Fic recs, February 27th! · 7:23pm Feb 27th, 2019
Midnight29, over on the Pony & Wolf Productions channel, has done a reading of Skywriter's Martial Bliss!
Apologies if I disappoint, but my reading output has been exceedingly low lately, so I've decided not to review either the Springtime Sequel-Slash-Sandbox Switcheroo or Scribbler's 2018 Writing Contest, the latter of which I think someone asked me to do. :/ I've at least added all the stories to my RIL (quite a few were there already!) I just can't keep trying to catch up with last year's writing.
In case you don't bother with my non-review blogs, I have a Twitter account now! I'm going to be using it to crosspost my reviews of music, movies, etc. from now on. Twitter is the only place you'll need to follow me if you're interested in those.
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Twilight Sparkle Save 15% or More on Her Insurance by CoffeeMinion
Genre: Comedy
Twilight's had a hard time getting insurance lately.
Well, that was a thing! Despite the title, this wasn't as random and I thought it would be, and the main joke isn't even about insurance, but that Twilight's insurance agent is obsessed with her and utterly awestruck the entire time she's there. It is pretty funny, and the solution they come up with for her insurance woes is funny as well, not in the least because it's a pretty bad idea. Amusing!
Recommended for Laughs
Tea and Cones by TheGreatAndSaltyTriscuit
Genre: Random
Trixie invites Starlight to an odd tea…
First of all, dat username. :D Second of all, someone's writing about Trixie eating pinecones in 2019, what is my life? XD So, this needs a good editor, but as it stands, it's cute and whimsical. Not quite the rollicking comedy I was looking for, but I'll take the reminder of Things That Once Were. :)
Recommended for Trixie Fans
Sunset Shimmer and the Last Trial of Daring Do by ChudoJogurt
Read by Fimfiction
Sequel to The Unicorn and Her Boy
Genre: Dark Adventure
In another lifetime, under another teacher, the violence of Sunset Shimmer's past echoes through her.
In the previous two stories, we have seen Sunset fall in love in Saddle Arabia, and lead a war in another world entirely. This time, she teams up with Ahuizotl — yes! — hoping to find a way to heal the scars left by her previous adventures in what might be the most out-there, wrong-headed quest ever, and it is epic. Do you like stories where invoking oaths can shake the foundations of a city? How about watching badass Ahuizotl destroy a hydra by waving a hand? Every chapter of this story has at least one scene that is not only memorable, but perfectly built in terms of gravitas. Everything is important, even small things, and that importance is earned through the writing. Of course that being said, I do have to say the author has some consistent problems with articles, aspects and a few other things, not enough to ruin my enjoyment, but enough that I couldn't not notice them. Still, if you can forgive such things, this is a dark and satisfying adventure wrapped around the story of the abusive relationship that forged Sunset into the person she was at the start of Equestria Girls. Highly Recommended if you can forgive typos.
Recommended
Dragon Lord Ember Skips Work for an Hour by The Cloptimist
Genre: Shipping
Ember makes sure to set aside some time in her day for herself and her unusual mate.
This starts out with a scene of Ember actually Dragon Lording, and I was struck by just how competent she is. Like, moreso than the show ever made me think, not because she's her, but because "dragons" and "competence" are words that have never struck me as fitting together. Just a notion. Point is this, is an excellent Ember character piece, not something I've seen before, and there's shipping in there because why not I guess? Though I don't want to downplay it; this does actually go into what she would see in a comparatively fragile magic moose. If you already like Embrax, well, you've probably already read this, and it's preaching to the choir. But if you wonder what people see in the ship, I'd recommend checking this out even more.
Recommended
The Bird Feeder by shortskirtsandexplosions
Genre: Horror
A treasure-hunting pegasus finds a derelict airship. He should have left it alone.
You ever read a story description and it just resonates with you? Sadly, this wasn't quite what I was hoping for. We see a little too much of the monster, a little too much blood and gore, and there's also quite a few references to other shortskirts stories, not to mention cutesy dialogue that doesn't exactly fit. But it's still a tense darkfic, and the monster's original. It wasn't bad.
Recommended If You Like Darkfics
In Which Rainbow Dash Teaches Scootaloo Where Foals Come From by Incredible Blunderbolt
Genre: Shipping/Comedy/Scootalove
Problems in Twilight and Rainbow Dash's lovelife bring some startling facts to light.
