Fic recs, February 2nd! · 1:30pm Feb 2nd, 2019
Lots of news today, hopefully it is all still relevant.
An Intricate Disguise needs your help! UPDATE: Things are getting better, but he still needs help! It's just good to know it's working! :D
Scribbler's newest reading is OnionPie's Hoofprints in the Clouds, with MrKenyon (!), Goombasa and Grey Ramos! She's also started up Warren Hutch's Windfall, with a whole ton of people in the cast!
Speaking of longer fics, my newest reading is chapter 1 of Esle Ynopemos's Bitter Harvest! I've always wanted to do this one! :D Expect new chapters every other week on my channel!
I just happened to run across some more OC Slamjam stories that I somehow missed the first time around, specifically starring Rachis Barbule and written by Cosmic Cowboy!
No theme today, just a handful of stories I really wanted to get read.
H: 0 R: 3 C: 3 V: 0 N: 0
Starlight Glimmer Fixes Everything by Shakespearicles, Duskhoof, Dawnbreak Shimmer, Petrichord, livinthelife, PresentPerfect, Southpaw, Applejinx, abronie, gaitiem, Lingo, Synesisbassist, Wanderer D, The Elusive Badgerpony, Psy Key, Flashgen, Bysen, Aquaman, Horse Voice, Shandy13, Regidar, ThePonyBlues, Lesolan, Sparky Brony, Areion, Bookish Delight, Derpylikesmuffins1, Zontan, pjabrony, Alaborn, Circuit Breaker, Unified Dreams, CoffeeMinion, MOOSEWHISKER, Mythic Void, Aceman67, Georg, Super Trampoline, Mystic Thunder, Novelle Tale, Electric Aura, deadpansnarker, DragonGeek, Von Snootingham, TheMajorTechie, Geraldiamond, Skywriter, Johnny Walker, Thanqol, Animal heart, Clopficsinthecomments, Formboy1, horizon, KamikazePickle and Cinder Vel (so far)
Genre: Fixfic Comedy
Starlight Glimmer has gotten hold of a time-travel spell and the Friendship Journal, and she's gonna fix some drama, friendship lessons be hanged!
So here's a first: not only is this technically incomplete, but I'm about to be reviewing (in no particular detail) something I wrote! Or had a hand in writing, at least. Holy shit, there's 54 authors in that list. @_@ As the season 8 chapter was just uploaded, I feel the time has come to throw the spotlight on it, incomplete or no. What will you find in here? Hilarity. Not every installment is equally good — I know Shakespearicles has done some editing work, but I'm not sure how much, and the versions of some entries I read in the group forum were really bad — but this is a celebration of everything that makes Starlight Glimmer the overpowered psychopath we all know and love[citation needed]. The problem with fixfics tends to be a lack of drama or conflict, but when your starting premise is "we're going to short-circuit all the drama, and it's gonna be funny", the field is ripe for shenanigans. There's lots of pizza, lots of shipping (and the thing I did in S8 where Starlight's getting old, which I don't think actually works, but whatever); this is a real good time and you could do far worse than pull up a few of its episodes now and then for some laughs. You never can know what someone will come up with to short-circuit an episode, after all! Trust me, I wrote the non-canon sequel. :V
Recommended
Gee, Twilight, Sick Rager! by Super Trampoline
Paid Review for Super Trampoline
Sequel to Gee, Tempest, Why Are You So Tall?
Genre: Shaggy Dog Story
Tempest tells Sunset Shimmer about the time she went to the Grand Galloping Gala.
The weird thing about this story is that both characters speak incredibly properly. I mean… yeah, that's the weird thing. But no, this is actually pretty coherent, for all that it does lead to a feghooty ending. (And you gotta love the second chapter that really slams it home.) It's a goofy story, but a clean comedy.
Recommended If You Like Feghoots
Shark(tocrab)tavia 8: Diet Hard With a Vengeance by SirNotAppearingInThisFic
Genre: Crossing the Memes
More than one pony's vacation is about to be spoiled by giant horrors from the deep.
I swear to god, this one's not my fault, yet somehow, I was involved. :B For all that this is a huge pile of random stuff, it's got a really cool action sequence? And like, a unique and interesting way for Rarity to fight giant crabs? I was not expecting that. This would make a good start to a completely bonkers action series.
