It Is Recommendsday, My Dudes #58 · 6:20pm Apr 27th, 2022
One of the parts of the setting I quite love is the changelings. Conceptually, I find them to be fascinating and full of potential. A literal boogeyman race, packed with flavor. They're outsiders who - because they're pathovores - are required to still participate in and closely interact with a society that understandably hates them. And post-reformation it gets even more fun because you've got all kinds of mixed feelings on both sides. It's prime material to work with.
So you can probably guess my focus this week.
Today's first story comes from TheDriderPony, entitled The Joy Hive.
Arriving home from Cadance and Shining Armor's wedding, Pinkie Pie collapses into her bed. But before she falls asleep, she spots it in the corner of her room - the blue glitter of a changeling's eyes.
As it turns out, said changeling is lost, alone, injured and hungry. Pinkie - being Pinkie - takes pity on it, feeds it, and stashes it in her party cave.
Then a week later there's three changelings in her party cave. And then five.
This story was spawned out of Imposing Sovereigns II, where it took third (and is ironically also the third story from that contest I've featured in this blog series.) Really, it just hits everything right.
One of the biggest bright spots is that it manages to use Pinkie Pie damn near perfectly - she's a tricky character and far too often used as just lolrandom4thwall. Here she's serious, intelligent and focused - but also still entirely Pinkie. That takes considerable skill to pull off. The changelings, as well, are delightful. As they develop who they are and build up from their nearly feral start, I love the vibe they have with Pinkie (and other characters, as they show up.)
The story, too, is one of those ones where you read it and go "Yeah, that all makes complete sense." It builds at a great pace (including the useful signposts to show where the show is in any given chapter, too!) with well-spaced advances to the plot, and the ending - the revised one - is a wonderful payoff that you knew was coming but still feels like earned and satisfying. Really, like I said? One of my favorite Pinkie stories, and a great changeling one as well.
Second on our docket is We Sing Cover Songs by GaPJaxie, who I had to check three times that I spelled correctly because I always swap the P and the J.
Anyway, the story's opening is relatively straight forward: a changeling comes to Rarity's shop on the weekend. Not for a dress, but to confess. Novelty - once Poison Sting - had been the one to replace Rarity during the events of To Where And Back Again . Part of that had been studying Rarity in depth: four years of preparation and observation. Stealing her correspondence and diary, disguising as objects around the boutique to watch her, everything. Novelty was privy to Rarity's most intimate moments and thoughts, and comes to her to apologize. The apology is accepted - though Rarity is still quite upset - and the two part. Before going, Novelty hands over the sketchbook they kept while pretending to be Rarity. Significantly afterwards - and after calming down - Rarity finally looks at the sketch.
And it's the most beautiful dress she's ever seen.
Above all else, the vibe of this story is amazing. It's all in how the characters carry themselves and how real it feels. Rarity forgives the changelings for what they did under Chrysalis and understands that they are still in the process of becoming new people; yet at the same time, her life was violated in so many ways and there's a constant current (both subtle and overt) about how she's not just upset with Novelty - she's a little afraid, too. And Novelty is a bundle of fun as well: apologetic and deeply uncomfortable around Rarity, but at the same time willing to take hard stands against her and push back. The characters act like people and aren't simple traits in a box.
The concept of cover songs as a metaphor is something else I love about this one - it hits dead on (and particularly to the final author's note) and is used excellently throughout to get across both the point of the characters and of the author.
It's a more thoughtful story than The Joy Hive but that's not a bad thing by any stretch. It really looks deeper into what I find to be a meaningful topic and uses strongly written characters in a fascinating scenario to do it.
New or catching up? Try Recommendsday: The Index for your story needs!
Mmmm, nothing new for me this time sadly, already found and read these. That said though, I will say these are both awesome stories.
Haven't read The Joy Hive, though it has certainly piqued my interest. I have, however, read GapJaxie's fic, and I'll second much of everything you said here.
I haven't thought about it since it was new, so I can't comment on the specifics too much. I will say that it's quite a unique fic for GapJaxie. Or maybe I'm just more used to his fics being… depressing? Well, more depressing than most fanfiction – I know he considers them just realistic and still hopeful in their own way, as one would given their content. Perhaps because this one was a speedwriting exercise, it manages to be more upbeat while still largely preserving the level of depth, thought, and emotional hurt he excels at. The characters really feel, and what's most tangible of all is both Rarity and Novelty tackling every situation the way they see fit, and their mental reactions when curveballs are thrown their way, and how they adjust. Right down to the flow of dialogue when the two are talking. And then we have the theme and layers to the cover songs and the obvious-once-you-realise-it parallel to fanfiction, right here.
Bottom line, it's a great little story, and coming from someone who finds post-reformation changeling stories far less interesting due to canon restrictions, it also actually makes the most of that situation to craft a story unhindered whatsoever by that. Even taking advantage of it! Any story that can turn mistakes in the show into a strength is worthy of admiration.