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  • Saturday
    Twilight the 没用

    Yesterday, a fellow named SoothingBell asked if they could translate Twilight the Useless to Chinese, and no way was I gonna say no. :D

    And they turned it around in 24 hours, amazing!

    https://fimtale.com/t/64723

    4 comments · 129 views
  • 1 week
    Idle musing

    so-called because that's what led me to the realization

    What is so compelling about the idea of "warrior woman runs afoul of a wizard and is flung centuries into the future" that I made it happen twice?

    ...And with slightly more musing, I also realize, in a roundabout way, it was with the same wizard. >_> Huh.

    Read More

    7 comments · 163 views
  • 1 week
    Fic recs, March 20th!

    Posting a day earlier than usual because the next reading is a long one!

    H: 1 R: 2 C: 1 V: 1 N: 3

    Read More

    6 comments · 187 views
  • 1 week
    Fic recs, March 14th!

    Lotus Moon has done a reading of Fleety's What's Philomena's Name?!

    Hey, help out Regidar, he's looking for experimental fics! Self-promotion allowed!

    Read More

    5 comments · 234 views
  • 2 weeks
    Fic recs, March 8th: Top Ten of 2023!

    Whaaaaat, two review blogs in a row?

    Well hell yes, because I have done much better with the top ten this year and I am inordinately pleased with myself! :3 here's the explanation of the setup, for all that it has never adequately explained what's going on to like, literally anyone:

    Read More

    19 comments · 270 views
Aug
12th
2019

Fic recs, August 12th: Bronycon 2019 edition! · 7:32pm Aug 12th, 2019

In case you didn't make it to Bronycon (or didn't get in the room), Georg has posted video of the Royal Canterlot Library's "Best Fanfic Ever" panel! :D Depressingly, I realized too late that I am the designated fat guy. :(

Anyway, don't mind me, just posting tons of review editions for no reason. These are all stories that were written during Bronycon, talked up to me during Bronycon, involving Bronycon or written by people I met at Bronycon. more or less.

H: 4 R: 5 C: 3 V: 0 N: 0

Second Placers by Bevin Brand
Genre: EQG Drama
It doesn't matter how hard she worked. Twilight deserved to win.
So if you're not familiar, Bevin Brand is a storyboarder who worked on EQG. Over the last couple months, with EQG winding down, she's started a Tumblr that you should really check out because it's full of great art and inside baseball. And now she's writing fanfic! :D And this was really good! What struck me is that, for all I love stories that remember Sunset is a little horse and play around with that, I've never seen one where she was jealous of a friend before. Literally never before now. And that emotion is explored so deeply and thoroughly. And then Flash shows up and there's definitely ship teasing. :3 The writing was really good, but it's approaching the show from a different angle than most fans that makes this stand out. Highly Recommended for Sunset Shimmer Fans.
Recommended

Exiles by Coyote de la Mancha
Genre: Historical
Two sisters try to survive in a world wracked by chaos.
You should think of Gordon Ramsay's face when I say, finally, some good Early Modern English. This story doesn't just pass the Luna Test, it excels at it and then some. The writing is marvelous, and the story itself is… See, I just read an extremely good historical piece, and I couldn't help but compare the two. And the thing that really makes this stand out is that, while To Bring Light to Eternal Darkness was an origin for Celestia, this is an origin for The Sisters. And what sisters they are! We get to see them not just struggling to survive the wild chaos, or deal with Luna's inherent emotional issues, they find time to bond and have fun and laugh despite all the terrible things going on around them. This story is certainly dark — I maintain that Discord never killed anyone during his reign, but here, I get the sense that he's not exactly in control of events, only their originator — but it is never grim, and that just surprised the hell out of me. Whether you like period language or you just enjoy seeing Luna and Celestia be themselves in the distant past, this will delight.
Highly Recommended

Sunset Shimmer Doesn't Bluff by HMXTaylorLee
Genre: EQG Comedy
If Sunset Shimmer doesn't get that crown, she'll make sure Twilight Sparkle suffers.
I really appreciate that there's more to this than just pointing out that Sunset's final gambit in the first Equestria Girls was as silly as it was desperate. Also that the joke was considerably more involved than I would have made it. :) The comedic timing in this story is excellent, and though the "to the moon!" jokes were a little eh, everything else was great.
Recommended

Damage Control by Freglz
Read by Fimfiction
Genre: HiE Romance
Fleetfoot returns home, tired and looking for some relief.
One of the highlights of my Bronycon experience was meeting Freglz for the first time and listening to him describe a fic he hasn't written yet. He's a natural storyteller in person, and as for the already complete sort, well, the writing's there, too. And he seems to have a penchant for writing stories about things I would never want to read about — to wit, human-on-pony romance, not to mention Fleetfoot — and making them somehow irresistible. Nevermind that this story was talked up to hell and back by ROBCakeran. So what we have here is an excellent piece of slice of life romance, where the human's come-to-Equestria adventure has already happened and now he's living in domestic bliss with a Wonderbolt. It's an excellent snapshot of a relationship, with lots of well written negotiation. Fleetfoot's characterization is good as well, if only because it's so unexpected. The whole story's written first-person from her perspective, so that's a nice touch you don't normally see in these stories. Bottom line, you're probably not into HiE romance, same as me, but if you're gonna read one, make it this one. It's worth it.
Recommended

