It Is Recommendsday, My Dudes #4 · 6:07pm Apr 14th, 2021
Timber Spruce is not a popular character.
He's widely disliked (or more often, forgotten to exist.) In most opinions, he's Flash Sentry -1: all the things people dislike, less story/personality and fewer Shortskirtsandexplosions fics. His primary benefit is that no one ever thought his name was 'Brad'. It's telling that there are nearly as many stories tagged with Timberwolves as primary characters are there are for Timber Spruce.
But that doesn't mean that there aren't some absolutely excellent stories that use him.
First of today's pair is The Exes Club by MarvelandPonder.
While the FIM fandom is fairly LGBT+ friendly, the L part is, like, super bolded and in 72 point font. (Unsurprising - if nothing else when like 80% of your named characters are female it's bound to happen.) The G, meanwhile, is a little dot by comparison. Braeburn jokes aside, gay representation is not particularly common and most of what's around is hardcore porn with minimal plot. Gay relationships are rarely portrayed - and that's what attracted me to this story in the first place. (Granted, yes, in this case bi would be more the thing than gay, but I think y'all get my general point.)
The setup is simple: the girls are at the hospital post-battle with yet another magic threat. For reasons that the story eventually gets into, both Flash Sentry and Timber Spruce are present. And, after a bit of scrambling? They're left alone in the waiting room together. Sunset's ex and Twilight's ex. Two normal humans who care about a group of magical superheroes. And there, they find common ground.
The story itself ends a bit quickly - as it's continued in the sequel Empathy For The Devil - but it's still a wonderfully fluffy story about two guys in over their heads and finding someone who's there with them. Marvel's writing is excellent as well as economical - packing a lot of oomph into a small space. Everything is elevated as well by the excellent artwork by the stunning Bevin Brand. My only disappointment with the story is that it led into the sequel - I wanted more from the original! And if that's the problem, you know it's a treat.
Our other story for today is very different: Close To Heart by Sandbagged Tarot Heir, who I'm half convinced is a long forgotten alt.
This one attracts the attention because I believe it's the only story on FIMFiction which focuses on Timber Spruce, the pony rather than the human. It's also a real hidden gem: an unknown author (who disappeared almost immediately after posting) with only a tiny scrap of attention for years.
We open on the six girls lamenting about their lack of dating lives for Hearts & Hooves Day. Most complain lightly and exchange brief anecdotes about their lack of luck at love. At which point Twilight drops a bomb: she's married.
What follows is not just a touching little romance but some amazing world-building into unicorn-specific dating rituals and customs. It's a short, strong story that's generally gone under people's collective radar, and that's almost as much a shame as that the writer's gone before providing more of their work.
New or catching up? Try Recommendsday: The Index for your story needs!
Timber Spruce is not a popular character.
im like, Who?
Woah Nelly, I forgot about Close to Home. I think I only found it in the first place when I went digging deep not even for him but for Starlight + Romance tagged stories. It's a good one.
I really need to read some of MarvelandPonder's stuff, following Bevin Brand led me to them in the first place. :B
who's timber spruce
No word of a lie, I was having a pretty down day before I saw this. You made my night
Thank you! Bevin says thank you, too!
In the true spirit of Recommendsday, I'll pay it forward by adding on! What Hath Twience Wrought by Posh is short and sweet, but the story might feel right at home if you're still warming up to Timber. Twilight Velvet doesn't quite know what to make of that Spruce boy her daughter's dating, but she and Timber both have their work cut out for them when it comes to Twilight and her experiments. Love the characterizations here, and especially so since Posh doesn't spell out for you that Timber isn't in fact a skeezy dude. Just one who might be hard to read.
Timber appreciation is so rare, I've got to savour this!
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