Paul's Thursday Reviews CCL · 8:24pm May 13th, 2021
No reviews next week, folks. I’m on break.
So I’m nearing the finish line on the rough draft of my new Chrysalis story, and the artist sent me their first try at the cover art. Which, to my astonishment and joy, they got more-or-less exactly right. I’m considering springing for a colored version, but I’m waiting to see what that might run me in extra cost. Still, with any luck the story should be ready to go sometime next week.
In the meantime, I’m seriously considering bringing my computer in for upgrades. Certain issues with high-end video games have made me aware that while my processing speed is nice, I think I want better than just ‘nice’. I’ve got an awesome GPU, but not everything in a game is about graphics. I also want to replace the two old hard drives with proper SSDs and add a third one. While I wont do it this time, I’m also seriously considering getting a larger, custom chassis. It won’t matter right now, but if I ever decide to spring for a second GBU (you can do that with the kind I have) then I’ll have no choice but to do it.
The problem with all of this is that I am not a computer expert and don’t trust myself to do the best research and not buy something that won’t work with the rest of my rig. This in mind, I’m planning to save myself a lot of struggle and time and frustration by bringing it to some professionals who make custom computers for a living. I figure I’ll pay a little extra but the job will be done right the first time. And now is the best time to do it seeing as the only thing I absolutely must have this computer for is gaming and posting these blogs. I can live without the first for a few days and I don’t have to do the second one for a solid two weeks. It probably won’t take anywhere near that long, especially if I just get a consultation, buy the parts myself, and deliver them to their office for the slap-it-all-together part.
Still not sure if I’m actually going to do this. The computer’s fine for, like, 90% of my purposes. This is absolutely a “want it” issue. But with inflation on the rise and prices going up on just about everything, it might be better to go ahead and get it done now while I can still afford it.
Alright, enough yammering. You guys want some reviews? I got you some reviews.
Stories for This Week:
Spellbound Fireflies by bats
T-plus Seven Hundred and Sixty-Nine Days by Monochromatic
Of Fluff And Feathers by Moowell
"The Official History of the Cheese-Pie Estate: a Novel Hoof-Crafted by the Masterminds Themselves" by OfTheIronwilled
Fluff and Kidnapping by Eyeswirl the Weirded
Pray, Hope and Wander by Flashgen
Half Hour to Closing by Chapter 13
Total Word Count: 129,998
Rating System
Why Haven't You Read These Yet?: 1
Pretty Good: 5
Worth It: 1
Needs Work: 0
None: 0
Spellbound Fireflies
74,164 Words
By bats
Scootaloo still doesn’t have a cutie mark, she still lives with her foster family, and she still goes to Cheerilee’s school. But she’s growing up. That means questions. That means changes. She needs someone to help her understand what it all means. When Rainbow Dash offers to teach her how to fly, it becomes a golden opportunity to finally understand the things her foster parents can’t or won’t tell her.
Yes, this is another Scoota-orphan fic. Yes, you’ve read a bajillion of those. As have I.
This isn’t your typical Scoota-orphan story, though. This is a coming of age tale in which Scootaloo, through her changing relationship with Rainbow Dash and later Twilight Sparkle, comes to grips with who she is as a pony, a mare, and a friend. There’s so much more going on in this story than the traditional, somewhat boring maneuvers of flying lessons and Rainbow adopting Scoots. By refusing to focus on the most common topics alone, bats creates something refreshing and I dare say beautiful.
Scootaloo remembers her parents. Well enough that she gets frustrated when others, usually adults, treat her with kiddie gloves regarding their deaths. We get to learn about her caregivers, Mr. and Mrs. Taker, who have failed to forge any sort of connection with her beyond strict rules to abide by. At first, it’s easy to see the Takers in harsh, negative lights. Yet as the story moves we come to learn that these two aren’t the demons of traditional Scootabuse stories because, as bats patiently lets us know over time, this isn’t a Scootabuse story. I particularly love how bats was able to give Mrs. Taker a particularly taboo perspective on certain matters without making that perspective her only trait, nor even her most important trait. It’s that awareness of the humanityequinity of people that really lets this story shine.
There’s still more going on. Scootaloo’s scholastic struggles, how she looks to Rainbow and Twilight for lessons on life, their ceaseless and loving encouragement. Yes, it’s going exactly where you think it’s going, but bats takes the time to show us that adoption isn’t just about giving a child a roof over their head and saying “I love you”. Twilight and Rainbow do far, far more than that, becoming active in Scootaloo’s life in responsible, motivated, caring ways. They teach her, by example and by direct lessons. I love that bats took time to do this and make it more than a mere “Rainbow adopts Scootaloo, the end” story. Parenting takes work. Rainbow’s and Twilight’s demonstrated willingness to do that work sets this story apart.
