Fic recs, April 19th! · 3:04pm Apr 19th, 2017
Do you like to ship? I like to ship, mama. If you like to ship, hey, then ship it out. With Monochromatic's Interwoven Colors RariTwi Contest, that is! (I hope someone gets the reference…)
Into Sentinels of the Multiverse? No, that's silly, you probably aren't; there's only like six people in the group, after all.
But how about Mutants and Masterminds? Green Ronin's Sentinels of Earth-Prime Kickstarter is now live, promising to bring the heroes, villains and locations of M&M to the SotM game world, with the potential for a digital version as well! They funded nine hours after launching the campaign, so I'm counting that as a decent possibility. Me, I can't wait to play as Dr. Metropolis. :3
H: 1 R: 2 C: 1 V: 0 N: 1
My Little Hangover by Mousetrap
Reading (part 1) by Nightfire5150
Genre: The Hangover Adaptation
Twilight and her friends celebrate her 18th birthday in Las Haygas. It would be even better if any of them could remember what happened.
I never saw The Hangover — I gave up on Hollywood's idea of "comedy" after watching Anchorman five years prior — but I recall it being a huge deal when it came out, the kind of movie everyone was going to. I wonder if we have that film or this fic to blame for the preponderance of "what happened last night" drunken pony comedies. Point being: having read rather a lot of those, I have to say this didn't have an effect on me. The first chapter, for instance, is just setup for the second chapter, which is then setup for the rest of the story. In three chapters, only two things registered as even remotely funny: Twilight realizing she's alive well after she's woken up with her hangover, and the stallion in the room the mysterious key goes to recognizing her instead of Rainbow. And neither of those things was all that funny. Given that, directly prior to them getting to that room, there's a long, serious scene about Twilight and Rainbow contemplating the ramifications of getting blackout drunk — a solid piece of sober (no pun) character development — I really have to argue with that Comedy tag. And that wouldn't even be so bad, if anything interesting happened in the meantime. The manticore in the bathroom might qualify if it weren't taken directly from one of the few things I actually know happens in the movie. It's just a lot of fandom memes and slice of life establishing shots that last far too long. This was five stars on EQD; all I can say is, the fandom was a very different place than it is today.
DNF: 3/11
It's Hard to Move On by AdamGrayson
Reading by Scribbler, et. al.
Genre: Shipping Drama
After losing Rarity, Fluttershy has a hard time moving on.
I like where this starts off, but not necessarily where it ends up. Using Nightmarity from the comics was a neat touch, and though the preexisting Rarishy is a barrier to entry, it's a good setup if you want to torture Fluttershy a little. Unfortunately, this story is maybe a little too harsh on her. For starters, there's shipping everywhere; incidental ApplePie shows up right at the worst time, though thankfully Fluttershy doesn't seem to take their burgeoning relationship as a slight against the one she's lost. The main conflict is Octavia 'replacing' Rarity, first as the Element of Generosity (what), later moving into Carousel Boutique. It's enough coincidences that it seems just a tad too directed at making Fluttershy's life worse. And let's not forget Octavia's own tragic past, set up so that she has a reason to yell right back at Fluttershy. I mean, when Fluttershy realizes she's been selfish and a bad friend, I didn't take it as her being hard on herself, I agreed with her! Not to mention Octavia is just used oddly in this story, between the aforementioned Element thing and Applejack knowing her since they were fillies. Not unbelievable, but it did give me pause, and I had to wonder if an OC mightn't have been a better choice, to at least do away with fandom baggage. Maybe not. I'd really only recommend this if you're up for tragedy and drama and lots and lots of shipping; it's not bad, just cluttered and shouty.
Recommended for Fans of Tragic Shipping
Poneo and Fillyet by Daedalus Aegle
Genre: Adorable as Fuck
A play date changes the lives of two little ponies forever.
It's no small feat to write an entire story in baby-talk while effectively communicating what's going on, so this is totally my jam. Plus, shipping Pound Cake and Flurry Heart while they're babies is as hilarious as it is adorable. I mean, what more can I say? This is an utter delight.
Highly Recommended
Awkward by BrassHeart
Reading by Nightfire5150
Genre: Not What It Seems
Applejack is going to regret talking to Fluttershy about her relationship with Big Macintosh.
