Fic recs, September 20th! · 12:32am Sep 21st, 2019
If you follow my review group at all, you may have noticed a story randomly appear in the Highly Recommended folder. (And if you don't, that's fine, it's not really necessary.) Aquaman recently posted a shortfic collection, including his OC Slamjam entry, which got an H way back in the day. Now you can go read it again! So much for me clearing out the anthologies! XD
My newest reading is of the inimitable Detective jakkid166 Go Equestria Now! I'll probably do them all in time! :D
Scribbler has done a reading of Doccular42' Vinyl Scratch Is in a Tree and Refuses to Come Down, with Jacob M. Keene and Cloud9!
Like wacky fan theories? Check out this one, which reconciles the Equestria/Humania time difference!
So I had been keeping up with the current Sunset Shipping Contest, but then the final 24 hours happened and now I'm 30 stories behind. D: That means it's time to actually post something, so here's five stories I wanted to read sooner than later!
H: 1 R: 3 C: 1 V: 0 N: 0
I'll Show You "Vampire Fruit Bats!" by Petrichord
Genre: Random Comedy
Fluttershy has been overtaken by her apple-eating instincts once again. Applejack has a solution, but it won't be pretty.
Certain individuals have recently been writing stories meant to get under my skin, Petrichord among them. But this, I had to read immediately. It's a spiritual successor to I'll Show You "Apple Brown Betty!", plus it deals with a concept I've been wondering about forever, plus it promised poop jokes. It delivered. :) It follows the original's template pretty closely, with a perfectly appropriate amount of epic storytelling involved. I was monumentally pleased. Aside from the typos.
Recommended
Blood Is Thicker Than Friendship by Stonershy
Genre: Dark/Shipping
I found myself thinking about this story recently, which I never reviewed because for some reason I was under the impression the author was gonna continue it. <.< He never did, and now he's gone, and the only place you can find a record of the story is EQD, where it's not even complete. Fun! I pre-read this way back in the day, so my memories of it aren't exactly fresh, but I can say this much: you can thank me for this not being a fetish fic. I mean, it's still there -- Fluttershy's overweight and she's dating a weird vampire pony with tentacles where a pegasus would have wings (as I recall) -- but it was a lot more pronounced before I started reading it. <.<; Yet, despite that initial weirdness, I always liked this story. I thought it was a good example of how to do a dark pony character well, though given how much time has passed since I read it, I dunno how it would hold up to scrutiny these days. I'd like to think it would. I don't remember anything about the plot really, though there's a lot of adventure, and the romance was handled pretty well. So, yeah, it's really an oddity, as well as a blast from the past. A shame there won't be any more of it.
Recommended for Dark Fans
Mr. and Mrs. S.M.I.L.E. by River Road
Genre: EQG Action
The Supernatural and Magical Intelligence League of Earth only sends their best agents to handle cases of runaway magic, even in a shithole like Canterlot City.
I really love the way this story is told. The whole fake relationship counseling thing is a great way to get into the characters' heads and explore their behind-the-scenes role in the Equestria Girls movies and shorts. It's all the connective tissue that was needed to feature a bunch of otherwise unrelated scenes. But of course, the real reason to read this is the character dynamic. Tirek and Chrysalis aren't the bad guys, but their straight man/wild card combo fits them perfectly. There's lots of little touches that let you know these two have been partners for a long time. And on that note, the author did a really good job of letting the dialogue describe the action, there was rarely a need to step back and explicate what was going on. All in all, a really good story if you like EQG stuff.
Recommended
Mark of Destiny by horizon
Genre: Dark HiE
Unicorn magic may not work on Earth, but cutie marks are another matter entirely.
I love it when a fic has a quote from me in the description but I don't remember ever reading it. XD All I can say is that that writeoff was a long time ago; this story is completely memorable otherwise, and I've never read anything like it. It's also perfectly terrifying. I've dinged stories in the past for treating cutie marks like superpowers; here, that's the entire idea, only with humans getting them. And of course, human ingenuity, greed and selfishness take center stage; just look at chapter two's depiction of Ponyville and tell me it doesn't scare you out of your mind because of how true it is. You've also really got to love how this turns out, something of a hanging decision ending that still has an actual resolution. If you passed this by for any reason, think again.
Highly Recommended
Sunset Shimmer Is Not an Alicorn by jqnexx
Genre: EQG Action-Comedy
Sunset is called back through the mirror by a pony she wronged in her previous life.
If parts of the previous story could be termed bureaucratic horror, this is absolutely an academic comedy. Everyone but Sunset is absolutely up in arms about plagiarism, library privileges and publishing. And then there's the central question. Sunset spends most of this story fighting the pony she did wrong to, and during the fight, pulls off a whole lot of crazy crap. And a number of anime references, all of which I found amusing. (I even liked the Displaced reference!) While the ending was kind of hokey, it's also what the whole story hinges on, because if the answer had just been as easy as I thought it was going to be, this might have ended on a disappointing note. Instead, there's a ton of magibabble, a cool fight, and even some neat world-building. I liked this a lot.
Recommended
Yeah, Mark of Destiny was freakin' awesome! It went on my Favorites shelf, and I really don't do dark.
But, see, the typos were a sign that i wrote this out of a fit of unadulterated inspiration and unbridled passion
a polished and, y'know, actually edited version would have killed my poetic fervor
This is just like one of those Rent: the Musical stories where you're supposed to be true to your heart or whatever, except i'm not dying from AIDS and I less constantly feel sorry for myself
Unless you're talking about what i think you might be talking about, and the problem with that is i cannot into applejack
ironically enough for a guy who keeps writing about herBlood takes me back! That's the first story I can remember where i purposely stopped reading instead of just falling off because it was so painfully slow. Characters would take a chapter or two to move from one end of town to the other. Bittersweet to know it was never continued. It's more interesting than any other vampire "comedy" the fandoms come up with.
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It was continued past what was posted on EQD, but the author marked it complete at a point where it told a complete story but had room to continue on, and he never continued. :B