But this is still, at its core, a coming of age story for Scootaloo. As much attention as RD and Twi get, this is the filly’s show. We watch her come to grips with the possibility that the Cutie Mark Crusaders could drift apart. We witness her trying to puzzle out what it means to be homosexual and why it is perfectly normal. We see her struggling to overcome her own learning disabilities and how the shame of those disabilities can weigh upon her. We watch as she tries to understand the difference between how the Takers care for her and how Twilight and Rainbow care for her. It’s a complex package addressing far more than I anticipated.
All of that is a roundabout way of stating that this is the single best Scoota-orphan story I have ever read, hands down. While it does paint a rather rosey image – with Twilight and Rainbow being both absolutely perfect for one another and Scootaloo without a single major conflict among them – it still delivers a delightfully emotional and sometimes painful tale. I enjoyed every minute of it. Even the wedding at the end, which is the kind of scene I normally roll my eyes at because they’re such common, easy affairs, wins my approval with some subtle but important changes from the ordinary.
If you really like Scootaloo – and if you don’t what kind of monster are you? – then you should give this one a read for sure.
Bookshelf: Why Haven’t You Read These Yet?
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
The Thinkin' Spot — Pretty Good
T-plus Seven Hundred and Sixty-Nine Days
1,209 Words
By Monochromatic
When a pony comes of age, they receive a Soulmate timer which tells them, with 100% accuracy, how long they have to meet their true love. Today, Rarity has received hers. To her shock, it’s not counting down to a day in the future, but counting up from a day in the past. Rarity has already met her soulmate. Now if she can only figure out who she met exactly 769 days ago!
Monochromatic, super-purveyor of RariTwi and author of the official “best story on FIMfiction”, strikes again! This time we’ve got a small bit of standalone fluff where Rarity goes to her best friend Twilight in hopes that she’ll somehow remember who she met on a random day two years ago. Given that this is Mono and looking at the cover, I think you know where this is going.
I’ll admit, the base premise is silly. It also invites some troubling questions about destiny vs. freedom of choice. But hey, Mono was just trying to have fun with her OTP, so let’s not sweat the deep stuff, eh? If you want to have some fun at Rarity’s (kinda-sorta) expense, then look no further.
I can think of far worse ways to blow five minutes.
Bookshelf: Pretty Good
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
The Enchanted Library — WHYRTY?
The Princess's Gift — Pretty Good
The Masquerade — Pretty Good
The Princess's Choice — Worth It
The Queen's Secret Crush — Worth It
Of Fluff And Feathers
6,515 Words
By Moowell
Pillow fights? Oh, no no no. Ponyvillians don’t do pillow fights.
They do pillow wars.
This was written for a laugh. That’s really all that matters. It starts as a pillow fight rematch between Applejack and Rarity, and each chapter adds more crazy to that formula until you end up with a town-wide war for fluffy, feathery supremacy.
There were times when I felt that Moowell was getting too descriptive with the fighting, but they managed to avoid going overboard and wearing the concept down. I think my only real disappointment is that we didn’t get to see the aftermath in all its fluffy horror.
A fun story centered around pillow fights, constantly shifting alliances, and defending one pony’s honor. If that sounds like something you’d like to read, have at it. I couldn’t stop smiling.
Bookshelf: Worth It
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
You Scratched My Cello?! — Pretty Good
"The Official History of the Cheese-Pie Estate: a Novel Hoof-Crafted by the Masterminds Themselves"
1,313 Words
By OfTheIronwilled
Pinkie Pie made a “going away” present for Twilight. You know, for when Pinkie “goes away”. Permanently. It might be one of the best gifts Twilight’s ever received.
I half-expected to get some quotes from the “masterminds” within the titular book, but that never came to be. We do get a Pinkie quote though, so that’s cool. The story is set immediately after Pinkie’s funeral, with Twilight returning to her castle to sulk. Sulking proves pretty difficult when you’ve got the weirdest, most unprofessional book in the history of books to add to your personal collection, along with a surprisingly jovial letter from your late friend’s son.
The best part about this story is that it doesn’t linger on the sad bits. Rather, it jumps right into Twilight being cheered up by Pinkie’s gift. It ends up being the exact opposite of an “immortality sucks” story, which I’m sure will appeal to a lot of you. The fact that the gift is perfectly Pinkie Pie in nature certainly helps.
I came away with nothing but approval. Go ahead and give this underappreciated piece a read.
Bookshelf: Pretty Good!
