Fic recs, April 11th! · 1:56pm Apr 11th, 2019

Illya Leonov has done a reading of RazgrizS57's I Alone!

Here we are, with the last five stories in my "authors I haven't reviewed before" list! :D I hope everyone who's gotten one of these reviews, positive or otherwise, has enjoyed it.

H: 0 R: 1 C: 1 V: 2 N: 1

A Lesson from the Passed by NerdExtrodinare
Genre: Slice of Life
Her career over, Cheerilee contemplates the life that has passed her by.
I'm honestly not sure if the title is a play on words or not. The use of 'passed' in the description made me think it was a mixup, but it does actually fit what happens in the story. Regardless, the writing has issues, and such a mistake helps lower expectations. If one looks past said issues, one finds a decent picture of Cheerilee trying to move on with her life after being forcibly retired. (Is that a thing?) It comes down on the melodramatic side of things, and the finicky reader will doubtless wish to steer clear, but this isn't awful?
Vaguely Recommended

DownFall by RedbackSpino
Read by Fimfiction
Genre: Story-in-a-Story
Rainbow Dash and Pipsqueak pass their time in the hospital telling adventure stories.
This story is dark. The tale Rainbow tells, for instance, starts out with six characters swearing vengeance on a dark lord, and I don't mean swearing to defeat or destroy him, but specifically to kill him. Also, there are guns. <.< But there's a reason for this, as we slowly find out that Rainbow is in the hospital due to a suicide attempt. I'll say I didn't quite buy her reasoning, but the story at least holds together, and I'm blowing this reveal to give you an idea of what you're up against. Rainbow and Pip aren't a pair of characters you see interacting often (which makes it something of a shame how this turns out…), but overall, other than a few typos, this was pretty darn good. Just, y'know, grim.
Recommended If You Don't Mind Dark, Real-World Issues in Your Ponyfic

Friends Forever by ObeySaturnGod
Reading by CreepyPastaSalad
Read by Fimfiction
Genre: Horror/Journalfic
An altercation with Rarity leads down a path to tragedy, and Twilight's only method of coping is to write in her journal.
Depicting a descent into madness is difficult, and this story… well, doesn't do particularly better or worse than similar stories I've read. At least the rambling, all-caps run-on sentences are lampshaded. The big thing that got to me, though, was the plot: it's quite predictable. After Rarity dies, Twilight goes crazy from blaming herself, ends up in a psych ward (where none of the doctors apparently ever check the journal they allow her to keep…), and eventually goes for necromancy when she gets out. Like, that's just not a big surprise? The parts where she spirals around and around "it's my fault" were honestly far more compelling. And then in the final entry, she goes total Twily-nanas, and it was just too much, too soon. No space was given to allow the horror of what she'd done to really infuse the text. Just, nope, that didn't work, it's crazy necro overlord time. This wasn't awful by far, but I found myself liking it less and less as it went on.
Not Recommended

An Adventure Through the Overflowingly Wordy Psyche of the Fair Princess Celestia by Violetta Strings
Reading by WhoLandon
Genre: Word Porn
Twilight has a bone to pick with Celestia.
Yaknow, I did something like this once, as a gag, for a "how not to write" convention panel. <.< The author is at least up front about this being a whim, but oh lord, it's dull. D: That said, if you can get to the end, there is a punchline, so there is a reason to read it.
Vaguely Recommended

Not Everything by Gaiascope
Read by Fimfiction
Genre: OC Fic/Romance
A chance encounter on the streets of Canterlot leads a street performer to find his place in a somewhat unorthodox orchestra.
It's been quite a while since I saw a story that was 20k or more all in one chapter. More daunting, there are no scene breaks; this is one big piece, go go go. What surprised me, though, was that, despite being a story about musicians, this made no effort to go through the usual motions of those stories. I'm talking describing the way music feels since we can't hear how it sounds. In fact, music is almost absent from this story entirely, a footnote if it ever appears. Instead, this is about the most important thing a ponyfic can be: friendship. It's about the bonds forged by this strange cast of characters and the year they spend together. It does, however, go to some strange places; there's a five-year time-skip (again, without scene breaks), and the ending sort of comes out of nowhere, for all that it makes a strong statement. This could also use some serious proofreading. But it's definitely not bad, and I'd say the characters made an impression on me for sure.
Recommended