Fic recs, November 19th! · 6:57pm Nov 19th, 2020
Haha whoops, I read this month's Flash Fiction Online, then didn't do any reviews! This issue comes with an announcement their editor in chief is stepping down at the end of the year. But for now, we've got meeting your end, running, the invisible ones, and indispensables. A good crop of stories!
Minifics because nothing else is gonna be done any time soon! :')
H: 4 R: 9 C: 4 V: 1 N: 0
My Immortal by Cold in Gardez
Genre: Sexual Comedy
Twilight's made some changes around Ponyville.
I was all set to be disappointed that this wasn't CiG's take on the classic Harry Potter trollfic, but I needn't have worried. :) I mean, it isn't, but what it is is certainly as good if not greater. This is a perfect, compact comedy based around a single bit of wordplay.
Highly Recommended
Night of the Whinnying Dead by Esle Ynopemos
Genre: Dark Comedy
This is a simple story about Rainbow Dash and Twilight fighting zombies, only it's funny.
Recommended
Inverted Joke Week, part 3: Applejack by Nonagon
Genre: Meta
This might have worked better had I been reading these all one after the other. I mean, it's been months, let alone weeks, since I read the last one, and this is… literally just two lines of dialogue. o.O
Vaguely Recommended
SciTwi Trying to Flirt by FuzzyFurvert
Genre: EQG Rom-Com
This is like those shortest shipfics Biscuit and I were writing once upon a time. Short, amusing, very weird. XD
Recommended for Laughs
One Quiet Night by HoofAndQuill
Genre: Emotional
Apple Bloom has a question.
Nothing like reading a slew of comedies just to immediately dive into "AJ, where'd Ma and Pa go after they died?" ;_; Geez. This is real good, just know what you're getting into ahead of time.
Highly Recommended
The Ballade of Power and Greatness by AugieDog
Genre: Poem
Augie hits it out of the park again. This could be summed up as "Boast Busters as a poem from Trixie's POV", but it's just so good. Damn!
Highly Recommended
Life of the Party by Silvernis
Genre: Sad
Pinkie just wants to cheer Twilight up while she's in the hospital.
This is honestly really good, but the question is, how much do you want to see Pinkie Pie being hyper and excited at a time when being hyper and excited is maybe not a good idea?
Recommended If You Like Drama
One Adventure by BombasticBookpony
Genre: Doctor Who Crossover
This is pretty good! Solid Doctor writing, another story with Rarity as his companion, and I like the main idea. :) Short but sweet.
Recommended
Before You Die, You Will Kneel by QueenMoriarty
Genre: Drama
Some aristocrats don't know when to keep their mouths shut.
On the surface, this seems like a fairly standard — if ultimately satisfying — "take that" against anyone who badmouths Celestia, with a strawpony stand-in on one side and Blueblood, of all ponies, on the other. But it's actually what's going on around them that's the point here, and the author's note at the end makes it quite clear. :D I thought it was neat!
Recommended
The Visitor by ObabScribbler
Genre: Sad Shipping
Trixie's just not in the mood to deal with Pinkie Pie.
This was a surprisingly strong look into Trixie's character. Really was not expecting that from the outset, but I gladly welcomed it!
Recommended
Captain Prism Flash by KwirkyJ
Genre: Sci-Fi/Sad Shipping
This is a Ponies Writing Ponies kind of story, so you can kind of guess at what's going on. The draw, though, is how un-obvious it is who's writing, and most especially, the details of the pulpy space adventure. This is good fun. :)
Recommended
Sonata Dusk Outsmarts Someone by Pascoite
Genre: Cute EQG
This is nothing but heartwarming EQG sister snuggles. :D
Recommended
Lying in It by Abecedarian
Genre: Sad
All you need to know is the screenshot used as the prompt at the start of the story. This was really good, and it hit really hard.
Recommended
Where Parallel Universes Converge for Dummies by FanOfMostEverything
Sequel to Where Parallel Lines Converge and Parallel Universes for Dummies
Genre: What
Trust me to set up reading a pair of prequels only to wait long enough to read the sequel that I completely forget about them. What the actual fuck is this?
What
Out of Darkness Cometh Light by Loganberry
Genre: Poem
And this one's basically "the pilot, but as a poem", but the poem works perfectly well, and I have nothing but appreciation for such things. :)
Recommended
Not Great, Not Terrible by Aquaman
Genre: Random Comedy/Crossover?
Cutie Reactors don't just explode.
This is some wacky bullshit, and I love it. I guess it's a crossover with Chernobyl, which… wouldn't that just sort of make it a historical crossover then? I know nothing about the show. Anyway, recast Our Town as being powered by the cutie mark vault, with Double Diamond and Night Glider as hapless technicians, and you have a big pile of silly season five fun. :D
Highly Recommended
Terminology by MythrilMoth
Genre: Light Comedy
The CMCs, along with Diamond Tiara, sit around trying to figure out just what the CMCs' new cutie marks mean/are. That's about all there is to this, but it's a fun character piece nonetheless.
Recommended for CMC Fans
Strange Aeons by Not_A_Hat
Genre: Historical Drama
Tired of reading about the fall of Luna? Well, read this anyway. It doesn't focus on the battle so much as what comes before and afterward, with Star Swirl appearing from somewhere in the past to try and sway Celestia's hand. The dialogue is mostly allusions and vagaries, but that makes sense for the two of them, really.
Recommended
Look, eldritch horror gets the lion's share, and most of the rest is either eldritch adventure that fails at being horrfying or eldritch comedy that deliberately avoids it. There is a rich untapped vein of eldritch slice of life.
CW: Morbid I skimmed the list and read this as a comedy about where Ma and Pa went when they died. And I clicked anyway.
An R, for a poem? I'll take that, thank you!
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I have to admit, I do like situations where one character's actions are unknowable, but the other reacts to them as though they're perfectly understandable.
That was what made it special. Great little piece to pull from a “scrapbox”.