Fic recs, February 18th! · 9:56pm Feb 18th, 2022
Site author GroaningGreyAgony has suffered a family loss. Estee has the details. It doesn't sound like donations are an immediate necessity, but well wishes are always welcome.
Also, in case you didn't know, the United State Postal Service is one of the worst places a person could hope to work for, and so a call has been placed to help a carrier in need. This isn't a community gesture, just trying to help someone who's, uh, clearly been through a lot and, in my estimation, less likely to get help from the places that should be helping her.
Changing lanes, VisualPony's done a reading of Wages of Sin's A Letter to the Griffin Emperor on the Matter of War!
This is something of an emergency review blog because I wanted to get the word out about those things up there. :B It's minifics this time. Thanks for your attention.
H: 6 R: 10 C: 2 V: 0 N: 0
The Memory of Trees by Cold in Gardez
Genre: Emotional
We begin with a surprise end to I'm Afraid of Changeling, the anthology that has led these blogs more or less since I started doing minifics as their own thing. :O And what a note to end on! This is about a little tree being brought to Ponyvile from the Everfree, a special magic kind that stores forgotten memories and lets ponies live them. Though, of course, whose memory you get is pretty random. And so we explore the idea across three somewhat unrelated scenes before an emotional climax. Excellent as always.
Highly Recommended
This Is Not a Tragedy by Esle Ynopemos
Genre: Romance
I'm glad for the author's note, because I was going to complain that this was stealth Twilestia. I mean, Celestia + anyone still kind of undercuts the effect, but it's a good dramatic monologue from an immortal princess determined to make the best of the days ahead of her.
Recommended
Inverted Joke Week, part 7: Spike by Nonagon
Genre: Comedy
Inverted Joke Week comes to a close. Thank god. That said, this one's actually a good bit funnier than its predecessors, though it took me a bit to get the punchline. Not bad for a few sentences.
Recommended If You Find the Tragedy of Spike's Existence Intrinsically Comical
End of the Line by FuzzyFurvert
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic
The author says this wasn't meant to be pony, and you can kind of tell. There's like, one mention of something that might place it in the Equestrian wasteland. Then again, there's nothing that would place it necessarily outside, either. It's just a solid internal monologue from a wasteland survivor in a rare moment of introspection.
Recommended
Had Enough by HoofAndQuill
Genre: Slice of Life
This is a cute little story about Apple Bloom quitting farmwork and then running into someone else who's quit their job, also. It's all written for a referential punchline at the end, but it did make me laugh, so I can't be mad.
Recommended for a Laugh
Nag-mificent Obsession by AugieDog
Genre: Poetry Cycle
Huh. Fandom work isn't something I'd have expected Augie to indulge in, yet here we are. :O By that, I mean this is a series of poems about being a fan of MLP. That also makes this cycle quite a bit lengthier than what normally shows up in this collection. And I like the reason he wrote it, too. Quite an effort, as is to be expected!
Highly Recommended
It's a Start by Silvernis
Genre: Slice of Life
Cute bit of backstory writing for Rarity, featuring an unexpected cameo. Not much else to say!
Recommended
Doubt by Bombastic Bookpony
Genre: Shipping
Haha, wow. He really got me with this one. I was expecting drama, and it was nothing of the sort. :)
Recommended
Indestructible by QueenMoriarty
Genre: Dark
I was about to be all, "Ugh, another Twilestia? You know what that means…" And then I realized what was going on. c.c And the ending hits like a brick. There was so much more going on in this than I ever anticipated, wow!
Highly Recommended
To-Dos by KwirkyJ
Genre: Sad/Romance
This is right up there with Numbers as a great example of how to write compelling fiction in an unusual style. It's just a list of things to do, written by Fluttershy, but each line carries so much weight with it. Repetition and cross-outs — much more realistic here than in a journal! — do a lot of heavy lifting. I thought this was great!
Highly Recommended
Freebird by Abecedarian
100th Review of 2022!
Genre: World-Building
Half the fun of this one is finding out who the POV character is. And there's a ton of world-building, which is why I used the tag, things I definitely would not have thought to write about myself. There's a lot packed in here!
Highly Recommended
U Wot? by FanOfMostEverything
Genre: EQG Comedy
This is absolute nonsense, oh my god. Sci-Twi and Sunset go to Equestria to explain a magical spaghetti incident to Princess Twilight and I just… Look at what the writeoff prompt was. It will not prepare you for what lies within. I mean, it's not puns, but my reaction is definitely along those lines.
Recommended
Talk Talk by Loganberry
Genre: Comedy
This is brief but cute and amusing. All dialogue, too, Logan did a good job with that.
Recommended
Just Girls Talking About Twilight's Big News by MythrilMoth
Genre: EQG Comedy
This is fun. Sunset comes in with news from Equestria, and it leads to discussing one of my favorite cross-franchise subjects. :) Also a couple decent jokes in there, too.
Recommended
What Manners Maketh by Aquaman
Genre: Slice of Life
Spike and Rumble talk around a subject. I feel like this could be about a number of things, though Aquaman specifies his intentions at the end. Really good stuff for anyone dealing with gender issues, I'd say.
Recommended
The Illusion of Choice, or Vice Versa by horizon
Genre: Sad
This is great. It gives us this portrait of some young unicorn filly whose parents demand perfection from her before she's even mastered her magic, and the horrid life she's living because of it. The whole story turns totally around in the last three words, it's such a good reveal!
Highly Recommended
66% Is Technically Passing by kits
Genre: EQG Comedy
I love the description of just how dumb Rainbow Dash is. :D That's basically all you need.
Recommended
Never Ask Rarity If Your Santa Suit Looks Alright by Pascoite
Genre: Meta Comedy
This story reads really weird. I mean, it's amusing, Rarity having issues with a Santa costume and the reasons why. But then you get down to the bottom and you find out why it reads weird. And I was just like, you motherfucker…
Recommended
Cheers! And yikes, did I really write that in 2016? The last couple of years have messed up my sense of time something rotten.
It has been a while since I posted anything in I'm Afraid of Changeling, hasn't it? Part of that is because I went through a period of posting short stories as stand-alones (i.e. The Cat and the Night, How We Burn, etc) and of course because of the hiatus during 2020. But the big reason is that most of my short-story efforts went into Starlight & Pals.
I'll have to start posting more stuff in Changeling. It remains a favorite of mine, and I think the shorts nature really forces a degree of creativity.
Trivia: Refraction's Edge was going to be posted in Changeling until it grew waaaay too long.
Pp were you high when you read mine? Cause, damn. It’s like 100 words and maybe 5 of them are
Worth something.
<4
I wish I could go back to writing like that. (Or like anything).
Thank you for this list! These stories provided a good end to many a busy day. Could you point me toward any other mini fic compilation you may have written up?
5642715
hmm, shoot, I used to tag them #minifics, but I stopped doing that after a while because it was just so I could go back and label a certain series of audiobooks. <.< But I mean, you can definitely find them that way! If hashtags are searchable on this site, anyway...
5642753
I'll give it a try. Thanks!