Trix Over the Sunset by Emperor
Read by Fimfiction
Genre: EQG
After the battle of the bands, Sunset gets a request from Trixie.
Emperor is one of many people I met at Bronycon and didn't already know, so since this story was already on my RIL, Imma read it! :D It was pretty good, too, just what I look for in EQG fics. You've got Sunset feeling homesick, not entirely comfortable in her skin, and just a tad angsty. Trixie comes in and shakes that up, and we get some interesting contemplation about the nature of the two worlds and the relationships between them. I will say the writing was maybe a little pedantic, but there is a lot of headcanon to explain here, so that's probably why. I was pleased by this, no doubt.
Recommended for EQG Fans

You Betcha! by The Cloptimist
Genre: Friendshipping
Oh boy, who's ready for fics about the latest special, because these ponies are great and I love them and I want more of this! :D Not only did Cloptimist get the speech right — you can just hear the accent coming off the page — he also got the culture, and because of that, this is an abject lesson in showing over telling. Very little is actually described, the characters' actions all come through in the dialogue. Beyond that, you've got Torque Wrench trying not to demonstrate emotions as she checks in on Kerfuffle during her accident. The interplay between the two is perfect. This is just a fantastic slice of life.
Highly Recommended

The Angel by shalrath
Genre: Sci-Fi
The pony was dying, but then the Angel came.
If I'm being honest, I spent all of Bronycon reminding myself that shalrath is not Sharaloth. c.c; Dude was everywhere, but he was cool, so here's a short piece he did. It is not like anything I have seen before. As always, this site has a distinct lack of sci-fi stories, but it's the setting that really makes this. The Angel is this unknowable, mutable thing made of reflective, silvery material, and it's interacting with ponies who haven't even developed language yet. Cue "Thus Spake Zarathustra"? By the end, I'm left with a ton of questions. What is the Angel? What is it trying to accomplish, interfering with technological progression this way? Where did those enemies come from? Quite a story.
Recommended

Displaced in the Butt: A Human in Equestria Story by Tumbleweed
Reading by Me!
Genre: HiE Comedy
Something's not right at Twilight's big fan convention.
I'm not sure how this one ended up here, save that I ran across it somehow and went, "How have I not read this already?" Boy oh boy. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, this was everything I wanted it to be. Dr. Chuck Tingle in Equestria, doing his Chuck Tingliest at Twilight and Rainbow Dash. I really cannot fully describe all the feelings this engendered in me, but they included intense humor and heartwarmingness at all the good vibes. Who even thought of this, what.
Highly Recommended

Turnpike by Admiral Biscuit
Reading by ShadowOfCygnus
Genre: PoE
At the Mahoning Valley Service Center, I picked up a hitchhiking pony.
No single title did I hear dropped more at Bronycon than Turnpike, undoubtedly because I spent quite a lot of time in Biscuit's presence. And because of that, this left a real impression on me. I mean, I've recently been in the van featured in the story! Not to mention it deals with slice of life Americana that I am actually intimately familiar with. This is a meditation on highway driving, a look into a pony dealing with human things — a hallmark of Biscuit's stories these days — and a situation where a person enters one's life just long enough to leave an impression, so that their absence is felt. That ending's really amazing because of how well that sensation gets across.
Recommended

Sylvia by brokenimage321
Genre: EQG
Rainbow Dash's dream of making the Rainbow Wagon is finally coming true.
This story wants you to think it's a mystery, but it really isn't. The moment we're introduced to Fluttershy, the game is immediately up. What's important here is the AU tag. I think it may be to justify Fluttershy's turn as an auto nut, but… Well, think about it. There's no Weather Factory in Humania; what the heck else is her dad gonna do as a job? And if he's a mechanic, it makes sense for him to share that interest with his oldest child, the one who's closely connected to life, who could easily see the life that exists in a machine, and care for that machine as she would one of her animal friends. That is marvelous. This is also a good piece of friendshipping for EQG Fluttershy and Dash, but really, it's this incredibly original take on Fluttershy that still keeps the core tenets of her character in mind that really makes this something worth reading.
Highly Recommended

Marble's Horizon by The Hat Man
Review #5900!
Genre: Character Piece
Marble wonders what might lie beyond the horizon.
The Hat Man is someone else I had never heard of before, but who I saw all over the place at Bronycon. (His hat is pretty rad, go figure.) And this story is a pretty darn good character piece for Marble Pie. That said, I felt like the voice wasn't entirely there. I mean… okay, yeah, Marble, weak voice, that might be intentional, but we're inside her head. Still, I appreciate that she's got a lot of wants and thoughts bubbling around inside herself but all we ever see her say is "Mm-hmm". This also feels like a setup for a long adventure, and if that story ever happens, I will gladly read it. :)
Recommended for Marble Fans

