Story Reviews » SA: Round 172 · 5:57pm Jun 6th, 2020
Seattle's Angels is a group that promotes good stories with low views. You can find us here.
Cyne templed her fingers in the ruins of the empty office block. It had been empty before, which was probably for the best, but it somehow felt doubly so now. The automatons that had started dismantling parts of the lower depths of the endless SA complex rumbled in the distance.
Drakey pushed rubble out of the way, breaching her domain. “There you are!”
“There I am, yes.”
He looked around, whistling. “I’m surprised they left this place in one piece. They’ve demolished a lot of this floor.”
“Aye. There are decades where weeks happen, and weeks where decades happen.”
Drakey blinked. “What?”
“Nothing. Anyway,” she said brightly, fishing under the desk for papers. “Got you some stuff! It’s super late! In my defense, the world ended, and my favorite strangely automated restaurant on this floor was crushed by a large imposing robot man tasked by the forces of progress, so I was having a Normal One. Reviews!”
ROUND 172
The Great and Powerful Trixie is appalled upon watching the new episode. While many of her friends (and others that she feels are less important than her) got plenty of screen time in the new My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic intro, all she got were a few blurry frames. What's worse, that shot of her was edited in; she wasn't invited to the filming sessions, or even the group photo at the end! Demanding answers, Trixie goes to Twilight Sparkle.
True story, this made me go check the Season 8 intro to see if Trixie was there, I had never caught sight of her. I feel ashamed.
This is one of those pieces of metafiction that asks you to turn off the logic part of your brain and enjoy the absurdity that somehow, the intro is something the ponies in-universe shoot for the show, and Trixie is furious she was not allowed to take part. Despite the metatextual premise, the cast is still perfectly in-character, which means Trixie is still her pathetically hammy and pompous self as Twilight and Starlight explain the situation to her. The second half of the fic then milks all the humor it can out of giving Trixie access to alcohol.
It perhaps isn’t rip-roaring funny, but if you love Trixie being Trixie, this is sure to entertain.
Metafiction is a toss up. It’s hard to write it in a way that isn’t obnoxiously snotty. But when it’s done alright it can be pretty entertaining and sometimes a little insightful. Looking at things from a new and absurd angle has a way of doing that.
Trixie’s obnoxious vanity honestly became endearing over the years, didn’t it? That was the thought I had reading this.So many jokes and stories. Reading this--I’ve been kinda behind on the show for a bit--I wanted to watch it again just to watch her prance about, and that made me smile. If you wanted to revisit one of the fandom’s best and most beloved pests, definitely read.
They grow apples in Appleoosa. Absolutely nothing else happens there. No matter what they tell you.
If you haven’t read “The Lottery”, you should. Go do that. It’s by Shirley Jackson and its one of the most famous short stories in American literature.
Then come back. Cause this story is hitting that note. The horror that we get with the original Wicker Man (not the Nick Cage one, tho it is one of the best movies ever made) or Midsommar, a horror that reaches beyond the christian and secular hegemony to a time so alien to our own that many of us cannot fully relate to it any longer. When it gets there, you’ll know. You’ll feel it.
This is a dark, tense little piece about what goes on behind closed doors at Appleloosa in the name of relations with the buffalo and how hard it is to make a living growing apples in the middle of the desert. The slow reveal of what it is Braeburn is up to helps build the horror of what it is, and while it seems barbaric and cruel, it really isn’t too far off from what a lot of ancient cultures actually believed and practiced, though I’m fairly sure the Native Americans that inspired the buffalo didn’t.
It’s short but doesn’t overstay its welcome and is long enough to convey the emotions of what’s happening properly. If you want a horror story that leaves you with a bit of a chill, this is a good read for that.
STORY 3
War Games, by River Road
Because Equestrian magic has a knack for showing up at the most inconvenient moments, Sunset and her friends find themselves trapped in their new video game. They don't know how to get out, they don't know how to win the game, and some of them don't even know that they're in a game in the first place.
But don't worry, because if Sunset had a plan it wouldn't last five minutes in this pseudo-political mess anyway.
Hey, the cast has gotten trapped in a magic comic book, why not a video game?
This story throws us right into the thick of it when Sunset attending court with a delusion Rarity presiding, and slowly reveals the shape of the world with an upcoming three-way war, Sunset’s friends being scattered through the factions, and only some of them seem to have their senses while others have been consumed by the game.
Tension mounts at a steady pace as the group comes together and tries to figure out how to escape the game. Along the way there’s some action, some decent humor, some plot twists and reveals, and an epilogue that is a bit confusing but is a standalone chapter and can be ignored if one prefers the original ending. Overall just a very solid adventure fic.
