Fic recs, April 7th: Top Ten of 2015 edition! · 3:49pm Apr 7th, 2020
Well, here we are, one last time, setting some kind of review blog density record, I'm sure. <.< With this slate of reviews, I am now fully caught up on the 'top ten' category and won't be doing another until next year. Here's the key again, because I know it's not intuitive:
Title of Top Ten fic
List of other recommendations from Also Liked list, underlining those I’ve reviewed previously
Commentary on the selection
Title and author of fic selected from other recommendations, like usual
Genre like usual
Review like usual
Recommendation like usual
Watch me do the next reader edition in like two days and post another blog. :B
H: 5 R: 4 C: 1 V: 0 N: 0
Alarm Clock by Meta Four
Beauty Will Tear Us Apart; Split Eyes; Black Magic Mare, Roaming Queen; Den Fjerde Væg; Their Variables; The Hesperus Gate; The Mailmare
If you read this awesomeness, it seems you also read all the sequels! And you like Meta Four, and also Derpy. Looks like I get to read some more of his stories!
The Princess and Her Hunger by Meta Four
Genre: Faerie Tale
Once, there was a cruel Princess of Faerie…
So this is a really great story about how Chrysalis came to be, chock full of excellent Gaelic Faerie words and an overall sense of cold cruelty. It's apparently backstory for the Alarm Clock 'verse. It even comes to the wrong conclusion at the end! If it feels straightforward or predictable, I would say that's because it's such a true-to-life fable, it could simply have been plucked from a collection of Old World tales. Really excellent storycrafting, in that case, I loved it. :)
Highly Recommended
An Ally Called Preponderance by Myriad Kay
The Compendium Microfic Exhibition; Special Relativity; A Rubber Mask of Emotions; The Flight of the Magpie; Today I Am a Monster; Ascension; Apple Honey's Perfectly Ordinary Day
It's a shame Myriad Kay never wrote anything else. There's no rhyme nor reason to the Also Liked results, either.
Fury by JusticeSnake
Genre: Comedy
A Fury intends to end Fluttershy's life.
This was a real hoot. I don't think I've ever seen anyone attempt a classic Looney Tunes-style Wile E. and Road Runner comedy before, and this works out tremendously well. I won't give away what kind of animal our Furies are, because the reveal at the end of the first scene is a good punchline. Suffice to say their cuteness contrasts well with the overblown internal monologue, not to mention the futility of Megaera's task. I think just about everyone will enjoy this. :)
Sad edit: Just since I read this, JusticeSnake seems to have completely nuked their account. D: The story's gone and I can't find them anywhere! Why?
Highly Recommended
Arthurian—The Black King by Wellspring
Mr. Brannigan's Ghosts; Whatever Happened to Captain Cloudsdale?; Generosity, My Dear Applejack; Cigarettes & Gunmetal; Ordinary World
Another highly eclectic mix. Is this algorithm working properly?
The Trials Three by NorsePony
Genre: Fairy Tale
Once upon a time, a lone colt fell into the Gloaming and was challenged by a capricious Faerie king.
Here's your itinerant reminder that NorsePony is one of the best writers on this site. The writing here is stellar, capturing perfectly a fairy tale that also serves as a morality lesson. I loved how frequently the narrative asides to remind us that our clever colt always listened to his parents, or always worked hard. The verisimilitude is off the charts. And the action is itself pretty stellar (minus one lengthy-if-important list of symbols in the middle), with the colt figuring out how to win a rigged game by interpreting the cryptic clues given him. In all, this is a really satisfying piece and I hope everyone gives it a shot.