Unconventional Conclusions by FanOfMostEverything
Genre: Anthology
This is apparently a yearly tradition for FOME: Write a bunch of stuff at the Quills & Sofas typewriters, publish it as a collection. Let's look at each story, one by one:
Sunlight Princess: Celestia tells Twilight why she's afraid of chickens. This was… goofy. Some good banter between Celestia, Luna and Twilight, and then a punchline that I really should have seen coming but kind of stumbled my way through. It's funny in hindsight?
Another Matter of Principals: If you missed Lost and Mag's panels, this will give you a taste of what they were like. XD Some of the mad libs I recognize as coming straight from the original. I just hope those do actually show up on Fimfic at some point.
Full Feather Jacket: Okay, this is great. :D I imagine it would be even funnier when heard aloud, but there's enough prompting in the text for the reader to figure it out themselves. What a trip! That panel must've been a hoot.
Retirement Blue Giants: This is a direct sequel to the script reading, and I'm not sure the summation at the start will really do it justice. That said, it was about what I expected right up until the final line, which was a callback I never saw coming.
Renuminations: I think you can pick up on what's being laid down here. Funny. :D
International Incendiary: God, these titles. So AppleDash get summoned to a friendship problem in kirin Japan or something. It's all spaghetti incident, which was a good choice for maximum comedy potential. I dunno, I found this amusing in ways I never found the episode amusing. :)
Dressed to Progress: This one kind of flew over my head, but it's an interesting look at Sci-Twi and anxiety, culled direct from the author's brain, so there's that!
Start of Pinkness: Princess Macintosh plans for the future of his people. This was FOME's actual speedfic contest entry! I know because I remember him saying he was the only one who wrote for this prompt. It's, uh… It's weird! Fitting that it's set in the dream world. This whole collection is weird. XD
Recommended for Laughs

Comments ( 16 )

Exiles was so good!

Depressingly, I realized too late that I am the designated fat guy. :(

It's okay. I was the one guy no one cheered for. :')

Also, this nicely bulked out my Read Later list. And I make no apologies for those titles.

Imagine my surprise when Twi-Fi told me you had reviewed Sunset Shimmer Doesn't Bluff! Thanks for checking it out, and glad you liked it!

Now... to start with all these other stories. *gulps* So much to read!

I've recently been in the van featured in the story!

There are few fics where you could say that in your review.

PresentPerfect
Author Interviewer

5104612
Yeah, I just finished watching the video and I felt bad about that. D:

Re: Sylvia:
I can't remember the name right now, but there's an AU fic out there which has Fluttershy as an airship pilot, with the reasoning that hey, people already treat boats like they're alive, why not take that all the way? It works really well!

Edit: Found it! I was thinking of The Twilight Enigma. Man, I should reread that.

5104636
Might be my The Twilight Enigma. If there's another one out there, I'd love to read it.

And now she's writing fanfic! :D

*Brain exploding* What level of canon is this?

PresentPerfect
Author Interviewer

5104663
Less than the comics, more than regular fanfic? :B

(Naa, the designated fat guy was the one with the iPad doing the recording, I believe)
5104627 And fewer fics where you would want to admit it.
5104612 I would have cheered, but it would have messed up the recording. So (belated) yea!!

Gosh, thank you so much! I always hoped to be back here again one day (if I wasn't barred for life for having participated in a certain contest), but I never thought it would be You Betcha! that made it. I'm so glad you liked it, I wrote it literally hours after I saw the special in a blur of excitement over the adorable new ponies, and it kind of just... sank. So to get such a lovely review is... I can't even say!

Is it too late to petition Hasbro to make G5 just a load of episodes of Tales from Hope Hollow...?

And now she's writing fanfic! :D

I've quietly wondered for a while whether any of the staffers would do that once they'd finished working on the show. A shame it's on Tumblr, which makes it a pain to read when you're used to the much nicer formatting here, but it was enjoyable enough to be worth it. Thanks for the pointer! (Now, who'll be the first ex-staffer to write on Fimfiction? :P )

On a minor note, Brand is the first person I've seen in forever to put two spaces after full stops. I thought that idea had entirely died.

5104706
I was thinking about that today, and my vehicles (past and present) have been in at least five stories on FimFic, not all of them by me. That might be a record.

5104742

Brand is the first person I've seen in forever to put two spaces after full stops. I thought that idea had entirely died.

I used to do that until I realized 1) it's inefficient and 2) you can't control the typesetting on FiMFic, and it can (and will) put line breaks between the spaces, leaving the lower line with a slight indentation. The same thing goes for using a double hyphen instead of a dash and using three separate dots instead of a single-character ellipsis.

5104742
I also do it, but I usually ctrl+F ‘em out before publishing. I’m old, and set in my ways. I can’t not hit the spacebar twice after a punctuation mark. It’s too ingrained.

5104767
I put in proper em dashes, thank you very much. I also know how to put them in on a manual typewriter (that’s what the half-space key’s for).

I also do three space ellipses, ‘cause that’s how I learned it back in the eighties. . . .

PresentPerfect
Author Interviewer

5104717
Sadly yes. :C I guess we'll just have to do it ourselves!

5104742
Obviously, you don't read my fics. <.<

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