This is unusual: a latecomer future fic that branches off from a perpetual season two Equestria, unicorn Twilight and all! And, well, this was funny. Rainbow Dash definitely has no idea where babies come from, and this causes all kinds of problems. On top of this is the endpoint of Rainbow and Twilight trying to adopt Scootaloo, and I was extremely touched by that scene. Let it never be said that a story is too old to be published!
Recommended If You Remember the Old Days
Thank you for the review! I've been here less than a month, so it's really encouraging you enjoyed something I wrote enough to give it a recommendation. Cheers!
5020857
Really? o.o Well, welcome to Fimfiction!
The Bird Feeder sounds exactly like the sort of story I'd adore if Horse Voice wrote it.
5020860
Unf
Okay, The Cloptimist looks like a new author who might be worth checking out. Just been to their account and they have two stories which are both listed as the sequel of the other. They're second-person anthro fetish clop, so I doubt I'll ever read them, but still. In fact, their first four published fics are M-rated, which can be a bit of a red flag for a new writer. But their latest, the one you reviewed, isn't, so yay for that.
5021030
I'm right here, y'know ;) (/wallflower)
Hi! Yes, the first three stories form a trilogy, based around the same fetish-y theme, and they're all second person clop (though for reasons lost in time, the first one isn't anthro). I had great fun writing them, even though they are quite silly, but I don't see myself re-reading them very much.
The fourth one, a Sunset/Flash reconnecting story which also ends in an M-rated scene, I wrote for a bet, but I'm actually really quite proud of it, even if its rating - and the preposterous premise (the bet part) - probably automatically preclude it ever being widely read.
This Embrax one was the first thing I've written that wasn't mature, because I wanted to write something sweet. The "red flag" thing is interesting, though - do you think people (who have View Mature turned on) will see I've written a bunch of clop, and so assume my E-rated stories will be bad? Is that a thing? I'm still very new here, so any advice from people who actually know what they're doing is always appreciated.
[Oh, and apologies to PresentPerfect for spamming this replies section - the request for advice is open to all, I'd love to improve and have a chance of turning up here again with some lovely future story!]
5021061
No, this is fine, figuring out your place is important.
Usually, writers who come in and start writing clop and clop alone are either alternate accounts or people trying to shotgun bad porn so they can get followers. The story of yours I reviewed gives the lie to that assumption, however, and I'm at least somewhat interested in the SunFlash one. XD
5021085
Well, thanks for indulging me!
The SunFlash one was born out of a conversation where a friend tried to come up with the absolute worst possible premise for a story on Fimfiction, and then bet me I couldn't write something worthwhile out of the wreckage. But I actually, personally, feel I did OK with it; I had a couple of different ideas for stories already kicking around in my head (principally "what became of Flash and Sunset after he forgave her?", and also "how did Flash react to finding out his ex-girlfriend was an alien horse?"). I expanded the latter to look at the differences in the ways humans and ponies perceive physical relationships, and what that meant for Sunset trapped in the middle. I expanded the former to culminate in smut. Albeit after (what I hope is) a kind of sweet evening spent together as reconnecting friends.
Also, because it had the world's stupidest premise, I thought it would be really funny to name it after one of the most notoriously highbrow books in world literature, but nobody thus far has noticed I did it so I just feel a bit silly now.
Anyway, what I'm saying is, the first three stories pretty much are me "shotgunning bad porn" (just to get myself started with writing stories!), so, guilty as charged, but if you ever wanted to read something else I wrote, I'd definitely recommend the SunFlash one over the others.
Anyway anyway, thank you again for the encouragement - the reactions I've had here have been really positive and this review was like an amazing cherry on the cake, and I'm definitely going to write some more stories going forward, so, um, thanks!
I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t know who you were talking about at first, but now that I do I can’t believe I never drew that comparison.
I feel so old...
Oh, hey, thanks! I appreciate the review!
5021061
It's more what PP said, really. A lot of new writers keep writing M-rated stuff (not just Sex, Gore too) because they apparently believe it's "cool and edgy" or whatever. That tends to put off many readers. A lot of those who aren't in that category are alt accounts from established authors who just don't want a public connection.
Curses; that's me out! When people do ask me, which amazingly does occasionally happen, I generally advise them to start off with a one-shot that's rated E or T. That has two advantages: it gives you a finished story, rather than the first 623 chapters of a billion-word epic you may never finish, and it reassures people that you're not going to use the M rating as a crutch. Obviously, this is pretty useless advice for you, but that's me all over!
The story PP's reviewed here is on my Read it Later list now, so I'll read it myself at some point... but since my RiL list has well over 200 fics on it, please don't hold your breath!