Fic recs, March 15th! · 7:09pm Mar 15th, 2020
In case you missed Estee's earlier blog about princeps, he's in need of funds to get his life back together. The explanation and link to the GoFundMe can be found here.
Hey, guys, we bullied convinced Monochromatic to get a Youtube channel! :D Success!
Also, Midnight29 (who features heavily in this blog) has done a reading of Bok's The Great and Deathless Trixie!
And Scribbler (who also features heavily!) has done a reading of jmj's Like a Babbling Brook!
Meanwhile, I'm thinking I may just not release a pony reading this month. :B I'm almost done with my current obsession, which will free up some time in my week, but it's just hard to do anything. I might have something else I can do instead, but we'll see.
H: 0 R: 3 C: 4 V: 0 N: 1
All Good Things by Coronet the Lesser
Reading by Midnight29
Genre: Anti-Immortality Angst
Some ponies are not content with a happy ending.
That genre tag ought to give you some indication of how relieved I was that this story belayed my expectations. It's honestly very cute, thanks to Twilight's new student, and quite uplifting, thanks to the final scene. Funny how the show ending was exactly what was needed to send immortality angst into the dirt.
Recommended
A Package in the Rain by Church
Reading by Scribbler
Genre: Sad Shipping
I'm just going to leave it on my porch, where it can't hurt me.
It's official: I am so unused to seeing Raindrops feature in anything but Lunaverse stories, that Pinkie's show-canon behavior in this story really threw me for a loop. <.< Also throwing me for a loop was Raindrops' bundle of emotions displaced onto the package. It was hard to shake the misconception that Pinkie had done something to her, actually broken up with her or broken her heart, and in my defense, the evidence to the contrary is quite subtle. Beyond that, well, I think this maybe overdid the "Raindrops being angry at a box" scenes, only because the flashbacks where what happened is laid out for us were so much more engaging. But it's probably a good piece for anyone in need of catharsis, and I've certainly never seen the two shipped before.
Recommended If You Don't Need Happy Endings in Your Shipfics
Twilight Plays a Strategy Game by Jay David
Reading by Midnight29
Genre: Pony Does X
How hard can it be?
With all the younger writers who obviously want the pony characters they love to share their own interest in video games, it's surprising I haven't seen the "bring a computer from the human world" setup many times before. That's the only praise I have for this piece, however, which is otherwise thin on both plot and comedy. I could really have done without the blow-by-blow details of a session of Civilization or whatever this was supposed to be, too. It's just a pony doing something, to no real point.
Not Recommended
In the Crystal Crypts by peppermint owl
Reading by Scribbler, Mindscape and Midnight29
Genre: Historic World-Building
Two prisoners escape from a maze.
I have to admit, I spent most of this reading in a state of perpetual confusion. Part of that was from missing key words, which happens, and was easily remedied by passing my eyes over the text. The rest, though, was due to feeling like not enough information was being given, like the reader was supposed to innately understand concepts like "black crystal draws on bat ponies". What does that even mean? Not to mention, this is kind of an adventure where our minotaur and crystal pony protagonists develop a friendship, but it's such a short story, I felt like that just happened without any particular effort on either of their parts. But there's at least something to be said for where in the timeline this is set, even if I didn't quite get it at first. I'm just not sure it's entirely effective at what it was trying to do.
Recommended If You Like World-Building
The Enchanted Library (Original One-Shot) by Monochromatic
Reading by the Author
Genre: AU
Rarity always loved the story of the princesses who fought the Spirit of Chaos. Then she found out it was true.
I don't want to say this is the closest I'll ever come to reading The Enchanted Library (the RCL-voted best MLP fanfic of all time), but it's certainly the soonest I'll come to reading it. :B There's just so much stuff to read, you guys. Point is, I'm glad Mono did this reading so I didn't have to pass it up any longer. :) Also, I can't comment on how this relates to the 'actual' story. But as it stands, you've got a really exciting AU that's very similar to the show save for the lack of princesses, and Mono's excellent-as-always character work. Of note is Twilight, who doesn't not feel like Twilight, but who's also been made bitter by centuries of isolation, which Rarity is helping to break. This doesn't get around to actual shipping, so non-shippers can probably use it as a substitute for the real thing? I dunno. All I know is, when I get around to actually reading The Enchanted Library, I will enjoy it. :)
Recommended
The Waterfall by Forest Rain
Reading by the Author
Genre: OC Fic
A) I didn't know Forest Rain wrote until she ended up in the featured box recently. B) I have no idea how I missed this reading, done 8 years ago! Was I less diligent about grabbing readings off channels? Whatever. As to the story itself, it's perfectly fine, there just isn't much here. There's a pony named Forest Rain, here's a few facts about said pony. "This is where my parents decided to name me" is kind of a weird flashback to use, but I expect this was mostly an exercise in creating backstory to justify an online handle, and as I said, it's perfectly adequate.
Recommended If You Like OC-Centric Stories
Delayed Reaction by Masterweaver
Reading by Pony & Wolf Productions
Genre: Random Comedy
Twilight is having… issues.
What the hell? XD This is mostly Twilight behaving like a crazy pony and Starlight going, "You're behaving like a crazy pony!" It's so fast paced, it's hard to keep track of what's going on, and that's actually the point? I was pleased by the immortality angst parody at the start and had to wonder if this wasn't just a parody of bad characterization or something. Either way, it was fun.
Recommended for Laughs
The Starving Heart by Vasar Huineo
Genre: Changeling Fic
I cheat on my wife because I must.
So what happens when a changeling infiltrator not only falls in love with a pony, but said pony falls out of love with them? This is a brief but intriguing exploration of changelings pre-invasion, with good use of a canon cameo in the middle. I kind of wish this had gone a little deeper, all things considered, but it's honestly not bad.
Recommended
I'm so proud I was there to record Mono's award. (Pro tip: get a tripod if recording an hour long segment)
1) Go read the novel-length Enchanted Library. It'll be more rewarding than a hundred short one-shots, I swear.
2) If Jay David writes something actually entertaining, that's news. Otherwise, I kind of wish this was the last time I've seen that name in print.
Not that he hasn't changed his name at least once in the past.
5221077
Pfft. I remember you sitting there with that damn device, trying to keep it up and not wavering after forty minutes. As small as tablets and phones are, the weight still tells after a while.
5221094
I have too many novel-length stories to read with priorities attached, sadly. :C
5221111 Look, I'm going to +1 on Mitch's suggestion here, because those could have been my words pre-con. I was looking at TEL as some girly (fill in adjectives here) that I had on my 'eventually' list but probably would not have reached for quite some time. Then I read it post-con, and got sucked into it to the point where I wasn't reading anything else until I got done. Well worth moving to the top of the list.
5221100 My thews were like iron because my cause was just. Plus I type all day at work anyway.
5221094
For a while, I was wondering whether James Pwyll was an alt of his. They seemed to write the same stuff.
5221094
Jay David seems to be to mediocre stories what I am to awful ones.