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
Again — WHYRTY?
Where All My Layers Can Become Reeds — WHYRTY?
One Small Mistake — Pretty Good
Pies — Pretty Good
An Owl Without His Books — Worth It
Fluff and Kidnapping
19,077 Words
By Eyeswirl the Weirded
Sequel to Dazzle's Poor Career Choice
It’s Rarity’s birthday, and Pinkie and Rainbow Dash have the perfect idea for a gift: The Great Floof herself, Adagio Dazzle, tied and gagged in a box. That Adagio was neither consenting nor even aware of this scheme is apparently all part of the fun. Now Rarity has to figure out what to do, preferably without further infuriating the understandably peeved beast she’s been left alone with. Meanwhile, Sonata and Aria drag Sunset Shimmer across town in search of their missing-and-potentially-kidnapped fellow Siren.
Dazzle’s Poor Career Choice was rife with nonsense, up to and including the fact that a pizza joint with ultraviolent animatronics that practically everyone is aware of somehow manages to stay in business. So I suppose it should come as no surprise that Fluff and Kidnapping’s entire premise revolves around two Rainbooms committing blatant criminal activities and nobody bothers to call the cops. The first thing you have to do with this story is not think about it too much.
If you can do that, what you’ll get is a highly entertaining comedy-drama (dramatic comedy?) in which A) Sunset learns a bit more about the Sirens’ relationship issues and how they view one another and B) Rarity gets the golden opportunity to give Adagio Dazzle a makeover. Before anyone jumps to any conclusions, yes, Part B was entirely consensual. After all, it wasn’t Rarity that stole her from her own bed and stuffed her in a box, and Adagio might as well get something for her trouble.
Between Aria and Sonata having way too much fun making up hair-based nicknames for Adagio (I was giggling like mad at some of them) and Rarity going bonkers over the opportunity to work her magic on Queen Fluffy are some serious moments of relationship growth. This partially stems from Aria and Sonata acknowledging their uncomfortable relationship with their (former?) leader and Adagio not wanting to be the bad guy anymore. Eyeswirl the Weirded has a remarkable capacity for blending comedy and seriousness in a way that I can approve of, neither side being too overbearing on the other or making things feel awkward.
Unless you count the whole “kidnapped somebody and got away with it” thing to be awkward. Wouldn’t blame you if you did.
Regardless, I really enjoyed this one, more so than the last, and I’m looking forward to what comes next.
Bookshelf: Pretty Good!
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
Sucker for a Cute Face — WHYRTY?
Dazzle's Poor Career Choice — Pretty Good
Blueblood Takes Over Equestria — Worth It
Pray, Hope and Wander
25,909 Words
By Flashgen
Sequel to A Glimmer of Hope in the Black
The population of Ponyville – the entire population – is gone. Disappeared without a trace, along with the investigation team originally sent in to study the original round of disappearances. A second investigative team has been assigned the case. Psychiatrist Blue Sky heads to the town to evaluate that team. Just in case.
The first story depicted Twilight’s situation as Ponyville went dark, while the second one revealed the same for Applejack. This story takes place in two parts: first, a transcript of Blue Sky’s meetings with the investigation team, which provides us some insights into what the team has already found and how absolutely clueless they all are. The second part is a third journal, written by the original lead investigator who disappeared like the rest. The contents of the journal may be the strangest yet.
I’m growing more and more interested in where this is going. The ceaseless mystery, the ever-shifting twists and turns (pun intended), the teasing hope and utter dread the characters feel. The story still suffers from the whole “lack of emoting” issue of its predecessors, but I am pleased to see a bit more experimentation and tonal shifts than in the past.
My overarching suspicion is that this will not end well. Everything I’ve seen points to the mysterious antagonist intentionally getting the characters’ hopes up before crushing them totally, and I believe this will prove the case with the story in full. Yet I am still fascinated with the ongoing events, so I have no intention of stopping now.
The one and only problem I’ve had so far with this story is that it has a distinct lack of royal involvement. For one, Twilight Sparkle, with whom Celestia is very close, has gone missing. You’d think she’d want to be directly involved. But let’s assume she’s in enough control despite the situation to avoid that.
What about Luna? She is, after all, the Mistress of Dreams, and dreams are a consistent element of this story. My suspicion is that the dreams aren’t dreams at all, which would perhaps explain some things, but it still bugged me that nobody in the story so much as alluded to the possibility of asking the world’s foremost expert on them to do some digging.
Other than that? Consider me hooked. I’m looking forward to the final(?) entry in this series.
