Fic recs, August 26th: Project Get #9! · 7:10pm Aug 26th, 2019
Project Get! exists to help overlooked stories garner more views. I sort my RIL by views, go to the end, and choose stories that have been on the site for over a month, are complete and are not sequels, with the usual "one story per author per blog" caveat. I usually try and do ten stories at once, but in this case, the tenth entry was over 200k and it looks like it'll be worth reading the whole thing, so you've got that to look forward to eventually! :)
H: 1 R: 1 C: 6 V: 1 N: 0
The Building of Nee Hill by TeddyG
Genre: OC Fic
One day, Nee Hill's cutie mark disappears.
Well, I'm not sure I have too much to say about this one. It could have used another round of editing, and it moves a little too fast to really ruminate on the situation the main character is thrown into. Also, there are some weird names in this, both for ponies and places. (The author thankfully explained the main character's name for me.) It does at least have a satisfying ending, which I was kind of afraid it wouldn't. It's all right if you like OC fics?
Vaguely Recommended
The Flickering Motes by Petrichord
Genre: Slice of Life
Every winter, Burnt Oak went out to the hill to light a fire for his friend.
This is the kind of thing I look for with these blogs. Petrichord is a severely underrated author, and y'all best go read more than just this story. But start with this one. It's a quiet, contemplative scene with Burnt Oak remembering his old friend and being helped along by said friend's daughter. The two of them play well off each other, and that's what makes it so moving. Well, that and maybe Bright Mac meant a little more to Burnt Oak than just a friend… But that's all speculation. :) This was great.
Highly Recommended
Shining Armor and Cadence have sex and make a baby together and it's really romantic, but more of a romantic comedy really. by Good Christian Ethesto
Mature: Sex, Gore
Genre: Fucking Surreal
Basically what the title says, only weird.
I feel like I've never given Ethesto enough credit. Sure, he writes a lot of gross sex and gore fics, but when it comes to trolling, no one does it quite the way he does. Per exemplum, this story. Any idiot baby can write a fic with no regard for spelling and punctuation, hoping to get a brief rise out of the pedantic reader; it takes a master to troll on the semantic level. This story is just a perpetual spiral of things getting more and more out of control. Trying to actually visualize what's going on will drive you crazy. Which is not to say it's not also gross and full of actual sex, because it is, but when I say "actual sex", I do not mean "sex that is actually possible". Because it's not. Also there are fart jokes? So for the squeamish, this might not be worth turning mature filters off, but if you crave the D (here, "D" stands for "Double-you" which stands for "WEIRD"), do not pass this up. I was amazed. Highly Troll Recommended
Recommended
Betryal by MoonshadowLuna330
Reading by Voiceguy
Genre: Drama
So, it's actually the story Together as one that ended up on my RIL. First, I want to know how? and second, it was obvious from the description that it was the fourth of a series, that being the entirety of this author's body of work. Anyway, once again I find myself unsure of whether this is a work masterful trolling, or a 12 year old. <.< (Apologies to any 12-year-old authors out there.) If it's the former, well fucking done. This hits every note perfectly, from the overly dramatic 18 year old super-special OC niece of Celestia, to starting in medias res and never really explaining anything ever. If not, well… Hopefully this fulfilled the author in some way, and at least the highly negative reaction did not deter them from writing more. But seriously, I cannot imagine a story where Celestia thanks God for giving her strength and spends her time trying to rid the castle of witchcraft to be anything but high-class trolling. So I'm going with that.
Troll Recommended
A Flame Rekindled by Feather Note
Read by Fimfiction
Genre: Drama
A young zebra queen struggles with signing the worst treaty in her kingdom's history.
There are some things about this that I was confused on, and never really got a clear answer for, mostly related to why this character was the queen. Also, I was a little disappointed all the diplomacy ultimately failed so we could have an (admittedly cool) fight scene where Sisipho could Believe In Herself Finally. But this wasn't too bad. The writing is good, and while most of the world-building is dumped at the end, it was original. Also, Spike has a solid turn as Equestrian/Dragon Lands ambassador. So if you're looking for something different, here you go! And if the author writes a sequel, I'll definitely check it out.
Recommended for Zebra Fans
The Feud by FabulousDivaRarity
Mature: Violence, Death
Genre: Dark Historical
A historian asks Starswirl the Bearded for his recounting of an ancient feud.
I'm not sure the Mature tag is needed, for what that's worth. So this is a different kind of story, really, not just because it's about an ancient, bloody family feud, but because using Star Swirl lends a certain amount of humanity to the telling that otherwise might have been missing. I'd like to see the Pillars used like this more often. That being said, the writing needs a tune-up, as it often doesn't sound like Star Swirl talking, and there's one glaring anachronism. Overall, though, not bad.
Recommended for Dark Fic Fans
Mare Incognitum by Grey Jay
Genre: Historical Random Comedy
Chancellor Puddinghead plans for a prophesied flood. Kind of.
I would like to state, for the record, that I really detest historical fics where the main figures of the Hearth's Warming story are literally just the mane six characters who portrayed them in the play. Like, c'mon, be original! Anyway, I came here hoping for seaponies, and while those happened, there was so much fourth-wall breaking and POV shifting and utter random nonsense that I could not enjoy what was going on. This was not written poorly, but it was not for me.
Recommended Only If You Can Deal With Excess Amounts of Randomness
Taco Night by Xx soul sorrow xX
Genre: Trollfic
Micro Chips goes over to Rainbow Dash's house to help her study.
I have to be honest, this isn't soul sorrow's best by a long shot. It's still funny, with a lot of referential jokes that work because they don't work at all. The thing that really gets me is the end. I mean, there's a Romance tag on this, but I was legitimately surprised by how that turned out. This almost works better as just a poorly-written regular fic!
Troll Recommended
Midnight at the Blackbriar Opera: A Shadowtrot Tale by brokenimage321
Genre: Cyberpunk
In a world where love is rare, what are changelings to do to survive?
This is nominally a Shadowrun crossover, but I don't think you'll need to know anything about the setting to grok it. What may actually turn off the casual reader is the cyberpunk dystopia; the first chapter of this story sets it up by basically throwing away everything that makes Equestria the world we know and love. But what this sets up, it then uses pretty well, telling a short but twisting tale of the last changeling hive trying doing everything it can to survive. I have to say all the twists left me a tad confused, but that's only because they come so quickly I didn't have time to process them. But I'm always pleased to see neo-futurism in ponyfic, and this was surprising. :)
Recommended for Cyberpunk Fans
Seconding the Petrichord recommendation, in general and specific. Great story, great author.
I originally thought the story was kind of a failure, given its comparative viewer count and the lukewarm reception it got compared to the other thing i wrote for jinglemas last year.
You make my heart friggin' smile, dude. Thank you.
5112032
I have no idea why some stories slip under the radar, but I know when they deserve better! >:B
Hey! Thanks for the review!!