Isekai is a crowded and well-trod region of our shared fictional imagination, but its still worth visiting again from time to time.
Sunset and her comrades thrust into an artificial environment is surprisingly engaging--and I can’t help but to feel that the wars we fight in pixels (as a lover of Paradox I’ve done quite a few) are so absurd. That absurdity comes and goes here, played a bit for laughs but mostly just kind of experienced, as Sunset finds herself with some not very cooperative surroundings and struggles to make sense of it all. Would recommend for fans of isekai style stories!
STORY 4
Aubade, by TheJediMasterEd
Miss Cheerilee has always looked out for her former pupil, Pinkamena Diane Pie ("Pinkie" to her friends).
Hooves must always (always) look after his current employer, Roland Bertram Aethelnoth Whickers the Third, Viscount Astley ("Bertie" to his friends).
But when Bertie met Pinkie, something happened that neither the schoolteacher nor the butler had looked for.
JediMasterEd is one of the smartest and most pleasant people on FimFic, and I highly recommend him. It’s a shame he’s only done 3 stories!
There’s something about “Aubade” that feels literary not in the stuffy gatekeeping sense of the word, but in a truer sense that it is a wonderful exhibit of the subtle power that fiction can have, suggesting and engaging us in tiny parcels and hints and in epiphany. Pay attention to the conversation and the game, to the way some words are weighted just by where they happen. It’s a story you can read more than once and come to for different feelings every time. Highly recommend.
A wonderful romantic oneshot between Cheerilee and an OC, though don’t let that scare you off, this OC is likeable and characterized well. The story is heavy on dialogue and only fleeting glimpses of narration or inner monologue, with the thoughts and emotions of the two characters, how they met, and what their relationship has become, being expressed through their behavior and words. It’s a great example of “show, don’t tell”, and how one can express thoughts and backstory without having to rely on the thoughts of the characters or giving exposition of their history. The story is a bit slow to build but keeps you engaged as it begins to pick up and then breaks into a well-paced run to a good ending.
“Yes, indeed.” Drake nodded. “Even in times of chaos, let us never forget - there are always horsewords.”
Alice frowned suddenly and turned to him. “What if the internet goes out?”
“Then I deeply envy those people that buy hardcover publications.” Somehow--no one ever knew how--she’d found another pipe and lit it while laying her legs across the desk, in perfect imitation of some noir detective who was about to give a mildly misogynistic speech about Dames And How They Started Everything. “They have books, improvised bludgeons, shields, and firewood all in one. The hardcover book was one of man’s most efficient creations.”
“I guess so.”
She waved the now lit pipe at him. “Besides, the network of tubes and strange receptacles which take these reviews are mechanical. I think? Possibly. We’ve never checked. Too busy being compelled by the Labyrinth to review fics, which I also don’t know how we read. It is very complicated and I’m sure there’s lore. However--”
A distant boom made Drakey jump and he turned to find that the automatons had returned.
“I think you’ll see that this extended joke about the manga Blam! Is about to run its tired course.” She was already scrambling out of the building with manic glee as she called over her back. “I’d get a movin’ if I were you!”
Feel free to visit our group for more information and events, and to offer some recommendations for future rounds. See you all next time!
Woah! Honored that you guys really enjoyed my story, even if I don't really consider it to be one of my better works! Thanks for taking the time to read it and share your thoughts, and I'm really glad you enjoyed it!
Another day, another dollar.
One of my favorite quotes about the Nic Cage Wicker Man film is from him;
"I run around the woods in a bear costume. Do you honestly think we weren't in on the joke?"
Dawwww, you guys.
The scene where Hooves is galloping back to the manse at dawn was inspired by certain passages in Lord Dunsany's "Bride of the Man-Horse:"
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/bojackhorseman/images/6/67/Secretariatposter_v2.jpg/revision/latest/top-crop/width/360/height/360?cb=20161225004757
No relation
The fic wasn't exactly quite my cup of tea, but man, Cyne, you really hit the nail on the head. I still smiled, and that definitely counts for something.
5279395
I have argued part in seriousness that Nic Cage's Wicker Man is taking the absurdist moments of the original and being like "what if the whole movie is this demented absurdity" and it 100% works as that. It is awful if you want it to be like the original, but as an absurdist dark comedy its great.
5279956
And we will forever remember the movie because of the scene with the bees
I've been out of the loop for a while, so I have to ask. Do you guys normally re-review stories? Aubade was done about sixty rounds ago.
https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/766219/sa-reviews-113