Bookshelf: Pretty Good
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
No Foals — Pretty Good
A FLEet|ng LIght |n thE DArknEsS — Worth It
A Glimmer of Hope in the Black — Worth It
Half Hour to Closing
1,811 Words
By Chapter 13
Sister Story of On Some Days
Bar Stool is about to close the bar. He can’t do that so long as Lightning Dust is nursing her drink over there.
In On Some Days, Lightning meets this older stallion who gives her some life advice. That advice, generally speaking, was to accept reality and move on. It was a bitter story featuring characters who had failed in what they wanted in life. For the stallion, the solution was to do something else, even if he didn’t care for it, because he had to make a living somehow.
Half Hour to Closing is a prequel to that, with Lightning Dust coming home to Fillydelphia for the first time since the Academy and facing the grim reality that her parents probably wouldn’t let her stay with them. As she spends her last bits on a drink, Bar Stool suggests something similar. Except his suggestion is more… lighthearted. Unlike Silver Lining in the last story, he’s satisfied with working a boring, uneventful job that will never make him famous. His advice is for Lightning to learn to be happy with what is available to her.
I was miffed at first, trying to understand why these two were referred to as “sister stories”. I went back and took a look at my review for the other story though. The difference isn’t in Lightning Dust, as I was expecting, but in the stallions giving her advice. One has accepted his lot in life and can be happy with it, the other is bitter and always thinking about what could have been. They are reflections of Lightning’s potential future: can she be satisfied never being a famous flier, or will she forever look back on her failure at the academy and let it define her?
I admit I liked On Some Days more, but that’s because I’m a sadficionado and the mood appealed to me. I don’t see anything in terms of Half Hour to Closing’s quality to make it the lesser read. It could use some proofing, but if I recall correctly, so did the other story. I would recommend reading them back-to-back to properly grasp their dichotomy.
If I had any corrections to make, I would make sure readers know in the stories’ descriptions that they are related, otherwise the whole point is lost. Maybe they should have been two chapters of the same story?
Bookshelf: Pretty Good
Previous stories reviewed for this author:
Eyes in the Abyss — Pretty Good
On Some Days — Pretty Good
A Ruler's Regret Never Fades — Worth It
Eyes in the Reflection — Worth It
Stories for Next Week:
Aftermath of a Fallen Star by Rated Ponystar
Ponemurdered by The Gentlecolt
Twilight's Sleepless Nights by L_Wolf
A Word to the Wise by Melon Hunter
A Distinct Lack of Chaos by ArgonMatrix
A Brief Exile by Broken Phalanx
The Right and Righteous by Shakespearicles
Time Enough by Shrink Laureate
Sleeping Arrangements by Monochromatic
Tally Marks by Slateblu1
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I'd wager that switching to an SSD is by far the biggest improvement you can get. Even if it's just the boot drive / the drive with games on. As processors and memory speeds have improved, the hard disk has become the biggest bottleneck in a modern PC. And the good news is, it's often the cheapest and easiest upgrade you can do as well. A lot cheaper than a GPU in this era, certainly.
You can check this for yourself, if you plug in a second screen, by keeping a performance monitor up when you're playing. Chances are your CPU and GPU aren't maxed out, and your hard disk is.
(Obviously I don't know what your current PC is actually made of, etc, so this is a generalisation)
I appreciate your kind words on SF, thank you for the lovely review.
I don't know why the lighting scheme (and who could see that one anyway) would put people on alert for shenanigans.
Appreciate another review for the Fleeting Light stories. Yes, the one after Pray, Hope and Wander is the last one. I will say in defense of no Luna stuff that the story started before the dreamscape stuff appeared in the series, and I kind of never got around to mentioning it until the last entry (even though I wrote this one off and on for a long time after the second story). That doesn't really excuse it for sure, but I think if I could rewrite the story, I'd definitely put mention of Luna's involvement in the second entry.
Looking forward to your thoughts on the final entry, and the series as a whole.
Yeah, probably should have had them in the same story as chapters...
that one with the long title sounds good :)
5518266
Just click on the bookshelves.
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I upgraded to a an RTX 2080 Ti back in late 2019, so graphics isn't a problem. But some games were still giving some issues, which told me that the GPU alone was not enough. Hence my desire to upgrade. I assumed I just needed a better processor, and even if not I'd still like to get one. The entire point behind getting this particular rig was so that I could upgrade it periodically and never have to outright buy a new computer ever again. My biggest concern now is that I don't know what is compatible with my motherboard. If I want the best processor I can grab for my budget, do I need a different motherboard? Would that create problems with my other parts? I'm clueless and, again, don't trust myself to get it right even with research, which is why I'm bringing the computer to specialists who can help me get it right the first time.
