphere and setting (though that still plays a significant role), but due to Unwhole Hole's incredible ability to give detailed and recognizable descriptions of unique and alien structures. Unwhole Whole also demonstrates skillful characterization of both OC and canon characters which, combined with an ambitious and evolving plot, is super fulfilling to watch unfold. The story is not without fault, particularly in regards to editing, but the strength of the storytelling makes it feel like a weak issue. I cannot recommend this story enough for anyone who is interested in an expansive sci-fi story--I read the entire thing in a single sitting!
The Choices We Make by Monochromatic
Important Tags: "Normal", Equestria Girls, Suicide (non-dark)
Basic Description: Pinkie Pie is a volunteer at a suicide prevention center.
Suicide is undoubtedly a serious topic, but to see it tackled with the care and preparation that Monochromatic does for The Choices We Make should inspire in anyone the importance of good research in story writing. (This is a bit secondary to the excellent writing elements, but Monochromatic also kindly provides some resources which I recommend looking at if you're interested--and especially the hotline if you require help.) The best thing that I can say about this story is that it feels real. It's not shy about discussing important lessons, or talking about perception of suicide from both sides of the hotline, but Mono is always careful to keep an empathetic, even empowering tone. This is further augmented by some wonderful casting decisions with Pinkie and Rainbow Dash who both feel perfectly natural in situations that seem naively uncharacteristic.
The First Flame by Rune Soldier Dan
Important Tags: Drama
Basic Description: Chrysalis manages to corner Celestia into an insurmountable situation. Celestia can only look on sadly, but not for the reason she would expect.
While inherently a philosophical piece, The First Flame is not just a fantanstic story due to its incisive take on godhood: I also found myself heavily enjoying the comparatively mundane (though certainly no less intense) political part that surrounded it (hooray, more interesting settings!). I believe a significant part of this is due to Rune Soldier Dan's powerful leveraging of point-of view: the story's description says that Chrysalis is afraid, but for the most part this isn't true at all. Chrysalis is triumphant, and a lot of the observations and descriptions in the first half of the story are made with this perspective in mind. Without heavy focus on what Chrysalis is thinking, this story takes third-person limited to the limit, especially when the dramatic irony amps up (something that I think might take a second read to truly notice) upon seeing Celestia's actions belying her true feelings (defeat and resignation to Chrysalis versus sadness and regret on Celestia's side). Um, I've used up all my sentences for something that I found to be particularly cool, but this story absolutely deserves further praise for Celestia's characterization, the poetic tone and the excellent execution of the theme and probably lots more--just go read it!
The Murder of Elrod Jameson by Unwhole Hole
Important Tags: Sci-fi, Mystery, Dark, Human, All the red tags on the story
Basic Description: Far into humanity's future, a major shift in the balance of power is unfolding. For reasons unknown, it seems to be centered on an unimportant man named Elrod Jameson.
Here's a second recommendation from Unwhole Hole, because he's got some seriously awesome ideas and the skills to back it up (but sadly not the views!). I hate to keep harping on about worldbuilding because it certainly sounds sycophantic, but this story is so far up the list on doing it well I would be remiss to not praise it. The world of The Murder of Elrod Jameson is a grand, insane tribute to (as the inimitable alamais puts it) cyberpunk dystopias and disturbingly plausible futures for humanity: genetic engineering and cybernetics, cloning and slavery, thousand-mile-high megastructures, corporate nation-states and so forth. It all comes alive with a whirlwind (because rollercoasters aren't wild enough) of a plot that, despite nominally being a mystery, much more resembles an action-thriller, taking the main characters to various heights and depths through strange and stranger situations, all the while escalating in a natural and compelling way. But it's not all just blood and guts; the story explores themes of apathy and pessimism and most of all futility (have you ever seen a "passive" main character work out and make sense in the context of the story? I have now!)--among other things--and overall just does an amazing job of encapsulating the idea of a grim meathook future.
Surviving Sand Island by The 24th Pegasus
Important Tags: Romance, Adventure, Sex (still teen-rated)
Basic Description: Awake and alone Together, Rainbow Dash and Rarity will find a way to survive.
Finally, a story that's a bit different: Surviving Sand Island is at its core a RariDash story, but more uniquely it was written as a daily. That noun contains a lot more implications that you might expect--it means less tight editing, it means missed scenes, more capricious pacing, more meandering, and so forth (note: I do not mean to deride the fic style; dailies a lot of benefits, but generally those gear towards the daily readers rather than finished fic readers like myself)--and I am happy to say that any disadvantages the format may have were nigh-unnoticeable in this story. The pacing was tight, the characters vibrant, the romance natural and sweet and the plot progressed at an exciting and measured rate (this would be a feat in any story over the 400k word mark, but it is especially impressive in this case). I want to place some additional emphasis on the quality of the characters: there's a diverse cast of OCs to back up Rainbow Dash and Rarity, and without exception they feel alive and unique, ranging from jovial to serious to caustic to terrifying and everywhere in between (and furthermore, 24 isn't at all afraid of pushing them to the edge... or beyond). Also, I want to give kudos to the story's exploration of what it means to survive, which extends beyond merely physically, but also emotionally and morally even in the face of disaster, desperation, and utter depravity - and I believe this lends greatly to the strength of its ending (no spoilers! 
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These stories all deserve to have much more written about them, but I hope I gave you enough to encourage you to try reading them, because they are absolutely worthy of your attention.
Thank you for reading.
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