Highly Recommended
The Big Butterfly Brouhaha by adcoon
The Sisters' Coronet; The Secret Life of Derpy Hooves; We Apples, Three; Daring Do's Ghost(writer); Looking Glass, P.I.: Coins and Crowns; Ditzy Doo and the Blustery Day
A number of adventure fics, and a couple Derpy fics as well. Maybe those other stories are just confusing. :)
Rain by CouchCrusader
Genre: Slice of Life
This is, on balance, kind of your standard "Luna gets ready to return to life" story. I'm not sure exactly when it was written; Luna appears, if not exactly the same as in Luna Eclipsed, then in a startling facsimile thereof, but she also doesn't speak in EME. I have to say, the writing in the first couple of scenes was gorgeous, but the conversation a little less so. It seems like it might have taken a bit for Couch to fall into their characters (this was, after all, his first ponyfic???), because it does pick up later. Maybe it's just the spectre of Sad Luna rearing its ugly head as it lords over this piece. Still, you could read far worse, and I enjoyed this.
Recommended
A Diamond and a Tether by PatchworkPoltergeist
Second Singularity; The Mailmare; Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger; A World Without Kindness; Grey to Silver; Pros and Cons
Looks like I guided people to more works! Lots of sad and slice of life, but also strangely darkfics. The only Diamond Tiara one is unfinished.
On the Care and Construction of Bridges by EbonMane
Genre: Not Actually Shipping, Surprisingly
Rainbow Dash has noticed how Applejack and Rarity look at each other. Surely, they'll be happy together, right?
I love the central idea of this, that "burning bridges" is an idiom unfamiliar to pegasi because, well, if the bridge is burning, a pegasus can just fly around it. Really good world-building, and really good character work with everyone involved here. Poor, hopeless, asexual Rainbow Dash just can't figure out how to matchmake even though she sees the signs that AJ and Rarity are totally into each other. The reasons why the two don't get together… well, if you ask me, it's why stories about them getting together are great, but this exploration thereof stands apart because they stay apart. And the ending doesn't go anywhere I had expected. So definitely give this a read, it's thoughtful and surprising.
Recommended
Hyperportentia by MyHobby
Lord Mayor Applejack; Background Ascension, or, Alicorns are "in" This Season; Hay-Oh, Welcome to Hayburger; An Equestrian Griffon; DayBreak; Blueblood's Ascension Part III, or, Even Alicorns Have Dreams; Giggle at the Ghostly
Guess I really drove people to read for this one: I had to use the Similar column! Which was full of MyHobby stories. Not a bad thing, since I haven't read too many more.
Gray Twilight by MyHobby
Genre: Pre-Canon Slice of Life
Twilight is dead set on studying for her exam tomorrow. Spike is there to help her however he can.
So here's an oldie-but-goodie. If this feels at all thin, it's entirely due to us having actually seen Moondancer and Twilight's Canterlot life after its publication. (Also us seeing her cast more interesting spells than 'water'.) I felt that maybe it was trying to pack too much into itself. There's a good scene with Spike and Celestia, the focus shifts between him and Twilight, there's good character building for Twilight, and also some inspiring words, and this maybe didn't spend enough time on any of them to make them feel like part of a unified whole. Regardless, MyHobby did capture what makes Descendant's stories great, so his inspirations shine through.
Recommended
Lady Prismia and the Princess-Goddess by Skywriter
Spa and Order; Essenza di Amore; Princess Twilight Sparkle's 505th Birthday; The First Time You See Her; In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night; Binding of Isaac: Beyond; A Lowly Peridot
I had to go Similar with this one as well. (I wish Ponydora Prancypants would come back and finish Don't Let the Princess Drive the Celestial Phaeton! >:B) Interestingly, there's a good bit of crossover between the two lists.
The Six Deeds of Harmony by Defoloce
Genre: Historical
A knight errant, seeking the love of a maiden, is tasked with three deeds, that he may prove himself to Love.
Damn, you guys. Damn. I'm shocked I've never heard of this piece before. It is 26 thousand words of blank verse. Iambic pentameter! Not perfect, no, but so much of it is, and it's incredible. Not just the meter, but also the language use; this is quintessentially Shakespearian. And the story as well is worth praise, a quest of Harmony that you can probably guess the broad strokes of, though the epic tasks our hero has to perform always surprised me. This is really powerful stuff, especially given the end.
