Fic recs, January 31st! · 2:17pm Jan 31st, 2021
One more before the month ends! What a hell of a month it's been, but that's for another blog. :B
This one's all minifics. I had intended to read these all the same day, as I usually do, and read other stories in the meantime, but oops, that didn't happen, so the next one'll be a little later. :B I cleared a good three collections today, though, including one that's been sitting around for a while!
Oh, and I hit a big milestone. :)
H: 6 R: 6 C: 7 V: 0 N: 1
Mayflies by Cold in Gardez
Genre: Emotional
I'm always amazed at how much CiG can pack into a short story. This is a quiet scene about Celestia being an amazing person, dealing with a new maid who's just broken an ancient, antique teacup. And then you get to the scene break and, oooooh. Damn, it's effective!
Highly Recommended
A Farewell to Spells by Esle Ynopemos
Genre: Drama
There's only one way to save Equestria.
Boy, do I wish this was longer. It lays out a fantastic end of the world scenario, but gives us none of the why, only what must be done to stop it. It's damned cool!
Recommended
Inverted Joke Week, part 4: Rarity by Nonagon
Genre: Comedy
This took me a second to get, but it's easily the funniest of this little miniseries. :)
Recommended
SciTwi Trying to Flirt 2: Flirt Harder by FuzzyFurvert
Genre: EQG Shipping Comedy
This is like, five lines of dialogue and nothing else, but amazingly I laughed. It's the right combination of "stupid", "funny" and "pathetic", in terms of Sci-Twi being unable to people good. :)
Recommended for Laughs
The Last Morning After by HoofAndQuill
Genre: Comedy
So Blueblood wakes up hungover from a party last night, next to some mare he doesn't remember. I kinda knew there could only be two answers for who she was, but I still enjoyed every second of his mounting horror at finding out. :D This was hilarious.
Highly Recommended
On Reformation by AugieDog
Genre: Poetry
Unless you both know what a glosa is already and are intimately familiar with Augie's poetry, you likely won't be able to appreciate this until you hit the explanation at the end. But what an appreciate I had!
Recommended
Funnier Than You Might Think by Silvernis
Genre: Shipping
Weird little TwiDash where Rainbow thinks Twilight is crying but actually, she's laughing. I've sadly got no experience with the Earl of Rochester, so I have zero context for what happens. I wish Silvernis had provided a link or something. :|
Recommended for Shippers
Happily Ever After by Bombastic Bookpony
Genre: Shipping
This is a pretty standard "preparing to propose" story. Flarity isn't one I see much anymore, though, so that's nice.
Recommended for Shippers
My Favorite Dream by QueenMoriarty
Genre: Magic: The Gathering Crossover
When the author wants to write MtG fanfic and post it on a pony site! The vast majority of this was incomprehensible gobbledygook from where I stand. I mean, I've heard the word "Phyrexian" before, but I don't know what they are. That said, there's a really fun twist at the end that only MLP fans would get, so it's kind of worth it if you can wade through the Magic lore jargon.
Recommended for MtG Fans
Royal Canterlot Noise by ObabScribbler
Genre: Shipping Comedy
This is another all-dialogue story, and it's quite funny. Never seen Dash and Luna paired before, either. :) I would honestly love a longer, more in-depth look at them as a couple, serious or not!
Recommended for Shippers
Heartbreaks and Hoofaches by KwirkyJ
Genre: Sad Romance
This is a really tight story, told nonlinearly, which is rather impressive for something under a thousand words long. It's just about a hapless stallion trying to rush to the home of his love, hoping that he won't be too late. The denouement is honestly quite subtle, or at least takes a bit of thinking, which I appreciate. :) Nicely done.
Recommended
It's the Imperfections That Make Us Interesting by Pascoite
Review #7000!
Genre: Drama
So Twilight has to deliver a baby lamb. o.O Wow. This story reads like a panic attack, being perhaps a bit too large for its 150-word shell. Pascoite definitely made it work, though, which is quite impressive.
Recommended
The Fall of Doctor Clucktopus by Abecedarian
Genre: Comedy
Oh my god. I don't want to give anything away, save that this takes the scene used for the prompt and refashions it in the craziest, most hilarious way possible. Also, it includes Star Swirl as a pun-spouting superhero, which is awesome.
Highly Recommended
3.1415-Nein! by FanOfMostEverything
Genre: Comedy
So Twilight wants to know why Rainbow Dash hates pie. FOME provides us a hilarious answer, deftly dodging past producing a possible meatfic and delivering a heaping helping of background and characterization in the process. This was great!
Highly Recommended
The True Beginning of Our End by Loganberry
Genre: Dark Comedy?
Apparently, Loganberry got in on the "world's shortest breakup fic ever" action back in the day and I never heard about it until now! This was clever!
Recommended for Laughs
Trying by Aquaman
Genre: Drama
Well, I'm all caught up with The Voices Told Me to Hug You! Won't be the last one I finish this blog, either. :) So this was really great, just a story about an older Diamond Tiara and Apple Bloom, hanging out and getting drunk and Diamond being really depressed. And then Apple Bloom does a Good Friend for her. It's yet another one of those stories that makes me with the show hadn't forgotten Diamond Tiara existed after season five.
Highly Recommended
Just Girls Talking About… Y'know. by MythrilMoth
Genre: Random EQG Comedy
What that this is missing is a last-minute twist wherein "y'know" was not in fact, what we knew it was, and Rainbow was talking about something else and all her friends have dirty minds. Instead, we get semantic satiation for "y'know", and I'm not actually sure it works.
Recommended for Laughs?
This Is Water by Not_A_Hat
Genre: Fable
Boy, I'm not sure if I get this, but it was pretty great? A painter searches for a particular sort of water to paint, led by an ethereal bee through all the lands. Dreams factor heavily into the narrative, which itself has a dreamlike quality. I just thought the language use and the repetition of various things were stellar, and I really liked it.
Highly Recommended
Pancakes, Pancakes! by Derpy Fan 4eva
Genre: Fairy Tale
The last one of these I read, it was actually read to me, so it's only now that I get to see that the writing is actually pretty bad. No editing or proofreading to speak of. And, judging by a comment, I'm thinking the children's story part might actually be plagiarized? Like, lifted word by word, only the names replaced, except when they're not and thus give away the whole thing. So I think I'm not going to read any more of these.
Not Recommended
The Toughest by Lunae Lumen
Sequel to Human Rituals
Genre: Comedy
Last but not least, the reason I read that incomplete HiE last time, and the final entry of Never the Final Word. Anyway, this sets itself up perfectly, seeing as it is a takeoff of one part of one chapter rather than a continuation of the story (a shame, that's what I'd hoped for!), and though short, it's extremely funny. :) If you read Human Rituals, don't miss this little joke.
Recommended
I misread "meatfic" as "metafic" and got very confused for a moment.
In any case, I always appreciate these reviews. They're great for pointing me at anthologies I'd have missed otherwise.
You're going soft in your old age!
Appreciate the read and review as always, PP :)
5445096
Not that you're wrong, but when a story's under 1k words long, it's hard to get mad at it because it wastes so little of your time. :B
The ending of "Mayflies" is brutal: deservingly an "H".
Apparently, Loganberry got in on the "world's shortest breakup fic ever" action back in the day and I never heard about it until now!
I was sure I'd mentioned it. Maybe not! Anyway, thanks for the nice review! I can honestly say that I've never before had someone give me a review several times the length of the story.
"...mounting horror..." *snerk*