Fic recs, January 13th! · 6:29pm Jan 13th, 2022
Had somethin' I wanted to tell you all about, so here's a short, impromptu review blog! :)
Everfree's Narration's has done a reading of Between Lines's Ash!
That wasn't the thing. <.< It's below the cut.
H: 2 R: 3 C: 1 V: 0 N: 0
Tension Points by Krickis
Genre: Deltarune Drama/Romance
It's rare that I review non-MLP stories here, but I've done it in the past, and goddammit, this filled me with feelings, you're going to suffer through this review. >:V Krickis of course is the author of the phenomenal Looking Glass, the start of the Who We Become series that I've gotten into in the past few years. And this is a piece no less stunning for its character work and scenes of drama. The warnings at the start are definitely to be heeded, but if you're in a place where you're willing to read that kind of thing, you will be rewarded. After Krickis is done ripping out your heart and stomping on it, of course. :') But seriously, the interconnectedness of the decently large cast makes this work, not to mention very nuanced portrayals of the three major characters, along with giving them some extra traits that may or may not have been suggested by the game. (Turning Susie into an artist was a stroke of genius!) And yes, this did run into a bit of trouble when Deltarune Chapter 2 suddenly came out in the middle of it, but really, there's not a whole lot that feels non-canon even after that? Like, that's just to be expected, this is a video game being released episodically, you can't write full-canon fanfiction until it's all done. But this is just super great, I really loved every minute of it, and especially if you want some excellent LGBTQ+ representation in your fanfiction, you can't do much better than this. What a treat. :)
Highly Recommended
Fast Acting by Pascoite
Genre: Dark
Ledger DeMane receives a gift.
When minifics update, I gotta read 'em. >:V I remain impressed by how much Pascoite is able to cram into these flashfics. This one hinges on a linguistic twist that I was of course well prepared to see through, but that doesn't stop it from being a cutting tale of revenge.
Recommended
Celestia Isn't Real by Cynewulf
Genre: Comedy
In disguise to visit her student in Ponyville, Princess Celestia meets a filly who believes one very strange idea.
This story proves that all Sunny Skies All Day Long needed to not be a crap story I detest to this day was literally any actual story elements. In this case, comedy. Also conflict. Also the funniest conceivable way for Celestia to prove that she is actually real. My god, I haven't laughed that hard in a year. This was amazing.
Highly Recommended
No, Things Aren't Going Back to Normal. But, That's Okay. by Flutterpriest
Genre: Too Real
This pandemic has brought Sunset to her lowest point.
I realized at the end of 2021 that it was, in fact, a far worse year than 2020. Even though 2020 is the year that everyone lost, whether or not they live in a country who can handle a pandemic in a reasonable, logical manner, it still took most of the year to pull out of the worst of it, and we lost a lot of people along the way. But in 2020, it felt like we had hope. Sure things were bad, sure they'd been going on for months, but even if it took until the next year, there would be an end, and we could start to heal. 2021 is the year that hope died. We're in this basically forever now. So this story's point is extremely important: When all you can do is survive, then surviving is an accomplishment. Don't feel bad you did nothing else. Just survive, it's the most anyone can ask of any of us.
Recommended
Good Girls Are Bad Girls Who Haven't Been Taught by Dubs Rewatcher
Genre: EQG Comedy
With her sex life on the line, Princess Cadence tries to become a Bad Girl.
What can I say? This is really funny, and it's about how relationship magazines are garbage. Communication and mutual respect are key. Good messages!
Recommended
T-plus Seven Hundred and Sixty-Nine Days by Monochromatic
Reading by VisualPony
Genre: AU/Shipping
The day Rarity got her Soulmate Timer was as exciting as it was confusing.
This is one of those stories where a foregone conclusion of a ship is preceded by a weird, in this case almost sci-fi, story element to give the author a different angle to approach it from. And if there's any problem with this story, it's that forgone-ness. But the characters' reactions are all great, and that central story element is certainly unique. Not a bad return to form.
Recommended for Shippers
Heh. T-plus Seven Hundred and Sixty-Nine Days. I remember that one fondly. The grounding premise is a bit silly, and in a more cerebral story it could have some intense implications. None of that matters; it did exactly what it intended to do, which was make readers smile.
<3
I remember reading Aragon's story about the friendship School burning down over
Christmashearths warming while on acid and how surreal it was to read an aragon story on acid and how it kind of felt like a dream moving from scene to scene and how I don't actually remember many specifics, but this jogged my memory that I also read the dubs rewatcher good girl bad girl story and that I also remember very little from it so I should reread it as well. Lol thank you for reminding me inadvertentlyEDIT: lol: 9378987
EDIT EDIT wait this is a blog post not a story different comment numbering system lol rip
Glad you liked that minific, but man, I did a rush job of it, and now that I reread it, it doesn't feel like it's constructed that well. I still like the twist, but if you know German, it's spoiled. Plus it seems a bit short on context and maybe not so clear that she takes over his fashion empire.
I remember liking T-plus Seven Hundred and Sixty-Nine Days quite a bit, perhaps because I’m a sucker for silly, indulgent sci-fi premises and this one was so short it didn’t take time to run into the logistical and moral murky waters it would have otherwise brought about. And Monochromatic’s witty approach to writing in general and RariTwi specifically kept it lively and fun.
On the basis of this post, I read Celestia Ain’t Real and got more then a few kicks out of it. Which is saying a lot, as I’m a tough sell with the kind of cynical, knowing humour common to many comedy fanfics (a lot of it is either snarky, or just bleeds into each other). But as you say, conflict and comedy galore.
I also appreciated that it was super early in the timeline, just because everything else led me to believe it would be a Castle of Friendship-era fic. And that was just as true in 2016. We don’t get enough S1-3 fics, and I guess that’s because there’s tons of fics in that era already from when it was happening, but still.
Anyway, seeing Diamond Tiara get shown up like that was great. More like this! I do need to read more of Cynewulf’s works, that I know.
king
What the fuck, how did I miss this??? I knew you read Tension Points, but I had no idea you reviewed it here! I was digging through your reviews for the other WWB ones you've done, and found this, and went
Anyway, thank you for plugging my non-pony work, and I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
5662634
Don't have a way of easily notifying about offsite reviews. :B
Obviously, I expect everyone to hang on my every word :V