Highly Recommended
The Last Dreams of Pony Island by horizon and Skywriter
Ponyville Noire, Volume One: Tails of Two Private Eyes; Dream a Little Dream of Me; Before Time Began to Flow; Rise Again; The Titan's Orb; The Cutters; Ponyville Noire, Volume Two: Kriegspiel—Black, White and Scarlet
Because Land of the Blind is unfinished and I didn't want to read 260k words of prequel to then read the 260k unreviewed story on the Also Liked, I'm going Similar for a third time and getting a lot of darkfics.
The Dark Side of the Sun by ocalhoun
Genre: Sad
Banishing her own sister to the moon was more than Celestia could take.
I've read a lot of stories about Celestia being sad after the fight with Nightmare Moon, but this one decided to go in an… odd direction. The author himself admitted to me he was experimenting with "all the ways Celestia could go bad", but given that led him into Molestia territory, it kept the story from feeling like it had weight. I mean, I was constantly being reminded of an old fandom joke; it's hard to connect with deep emotions when that's happening. That said, Star Swirl was used in a novel way toward the end. And, interestingly, the awesome fights he has with Celestia made me realize that Celestia being in the right is what makes scenes of her wielding her godly power so compelling. When she's wrong, it's no fun. So overall, this is just okay, definitely showing its age.
Recommended Only If You Really Like Celestiangst
Riverdream at Sunset: A Manuscript by GroaningGreyAgony
Old Pony Tales for Hearth and Home: A Collection by the Quill Siblings; All of It, for Her; The Sisters' Coronet; My Domestic Equestria; A Light in Dark Places; Ghosts; Fury
Back to Also Liked. About evenly split between slice of life and adventure. Fitting. Also a lot of overlap with a previous entry.
Crucible of Stars by Rao the Red Sun
Genre: Bittersweet
Princess Luna gathers things to make the perfect gift.
This hits on two levels. First, we see Luna moving through dreams, comforting mourners and sharing in the celebrations of a life lost. I really like the dichotomy of what she sees in the various dreams, and I was especially pleased to see everyone dealing with their feelings in a healthy manner. For the most part, anyway. Second, there's the 'forging' scene, which is marvelous. I've never seen someone create an item from ideas before, and the way the author approaches it… I can't really describe it, save to say it makes perfect sense out of forging the abstract. This is just the kind of thing to read when you're feeling down and need a release.
Highly Recommended
The Sisters' Coronet by Fable Scroll
Sundowner Season; Drops of Moonlight
Aw, man. :( Not enough of y'all read this. Hopefully after seeing it show up three times in this blog, and as one of the entries no less, you'll give it another look.
Skyward Yearning by SPark
Genre: Future Fic
This is a quiet, sad story about choice and fixing problems. It's one of those perfect little pieces that says what it wants to say in exactly the space it needed to say it. I don't have much more to say about it, save that it's somewhat ironic Molt Down came out a scant three months after this was published.
Recommended
A lot of the "best of" stories you were starting from are very familiar to me, so I checked my email to see if I'd been the one to recommend any of them to you.
Turns out it's five. I'm the one who recommended half of your favorite 2015-ers. So...yeah! Let me be the first to congratulate you on your excellent taste in fanfics!
(as far as the ones you picked off the also recced list: lots of good stuff there, but let me just say that Six Deeds is an absolute, criminally underrated treasure)
This is the first time I can remember one of my fics being in the "also liked" list when the seed story wasn't also mine.
5238013
good job :D
5238064
Good job! :D
5238013
Chris you should write more stories.
It's been a while since I thought of Gray Twilight. I do agree with what you said here, it doesn't feel like there's much holding the scenes together. I just knew that if I hadn't posted it when I did, I would have lost my nerve to even attempt to pay tribute to the Descendant's work.
When I do think of this story, it's followed by several long minutes of missing the Descendant. He's one of the few authors who I've made a point to read all of his works. Good stuff. Very good stuff.
EDIT: Also, yes, thank you very much for your part in ushering people towards Hyperportentia. To this day it's still my second most popular story, but you wouldn't know that from the first year it spent on the site.