Still, I might just go for the replacement SSDs (plus one, since I have two hard drives and my rig was designed to hold up to three). Maybe I'll find that is all I really need.
Oh, and I have four monitors.
5518067
Magic, man. Magic.
5518266
5518449
Or you can access my archive, which is conveniently linked on my user page if you scroll down far enough. Word of warning, there are 2100+ stories and some custom formulae in place to help me with these reviews, so it may take a minute or two to load and it'll probably slow your browser to a crawl in the meantime. Everything will run fine once it finishes loading though.
5518468
I recommend PC Part Picker for checking what's compatible. Add parts to your list, and it will tell you whether there are any compatibility issues between them. It helped me immensely building my PC, since my knowledge of slots and sockets and so on was 15 years out of date.
If your machine is a few years old, you're likely to need to replace the motherboard, CPU and memory all together. But an SSD can be plugged into anything and it'll just work, making it a much easier and safer investment.
You really don't need to replace ALL your hard disks. Just the one that gets read from 90% of the time - the boot drive. If you have your games and applications on that drive as well, that'll take care of it.
5518472
Oooh! I may have to try this. Thanks for the tip!
I had to replace the original motherboard last year when it... "outlived its warranty", if you will. But it's the exact same make as the old one, so...
I want to replace all my hard drives and get an additional one. Not just for the better system, but for the additional memory. What I've got is getting kinda full, and I want the upgrade to last me a few more years.
5518470
I was tempted to poke you to read my recent fic as I suspect you might be interested, but then I realized it wouldn't be fair since the competition it's in is ongoing and you have to review everything you read. :V
It's rather unfortunate, though: I accidentally published it too soon before retracting it in a matter of seconds, but that error means it would never feature or even hit the front page at all when I finally published it two days later, and it also wouldn't notify my followers when it finally made publication (I did a short blog post I think, but it's not quite the same). Kinda wish the algorithm were more discerning than that.
5518548
At this point anything that gets requested would at the earliest not get a review until August, and that assumes certain wordcount ranges and a favorable placement on my schedule. So unless the people doing the contest are really dragging their feet, you probably don't have to worry about a review of mine influencing anything.
So do you just pick stories at random? Or do people ask you to review? Hard to tell for me 🤔.
5519552
There are multiple "lists" that dictate where stories come from. The RIL (short for "Read It Later") list is basically me picking any story that happens to catch my eye. You could argue that it's random. Mostly it's a way for me to find new authors, as the other lists are more geared towards reading authors I've already reviewed stories for. My only rules here are A) to try and avoid having the same author on it more than once, and B) try to avoid having an author that is already present on one of the other lists. Guiltily, I must confess that I don't always police those rules perfectly.
People may request stories, which is a list unto itself. If anyone makes a recommendation – i.e. not explicitly requesting a story, only making a suggestion – then I may throw those on here if I consider the story worth a look. Requests are just about the only way to get me to read an unfinished story.
There's a single combined list for "Sequels" and "Completes". The former type consists of the sequels of any story I've already read, provided I am actually interested in continuing the series/franchise. The latter type consists of stories I've picked similarly to my RIL: stories I want to read for my own interests but which weren't completed when I discovered them. I'll track those incomplete stories and, when/if they are finally finished, add them to this list.
The final list is the "Known Authors". Every author I've ever read is on a separate list. Every now and then I'll select one of these authors, peruse their story collection, and select one for reading. It's the easiest way to ensure I can go back and read something from a favorite author. I typically alternate between getting something from the author at the very top of the list (to ensure I'm not always playing favorites) and an author I'd like to read again (because I should tend to my own interests too).
I try to fit at least one story from each list into a blog. That doesn't always work. For example, right now every story in my Requests list is a Long story, which makes them too big to be thrown willy-nilly into a blog. They have to be planned out months or even years in advance. With no Medium or Short stories in the Request list, it tends to be left out with some regularity.
All stories are further divided by length: Short (<10k words), Medium (10k - 70k), and Long (>70k). Since I am vastly overburdened with Long stories, I make sure to have at least one of those every blog. Beyond those, I limit myself to 70k words-worth of stories per blog, with Medium stories as the priority. Short stories are lowest priority, serving to fill in whatever wordcount is left after I can't fit anymore Medium ones into a given blog. In the unlikely chance that I start building up a backlog of short stories, I'll limit myself to only two Medium stories a week to try and get more short stories in there.
The story lists can be found in my Blog Schedule under the Miscellany tab. The author list is on the same spreadsheet under the Reserve tab. A link to this spreadsheet is also on my user page, because I want my methods to be transparent.