So this is apparently based off the events of another of the author's stories, but given that it doesn't ask much more preparation of the reader than your average shipfic, I think it stands alone pretty well. And I was surprised: as much as this is your standard innuendo-laden comedy, two characters talking about something with highly differing interpretations thereof, it has some real laugh-out-loud moment, one of those from a runaway joke! Given how often those are poorly used, I was impressed. Might turn off those who are less interested in pony romance, but c'mon, it's FlutterMac! That's pure. :V
Recommended
The Road by Aragon
Reading by Illya Leonov, Cloud 9 and Neighrator Pony
Genre: Romance
Fluttershy showed interest in Big Macintosh this morning, and he can't say he's apathetic towards her.
I always make a distinction between shipping and romance in my genre tags, and stories like this are why. I could easily have tagged this slice of life, or a character piece instead, because it's both of those things as well. But some people just don't like the mushy stuff, and, well… They're not gonna find any here! This is a calm, languid, pleasantly rambly piece about Big Macintosh deeply considering his feelings for Fluttershy given their history. (A surprising reveal paints their relationship as having begun as a rivalry!) It is not a vehicle for ponies to look cute together, or kiss, or snuggle. In fact, the whole shipping arm of the fandom might be a tad disappointed by this. But if you've ever felt disappointed in stories tagged Romance because they focus too much on the romance, this one might just surprise you with the depth of thoughtfulness it applies to the situation.
Recommended
[youtube=C7-j3aroVrg]But of course.
Preach, brother.
As I once said in a blog, "watching stupid assholes act like stupid assholes is not comedy."
Finally! I've reached Review Zero. The final weeks were spent in a real-life version of Achilles and the Tortoise—every time I finished a batch of reviews, PresentPerfect would come out with more. Now to add my reviews to the pile!
I'm also thinking about reviewing some reviewers; I might know something about what works and doesn't work. Think that'd be a good idea?
Oh yeah, I joined your group, PresentPerfect, so you're wrong. Ha.
Oh, hey.
I have to say -- The Road is one of my old stories, and I mean OLD. I wrote it waaaay before I had any style or idea on what I wanted to write, and it was my first "real" story, and the first that got in EQD, too. It's the last story of mine in which I wrote less to tell a story I liked and more to test my English skills (remember that I'm self-taught, yo).
I was weirdly surprised when it got, like, an actual reading with a pretty high quality. So I re-read it, years later, and...
It's not bad? Better than I expected; my early works tend to be total garbage. Personally, I think it's okay. The middle part is a drag and some bits are too rambly. It needs some heavy editing, and I don't think I'd write it nowadays -- it's a character piece that explores a certain idea of romance, which I guess is fine, but it doesn't particularly do anything NEW with the premise.
Kinda middle of the road, really. But still, what the fuck, Past Aragon. You actually wrote a romance I enjoyed. Even back then I was tired of characters falling in love with others for no reason (you know what I'm talking about, PP; think the worst pieces of shipping in the fandom), and Road's entire purpose is to avert that shit.
So, yeah! Neat to see than even before I started the Romance Blogs, I knew which pitfalls to avoid. I feel a little proud of that fic. It's like, a big moment in my "career" as a writer.
(Seriously though -- there's an entire section midway through the fic where Mac sees two pegasi flying above him and he spends like a fucking hour faux-philosophizing his way around that. Christ.)
Also, the reading's pretty baller. The story doesn't deserve it, really, but I'm glad I got it.
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I would honestly characterize it as an "old Aragon fic", not to mention something that seemed like an effort to avoid the pitfalls of quick, surface-level shipfics. You're not wrong, and you've got a right to feel good about that. :)
Out of curiosity, are those two dancing pegasi, like, doing some kind of mating ritual? Is Big Mac going to wake up one day to see Fluttershy making spirals and loops over his head because it's the only way she knows to say "I'm DTF"?
Never saw the hangover, but I enjoyed the fic you dropped at chapter 3.
Yes!
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A lot of people did!
Oh awesome, thanks
Gotta say, it was damn good timing to get this review and the hits it generated just a few days before today's episode