Recommended
The Things Vinyl Drinks by FanOfMostEverything
Genre: Random Comedy
The days the house was silent were the bad days.
Boy, FOME sure does inspire things with his blogs, doesn't he? Ignore that he was planning to write this from the beginning. :B I can sum this up best as "a thousand words of Vinyl Scratch getting under Octavia's skin in the most efficient way possible". It's been a long time since I read about them being roommates. This is hilarious, and does not overstay its welcome.
Recommended
My Little Bot: Fanfiction Is Magic by BradyBunch
Genre: Random Comedy
I forced a bot to read 1000 hours of My Little Pony fanfiction and then write a story of its own. Here is the first draft.
If you're not familiar with the works of Keaton Patti, the above description is his shtick. Of course, that's not at all what's going on; AIs don't work that way (for those that do, see AI Weirdness), he's just an internet comedian with a penchant for writing really bizarre shit. I enjoy it, and playing along with the AI cover story is fun. So what happens when a Fimfic author tries to mimic such a setup? "A valiant attempt" is what I'll go with. Don't get me wrong, this has some flashes of brilliance, while at other times, I felt like I was reading down a checklist of "things that show up in Keaton Patti posts". The rest of the time, it was your standard "tacos random" comedy, where stuff just happens. The verisimilitude is lacking, in other words. Still, it was funny, so if you can handle Friendship Is Witchcraft references and The Rock showing up for no reason, you might have a good time.
Recommended If You Like Random Comedy
A Stranger Among the Voices by Tystarr
Side Story to A Voice Among the Strangers
Read by Fimfiction
Genre: Changeling Fic/HiE
The arrival of a strange creature from another world throws many Equestrians' lives into disarray.
YET AGAIN, I am reviewing an incomplete story, this time because — although it definitely is a story in its own right — the plot is the same as that of A Voice Among the Strangers, making this basically just supplementary material. Y'know, like going to the wiki to find all the references in a show, or discovering minutiae about characters from an art book. This is AVAtS from the ponies' perspective, playing with that language barrier so we can finally find out what the heck everyone was talking about when Jessica couldn't understand them. It also throws a lot of extra stuff at us, like how Ebony got captured by the Flim-Flam Brothers. And while it surprisingly stands on its own, I strongly suggest reading AVAtS first if you're interested in it, if only because it spoils early on a powerful reveal near the end of that story. Also, all the negative things I had to say about AVAtS apply to ASAtV as well, especially the pacing; some of these scenes are glacial. Knowing what's going to happen is likely at least partially to blame, but there really seems to be a knack for shoving in every last little detail or line that could possibly be shoved into a scene like "the ponies walk to the hospital". I mean, the last published chapter is over 25k words long! That's criminal! Regardless, I wish there were more of this, because I really want to know what everyone was arguing over on the train. c.c At least we got to find out what Ebony's plan was.
Recommended for Fans of the Original
Fun fact: The tea blog is my most-viewed blog since I announced the results of my last contest. I tried to tap public opinion and ended up hitting a water main.
5006726
I don't know whether to be amazed or not. c.c
I'm totally not biased on Starlight Fixes Everything, and which were the best episodes.
(Should be Dawnbreak Shimmer, not Starlight_Glimmer)
5006726
That’s because tea is serious business.
i.imgflip.com/8lnqx.jpg
5006747
i.imgur.com/2vhN6UW.jpg
Thanks for the review! Glad you liked it!
5006746
I took the author names from the A/Ns, but I'll fix that. :)
Are you sure you're okay?
Regarding the rest of the review… the 'first chapter' thing was actually intentional. As a "someday maybe" sort of thing. But I'll tell you what: if there are enough people who'd actually read the darn thing (note: no additional effort will be made to improve quality beyond what you see [which is probably the 'bonkers' you're looking for anyway]), I'll toss it on the "effort will actually go here" list.
I'd say… how about 10 more people? If 10 more people to read it and leave a comment, I'll do it.
(Kudos if one of those comments is "This is bad and you should feel bad.".)
5007004
I haven't been okay in a loooooong time. :')
5007056
You're not sick, but you're not well?